Running Mac monitors on a PC

A

AliB

Suspended / Banned
Messages
7,762
Edit My Images
No
A quick question for those of you who know what they are doing with techie stuff (that's me out!)

I have a Dell tower system running Vista and have it running twin VGA monitors. Now, the graphics card has twin DVI outputs so i have to use adaptors to run the VGA screens.

Got me thinking though, if I have DVI outputs on my graphics cards can I run Mac monitors on it?

I have an ATI Radeon 3870 x2 graphics card which has the dual link DVI spec to give me the resolution and a 20 inch Mac monitor has DVI connectors on it :D
Two integrated dual-link DVI display outputs
Each supports 18-, 24-, and 30-bit digital displays at all resolutions up to 1920x120 (single-link DVI) or 2560x1600 (dual-link DVI)2
Each includes a dual-link HDCP encoder with on-chip key storage for high resolution playback of protected content3
Two integrated 400 MHz 30-bit RAMDACs
Each supports analog displays connected by VGA at all resolutions up to 2048x15362

I know the other macs have things like mini port and I can also get adaptors to convert those but can anyone point me in the right direction as to whether the idea can be made to work without too much faffing about?

I do like Mac monitors and the LED backlit 20-27 inch screens are a joy! :thumbs:

Any advice most gratefully received. :help:
 
woo hoo thanks for the very prompt reply Neil, off to the Apple store at lunchtime :)
 
I think apple only do 27" inch monitors now. £899, so not horifically overpriced for an ips monitor with that high a resolution. However, as pointed out they only have mini displayport sockets, which you will only find on the most modern of gfx cards and will need an adapter, as pointed out above.
 
No.. it's a standard DVI connector that the converter converts from. You might need a (dual) DVI->DVI cable, but that's all...
 
Yeah DVI cable plugs into the converter and that plugs into the monitor.

Also having a look at the Dell ultrasharp monitors. They do a 24 inch that will fit on my desk a whole lot better, has the same resolution and is £450!
 
AliB said:
Also having a look at the Dell ultrasharp monitors. They do a 24 inch that will fit on my desk a whole lot better, has the same resolution and is £450!
Click to expand...
I have 2 U2410s. Lovely monitors :) but they are 1920x1200 not 2560 x 1440 of the 27" Apples. Dell do the U2711 which is the same resolution.
 
Last edited:
I'll have to look at the 24 inch ones too because 27's are going to be too big for my desk! lol

22 would probably be ideal but I'm going to keep my standard monitor and add a 24 inch beside it. I know it won't be as nice as a matched pair of monitors but the left one will be for bridge and the album design commands, all the image work will take place on the 24 inch with some decent resolution.
 
AliB said:
I know it won't be as nice as a matched pair of monitors but the left one will be for bridge and the album design commands, all the image work will take place on the 24 inch with some decent resolution.
Click to expand...
Hmm... we'll see if you can hold out after getting one. I bought one and then upgraded within 2 days as it was so horrible with one great monitor and one mediocre monitor ;)
 
probably a nanosecond Andy ;)

One 24 inch Dell winging it's way right now. lol
 
That's good to know :) Thanks guys, I have an eye one just waiting for it, should be with me on Friday :)

Now, about a second...........lol
 
Oh my word! :)

Got the Dell Ultrasharp U2410 on Friday and it's quite a significant piece of desk furniture :) Got it unpacked, installed the drivers, hooked it up, switched it on and YUK! What kind of colours are those? This thing came with a calibration certificate.....calibrated against what? The colours on my phone look better! (it was running next to my other calibrated Dell monitor and it looked shocking) So out came the eye one and it got profiled right away.

But it does look absolutely stunning with photoshop :) A little bit of fiddling in the windows control panel to match the resolution on the second monitor and bingo, it all fits rather nicely on screen. Photoshop is now virtually full screen on 24" and at 1920 x 1200 resolution the detail in the images is unreal. Viewing files at over 200% with little or no pixelation.

Decided I need a bigger desk! lol
 
AliB said:
What kind of colours are those? This thing came with a calibration certificate.....calibrated against what?
Click to expand...
It's only sRGB that is calibrated. I think the unit ships and defaults to "Standard" which is a wide gamut setting and is ghastly. If you switch it into sRGB, you'll probably be pretty close to your current settings (although mine are slightly out as white has a slightly different hue on each of the two I have here). Mine are calibrated in sRGB with my eye-one display and they display identically now as far as I can tell.

They are nice monitors though ;)
 
Off to do some more editing this afternoon :)

I promised some pics to a brilliant hair and make up artist so I need to sort out some images for her and some prints for a model who helped me out on a shoot.

It's great editing eyes so BIG! :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top