Re: Gnome 3 vs scientists (ie., external monitor problem)

["Jason D. Clinton" <me jasonclinton com>]

On Mon, May 30, 2011 at 10:20, Jan Skowron <jan skowron gmail com> wrote:
> I am writing to ask: which exact parameter of a graphics card decides
> about the maximal resolution card can handle in 3d accelerated mode
> (needed for Gnome 3)?

This is information that you need to get from your hardware vendor and
has nothing to do with Linux. The only cards on which you really might
need to care with regard to GNOME 3 would be Intel 965 and older which
have a hard limit of 2048x2048.

> In the FAQ I have found only a very approximate information which
> cards are supported.

The FAQ entry is more about which drivers have added the needed bug
fixes and features. It's not about a resolution.

> As a scientist I can tell that use of an external monitor with a
> laptop is essential to my work. When I am plugging the projector in
> before a lecture I am not rebooting my system of course. But the
> resolution of the desktop suddenly increases from 1280 to grater than
> 2048px. This can create an unintended mess in Gnome 3 since, as I have
> heard, many (most) common graphics card does not have power to
> accelerate more than
> this.

You heard wrong. Anything newer than Intel 965 and basically any
compatible Radeon or NVidia card can accelerate larger than 2048x2048.

> Plugging external monitor without reboot is a very common use
> case, and Gnome 3 cannot handle this
> correctly,

Writing this on a hot-plugged second monitor right now.