Thunderbolt to Displayport?

[BilbooToo]

Hi,

Just taken delivery of a Mac Mini to replace my ageing PC, however for the time being at least they'll coexist.

Previously I had my PC connected to my Dell U2412M monitor via a DVI cable, however this is now connecting the Mac (via the HDMI to DVI converter) and the PC is connected via a VGA cable.

The Dell has a Displayport connector, so I was considering...

- Connecting the Mac via a Thunderbolt to Displayport cable
- Moving the PC back to the DVI

My question is, can I connect the Mac to the Dell in this fashion and is there any advantage to it (other than freeing up the DVI port) ie does improve the image in any way?

Thanks in advance
John

[chrise2]

Originally Posted by BilbooToo

Hi,

Just taken delivery of a Mac Mini to replace my ageing PC, however for the time being at least they'll coexist.

Previously I had my PC connected to my Dell U2412M monitor via a DVI cable, however this is now connecting the Mac (via the HDMI to DVI converter) and the PC is connected via a VGA cable.

The Dell has a Displayport connector, so I was considering...

- Connecting the Mac via a Thunderbolt to Displayport cable
- Moving the PC back to the DVI

My question is, can I connect the Mac to the Dell in this fashion and is there any advantage to it (other than freeing up the DVI port) ie does improve the image in any way?

Thanks in advance
John

The mac mini outputs standard mini display port. So if you can get a mini display port to display port cable, you'll be fine.

[martinm0]

Originally Posted by BilbooToo

Hi,

Just taken delivery of a Mac Mini to replace my ageing PC, however for the time being at least they'll coexist.

Previously I had my PC connected to my Dell U2412M monitor via a DVI cable, however this is now connecting the Mac (via the HDMI to DVI converter) and the PC is connected via a VGA cable.

The Dell has a Displayport connector, so I was considering...

- Connecting the Mac via a Thunderbolt to Displayport cable
- Moving the PC back to the DVI

My question is, can I connect the Mac to the Dell in this fashion and is there any advantage to it (other than freeing up the DVI port) ie does improve the image in any way?

Thanks in advance
John

HDMI can only output up to 1080p resolution. Display port can do above the 1080p resolution cap of HDMI, and Thunderbolt is effectively a mini display port connection and a direct connection to the PICe bus inside the machine. Unless your monitor supports higher than 1080p, you don't really need to tie up the Thunderbolt port if you don't want. However, if you do decide to use the Thunderbolt port, you would need the cable chrise2 suggested (mini display port to display port) and not an actual Thunderbolt cable.

[BilbooToo]

That's great, thanks for the responses.

[Cave Man]

Originally Posted by martinm0

HDMI can only output up to 1080p resolution.

HDMI on Macs is up to 1920x1200; 1080p is 1920x1080. HDMI version 1.4 supports resolutions up to 4096×2160 but unfortunately it seems as though the HD4000 can only do 1920x1200 by HDMI.

[Exodist]

I recommend getting a one piece cable that mDP on one end and DVI on the other and totally skipping the HDMI all together. Reason being seems like half the Mac Mini users have had issues with HDMI port, they released a firmware fix today. But some are still having issues.

[martinm0]

Originally Posted by Cave Man

HDMI on Macs is up to 1920x1200; 1080p is 1920x1080. HDMI version 1.4 supports resolutions up to 4096×2160 but unfortunately it seems as though the HD4000 can only do 1920x1200 by HDMI.

Ah, did not know they supported up to 1200, thanks! I did know about the 4k rez, but just opted to omit (figures you had to call me out on it!).

[macmin]

Originally Posted by BilbooToo

Hi,
The Dell has a Displayport connector, so I was considering...

- Connecting the Mac via a Thunderbolt to Displayport cable
- Moving the PC back to the DVI

My question is, can I connect the Mac to the Dell in this fashion and is there any advantage to it (other than freeing up the DVI port) ie does improve the image in any way?

Thanks in advance
John

I had really poor image quality with the mini DP to dual-DVi. Then I switched to the Display Port to mini display port cable from amazon and it works great with my Dell 30" 2560x1600. I have it at the end of my thunderbolt chain, no problems whatsover (no resume from sleep problems, etc.). Now, color settings are still an issue...but managed to get it to a half decent state by re-calibrating the monitor.

[Mojo1]

No problems here using a 2.3GHz Mini with an NEC display connected to the Thunderbolt port using Apple's Display Port to Mini DP adapter.

[BilbooToo]

Thanks again for all the responses, I was thinking of opting for this cable...

http://www.lindy.co.uk/05m-cromo-min...ble/41550.html

Any thoughts?

Regards
John.

[martkt10]

Originally Posted by Cave Man

HDMI on Macs is up to 1920x1200; 1080p is 1920x1080. HDMI version 1.4 supports resolutions up to 4096×2160 but unfortunately it seems as though the HD4000 can only do 1920x1200 by HDMI.

may i ask which gives better image quality hdmi or displayport

thanks

[Cave Man]

Originally Posted by martkt10

may i ask which gives better image quality hdmi or displayport

There shouldn't be any difference since HDMI is a subset of DisplayPort. The biggest difference is that on the Mac DisplayPort can drive 27" or 30" displays at full resolution, while HDMI is limited to 1920x1200. If you have a 24" display, then either port will work fine.