Unibody MacBook VGA = sucky

Last week I bought a new Unibody MacBook. Nice and fast, perfect size, so far so good.

Then I connected it to my venerable (but still awesome) Silicon Graphics 22" CRT monitor with the mini displayport -> VGA adapter.

I knew the maximum resolution supported via VGA was going to be 1600 x 1200 from the manual (p66) which was fine with me since that is the resolution I usually use.

What the manual and tech specs page gives no mention of is that the highest refresh frequency you can run at 1600 x 1200 over VGA is 60 Hz. That's enough flicker to drive you mental immediately (and give you a headache in about a quarter hour).

The next resolution down offered is 1400 x 1050 at 85 Hz. Plenty fast enough, but that's 450,000 less pixels. No thank you.

Thankfully, with the magic of DisplayConfigX you can change the refresh/resolution combinations MacOS X will offer you. You can't squeeze any more bandwidth than the hardware maximum, but you can make different compromises. I figured I can run 1600 x 1200 at 65 Hz (too flickery), 1536 x 1228 at 67 Hz (still too flickery) or 1472 x 1177 at 69 Hz. This last combo is just about palatable as long as I boost the brightness a little (to increase phosphor persistence) and degauss regularly.

DisplayConfigX is $12 USD, but that's easily worth the 26,2544 pixels I have reclaimed thanks to its flexibility.

Of course Apple's tech specs and docs should have provided the relevant detail. Not that that would have changed anything (other than a frustrating discovery) since to my mind the 15" laptops are just a shade too big and heavy (I am upgrading from a PowerBook 12" remember...).