3 displays on a mac mini

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3 displays on a mac mini

08/06/11

3 displays on a mac mini

02:47:00 am, by Francois Planque

, Categories: Mac stuff

While many are happy with 2 displays attached on their computer, I actually don’t quite like having to look either to the left or to the right when I’m working on something… I want a display right in front of me and I want additional displays on the sides for less important stuff.

According to Macworld, the latest Mac Mini 2011 (the version with the Radeon graphics chip) can actually drive 3 displays: 2 through Thunderbolt and 1 though HDMI…

If you’re feeling especially adventurous, the Radeon HD graphics processor in the $799 mini can drive two Thunderbolt displays, daisy-chained, while still handling a third display on the HDMI port, although you shouldn’t expect amazing performance.

If this actually works, I’d be happy to swap out that bulky Mac Pro for a tiny little mac mini…

Now… gotta find 3 identical displays that accept either HDMI or Thunderbolt… And that won’t be easy… for some reason there are not a lot of Thunderbolt devices out there… it seems that only Apple has offerings so far… and Apple displays… well… they are just way too glossy for me :p

Anyways, has anyone done this already??

Tags: displays, hdmi, thunderbolt

6 comments

Comment from: Chris [Visitor]

Any update? Were you successful with the 3 display setup? I just bought a Mac Pro and I'm returning it. The Mac mini is really piquing my interest- but I need a 3 display setup.

Another question- with the Mac mini, does it matter if the displays are NOT Apple? I have 3 different displays- 2 Dells and a Samsung.

09/17/11 @ 20:53

Comment from: Z [Visitor]

Interesting.

I googled around and saw this video of a MBP driving two Thunderbolt displays:

http://www.macrumors.com/2011/09/22/video-of-dual-thunderbolt-display-off-a-15-macbook-pro/

Does anyone have a setup with the Mac mini already and can confirm it works with 3 displays ?

Thanks

09/23/11 @ 22:18

Comment from: ejandrich [Visitor]

3x usb-to-dvi cables
and
3x dvi input displays
then
extended desktop
and lastly
1x usb hub for all of you usb devices and bluetooth for the keyboard and mouse

12/29/11 @ 16:59

Comment from: Francois Planque [Member]

USB-to-DVI cannot be a cable. It has to be an external video adapter (card) connected by USB (much more expensive than a cable).
Has anyone every tried one of those? What kind of performance do you get? Not for gaming of course, but what about desktop/web apps, flash animations and video? Do you see a difference with built in video adapters?

01/31/12 @ 18:12

Comment from: FlyingAvatar [Visitor]

You are correct about USB-to-DVI "adapters", their performance is not good. (i.e. forget about gaming or playing video with them)

A ThunderBolt port, is effectively a mini DisplayPort, to which you could connect one of these:

http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=101&cp_id=10114&cs_id=1011409&p_id=8118&seq=1&format=2

And get two DVI ports. HDMI can also be converted to DVI with a cable, so three displays may be possible in this fashion.

I would be interested to see someone try it.

03/25/12 @ 20:30

Comment from: zuco [Visitor]

This guy seems to be very happy with an USB-to-DVI adapter http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0GbrZVDXLk