NewerTech (www.newertech.com) has announced the US$19.99 Headless Mac Video Accelerator, designed to fix poor graphics performance issues that occur when any Mac with a Mini DisplayPort (including but not limited to Mac mini 2009 and newer models) is used as a remotely accessed headless machine (without a display attached).
When a Mac is operated without a display attached, often as a high-powered, whisper-quiet home or professional server, the GPU [graphical processing unit] stays inactive. This leads to poor performance when the system is accessed remotely. Without an active GPU, the user interface lags, animation stutters, and cursor movement, navigation, and typing all suffer.
The NewerTech Headless Mac Video Accelerator provides a fix that makes the remote experience run smooth again, enabling a headless Mac to behave as if it already had an attached display, according to NewerTech CEO Larry O’Connor. This activates the GPU, taking full advantage of its power to restore accelerated performance to any headless Mac, he adds. The Headless Mac Video Accelerator supports 1920×1080 @ 60Hz maximum resolution.