The Downside to Innovation
I’ve always appreciated Apple as a company because it isn’t afraid to completely ditch backwards compatibility in favor of embracing a new technology. For years Apple’s notebooks shipped with DVI ports on them and no direct VGA output. I loved it because I had DVI monitors, but that wasn’t true for everyone. Today Apple’s display interface of choice is mini DisplayPort:
Mini DisplayPort, to the left of the DVI port
It’s a cute little connector that we first saw Apple use on its updated MacBook and MacBook Pro. The benefit of the mini-DP connector is that it can easily be adapted to VGA or single-link DVI; adapter cable sold separately of course.
Since most users only have a single display, the new Mac Pro’s video card ships with both a dual-link DVI and a mini-DisplayPort output.
The mini DisplayPort output is just pure awesomeness.
Cute.
The mini-DP plug is just so much more pleasant than DVI or VGA connectors. There’s no annoying screws to worry about, just plug it in and the connector is secure. After using mini-DP on the Mac Pro I’m sold - I want one of these connectors on everything and I want monitors with mini-DP outputs.
It’s not all praise unfortunately. For starters, Apple doesn’t ship the Mac Pro with a mini-DP to DVI adapter. Given that there’s only one Apple display that uses mini-DP, it’s probably safe to say that next to no one has a mini-DP capable display. I’m all for early adoption of new technologies, but on a $3299 system just bundle the adapter ok?
The problems continue: natively this port will only drive a 1920 x 1200 panel, such as Apple’s 24” LED Cinema Display.
If you want to connect a single-link DVI display to the mini-DP port you need the adapter I showed in the picture above. Apple sells it for $30. It also comes in a VGA flavor.
If you want to connect a dual-link DVI monitor to the mini-DP output you need a different adapter:
This adapter draws power from the machine’s USB port. I’m guessing that there isn’t enough room/power to feed all of the DL-DVI pins from the mini DisplayPort connector so the adapter relies on USB to help out.
Reading through the customer reviews for this adapter it seems that many users are having compatibility issues with Apple’s mini-DP to DL-DVI converter with non-Apple displays. Not to mention that the adapter itself costs $99.
Between the high cost of the adapter and the high likelihood of problems, I’d suggest simply getting another video card if you want to have multiple 30” displays connected to your Mac Pro. Apple sells the GeForce GT 120 for $150 as an upgrade option, and at least with it each 30” display will be driven by its own frame buffer, which should make for smoother Exposé and Dashboard operation.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7orrAp5utnZOde6S7zGiqoaenZH95fI9orKmfopaxqrrGZpinnF2Wu6K42LOgp59dlr2xuMRmqmamlZ2urbHMZqSam12lv7B7kg%3D%3D