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    Connecting M17X to 30 inch monitor - Resolution question

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by youven, Jan 16, 2011.

  1. youven

    youven Notebook Guru

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    I ordered the Dell Ultrasharp 30-inch IPS monitor (res 2560 x 1600) together with my M17X - R3. The sales rep assured me that the system supports such resolution (he was pushing for the sales for obvious reasons). The GPU I chose is the 1.5GB GDDR5 Nvidia GeForce GTX 460M. I would appreciate if you guys give me your thoughts on whether I will be able to get the native 2500 by 1600 resolution on my external monitor when I connect it to my R3 through HDMI
     
    youven, Jan 16, 2011
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  2. katalin_2003

    katalin_2003 NBR Spectre Super Moderator

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    now that you oredered it maybe you could share your result. Now nobody here got his R3 yet. But IMO you should be able to run that resolution.
     
    katalin_2003, Jan 16, 2011
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  3. V3_Shae

    V3_Shae Notebook Consultant

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    I wouldn't think that you could really game with a good framerate at that res, but it most probably supports it.
     
    V3_Shae, Jan 16, 2011
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  4. youven

    youven Notebook Guru

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    The external monitor is not for gaming mate.

    From what I have read, HDMI does not output anything better than 19200 by 1080. But display port does 2560 by 1600. Can anyone chime in on this?
     
    youven, Jan 16, 2011
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  5. beelsr

    beelsr Notebook Consultant

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    Generally speaking (and it's dependent of the drivers, bit-depth desired, cabling length & quality you're using, AND THE DEVICES AT EACH END, etc...) but:
    HDMI 1.0-1.2's max pixel clock rate is 165 MHz - 1920×1200 (@ 60 Hz).
    HDMI 1.3's is 340 MHz - 2560×1600.
    HDMI 1.4's is 340 MHz - 4096x2160.

    DP can go to 3840x2160, but again, caveats apply...
     
    beelsr, Jan 16, 2011
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  6. FXi

    FXi Notebook Deity

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    Everyone makes the mistake of thinking about this only from the transmitter side. First you need HDMI 1.3 or higher (fully supported, which not all 1.3's are) and the R3 has this (1.4).

    BUT you also have to have a receiver that recognizes the same HDMI standard. There, on 30" monitors and 2880 27" monitors, you get undone. Not one of them understands more than HDMI 1.2. It's buried in the manuals, but the highest resolution that any 30" understands through the HDMI port is 1920x1080.

    Therefore you need either a Displayport connection to the monitor, which is the simplest, or a Displayport to dual channel DVI, called DVI-D, adapter. There are two kinds of adapters to DVI from displayport. Passive ones only do DVI and that limits you to 1920x1200. Active ones cost more (easy way to tell if they are active), as you can see at this link:
    Amazon.com: Accell UltraAV B087B-002B DisplayPort/DVI-D Dual-Link Adapter (Black): Electronics

    You can find these somewhat cheaper than ebay, but caveat emptor because if you end up with a passive adapter, you can't get the high resolution.

    Secondly, the R3 supports mini displayport. Some of the active adapters may take a mini displayport cable, but if not, you'll need a mini displayport to normal displayport adapter cable as well.

    Easiest will be to just get a Displayport capable 30" monitor.

    HDMI will not work, except maybe for a HDMI to DVI-D adapter, and I'm not sure those aren't all single channel DVI which would put you back at square one again.

    So down the road, should this all change, you need to check both the output of the PC as well as the input of the monitor. And even then, they can be version 1.x of HDMI and still not support all the features of that version of HDMI. It's quite a painful road, but eventually large monitors may recognize higher res on HDMI connections. For now they do not.
     
    FXi, Jan 16, 2011
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  7. youven

    youven Notebook Guru

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    youven, Jan 16, 2011
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  8. knowskillz

    knowskillz Notebook Enthusiast

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    "Easiest will be to just get a Displayport capable 30" monitor"

    This is probably better(cheaper) option since the Dell 3011 actually has a displayport (comes with a displayport cable as well) and the r3 comes has a mini display port. You'd just need a cheap 5 dollar converter to change the mini displayport to a displayport...
     
    knowskillz, Jan 17, 2011
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  9. youven

    youven Notebook Guru

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    youven, Jan 17, 2011
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  10. Texasrho83

    Texasrho83 Notebook Consultant

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    My buddy's gotta 55" plasma LCD screen he regularly uses for Warcraft and I've seen him do it with very little to no input lag. He's not even using Alienware either...
     
    Texasrho83, Jan 17, 2011
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  11. katalin_2003

    katalin_2003 NBR Spectre Super Moderator

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    It might be a 55" LCD but depends on the resolution he's using.If he's doing let's say 1600x900 then i'm sure he doesn't have any lag :p
     
    katalin_2003, Jan 17, 2011
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  12. Texasrho83

    Texasrho83 Notebook Consultant

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    Nope he's a resolution snob so that thing's a 1080p
     
    Texasrho83, Jan 17, 2011
    #12