I have a Dell XPS15 laptop with an i7, 8GB RAM, Intel HD3000 graphics and NVidia GT525M card. When I connect the external Dell monitor, Ubuntu still works fine on the laptop monitor, but the external one is very buggy - cursor, windows... everything leaves traces that dissapear after 5-10s.
This is probably because of the recently added support for nvidia optimus. A few months ago, a second display wouldn't work at all. I've got the same delays on my 2nd monitor.
I guess there's no solution for this atm, we just have to wait for better support and drivers.
EDIT: If you're using HDMI!