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$100 for an adapter? Come on, Apple

Techhie

Techhie

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Dec 7, 2008
1,160
0
The hub of stupidity
I find myself in a position I'm sure many people have thought of: I have two 30" displays to use with my (GT 120 equipped) Mac Pro. This leaves me with a few options:

Buy either GTX 285 or Radeon 4870 to run additional monitor on extra Dual-link DVI port

or

Shell out $100 for (often dysfunctional) Mini DP to Dual-link DVI adapter.

Even after searching, I couldn't come up with a cheaper alternative to forking over $100 for an adapter that likely cost $2 to make. Am I the only one who feels taken advantage of here?

This is where the forums come in: is there a lesser known way of getting out of this situation short of buying a new GPU or being raped by Apple's proprietary crap?
 
There is actully a reason for this.

The spec for DP includes backward compat DVI, but only at a Single Link level. Only good for 1920x1200.

So an adapter for this just passes through the signal, hence the $30 price.

To do Dual Link for a 30" requires that the adapter create the clock signal. A much more complicated beast. Dell charges $70-90 for same adapter.

Can't blame Apple, it's how the DP spec was laid out. Apple's adapter just uses somebody else chips. If you look at the forums for Eyefinity there was quite a fuss for very same reason.
 
The Rominator said:
There is actully a reason for this.

The spec for DP includes backward compat DVI, but only at a Single Link level. Only good for 1920x1200.

So an adapter for this just passes through the signal, hence the $30 price.

To do Dual Link for a 30" requires that the adapter create the clock signal. A much more complicated beast. Dell charges $70-90 for same adapter.

Can't blame Apple, it's how the DP spec was laid out. Apple's adapter just uses somebody else chips. If you look at the forums for Eyefinity there was quite a fuss for very same reason.
Click to expand...

I suppose the anger must now be directed at the engineering dept. for including Mini DP on the Mac Pro, which is another can of worms entirely. I don't think I'm alone in thinking the people who pay for the 24" ACD should be buying an adapter, not the other way around :rolleyes:
 
Techhie said:
I find myself in a position I'm sure many people have thought of: I have two 30" displays to use with my (GT 120 equipped) Mac Pro. This leaves me with a few options:

Buy either GTX 285 or Radeon 4870 to run additional monitor on extra Dual-link DVI port

or

Shell out $100 for (often dysfunctional) Mini DP to Dual-link DVI adapter.

Even after searching, I couldn't come up with a cheaper alternative to forking over $100 for an adapter that likely cost $2 to make. Am I the only one who feels taken advantage of here?

This is where the forums come in: is there a lesser known way of getting out of this situation short of buying a new GPU or being raped by Apple's proprietary crap?
Click to expand...


Reflash a PC 4870 to Mac. It's win-win, you get a faster card than the 8800GT (albeit with worthless OpenCL performance), and you don't pay to get financially sodomized by Apple in exchange for supporting the stupid-ass Mini DisplayPort.

Honestly, the Mini DisplayPort only belongs on the MacBook Air… Everything else should have full-sized DisplayPort, seeing as anyone insane enough to buy a MacBook Air clearly doesn't mind buying a compromised piece of rubbish.

Of course, real DisplayPort doesn't support dual link DVI properly either, but that's only partially the issue at hand :p
 
Techhie said:
I suppose the anger must now be directed at the marketing dept. for including Mini DP on the Mac Pro, which is another can of worms entirely. I don't think I'm alone in thinking the people who pay for the 24" ACD should be buying an adapter, not the other way around :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

fixed.
 
What model of 30" monitor do you have?

I suspect the Apple 30"?

If it were the Dell 3008WFP you can just get a MiniDP to DP cable which works a treat.

Or.... you could always try and find yourself a nice cheap second hand PC GTX 285 and do the netkas thing to get it running and run at least one of your screens or both off that. If you've already got the GT120 in the system it will work a treat.
 
With the lack of video RAM on the GT 120, you might as well buy the GTX 285 to maximize performance. Of course you could shell out a few for another GT 120… (which I wish to rid of). All together, I'd avoid going with the adapter because you experience will not be fun.
 
maghemi said:
Or.... you could always try and find yourself a nice cheap second hand PC GTX 285 and do the netkas thing to get it running and run at least one of your screens or both off that. If you've already got the GT120 in the system it will work a treat.
Click to expand...

My 30" displays are listed in my sig. I shouldn't have to go back to netkas, that's what I was trying to get away from in buying a Mac Pro. Besides, If I were to buy the PC GTX 285, I've heard that the second DVI port doesn't function properly, and I would want to get rid of the GT 120 altogether.
 
Techhie said:
My 30" displays are listed in my sig.
Click to expand...
Ahh, I see. Missed those.

I shouldn't have to go back to netkas, that's what I was trying to get away from in buying a Mac Pro. Besides, If I were to buy the PC GTX 285, I've heard that the second DVI port doesn't function properly, and I would want to get rid of the GT 120 altogether.
Click to expand...

That sounds perfectly reasonable.

I must admit I was loathed to have to buy that adapter when I was trying to drive my 3008WFP from a mac mini. That's why I personally went with the MiniDP to DP cable. Of course because the Dell has a display port it works for me.
 
I agree that the price is just too high. It doesn't seem like it's really Apple's fault though, more so the people that came up with DisplayPort - they should have just allowed passthrough of the full DVI specification, not just the single link part. Keep your eye on eBay though. I managed to get one for absolute peanuts in comparison to the usual prices (less than the single link adapter even).
 
I have bought three or four of these. Painful price, but I've had no issues using them with my MacBook Air and about a number of 30" displays. I've read about issues with the Mac Mini, which is next on my list to try...
 
Techhie said:
My 30" displays are listed in my sig. I shouldn't have to go back to netkas, that's what I was trying to get away from in buying a Mac Pro. Besides, If I were to buy the PC GTX 285, I've heard that the second DVI port doesn't function properly, and I would want to get rid of the GT 120 altogether.
Click to expand...

so if i remember correctly

the HP has 3 DVI-D ports & i have the samsung which has 1 DVI-D port.

dam. thats a pain, its a shame the 30" HP has not got the 24" HP Ports as it has component Displayport etc..
 
Bwa said:
I have bought three or four of these. Painful price, but I've had no issues using them with my MacBook Air and about a number of 30" displays. I've read about issues with the Mac Mini, which is next on my list to try...
Click to expand...

So I bought a Mac Mini, the adapter, and a 30" for an employee of mine. Serious issues 50% of the time when waking from sleep. Ended up ordering a refurb Mac Pro to replace the Mini.
 
I have that adapter to run two 30" ACD's off the 4870 I just bought. It works well. It was worth the $100 to me, primarily because there was no other choice.
 
Hmac said:
I have that adapter to run two 30" ACD's off the 4870 I just bought. It works well. It was worth the $100 to me, primarily because there was no other choice.
Click to expand...

Yes, it generally works fine with my MacBook Air; I have two of them for two 30" ACDs in different locations. Sometimes I see kernel_task gobbling 100% cpu and unplugging the adapter is the only thing that seems to fix it.
 
grue said:
Reflash a PC 4870 to Mac. It's win-win, you get a faster card than the 8800GT (albeit with worthless OpenCL performance), and you don't pay to get financially sodomized by Apple in exchange for supporting the stupid-ass Mini DisplayPort.
Click to expand...
IIUC, a re-flashed PC version 4870 won't support dual-link on the second port under OSX, so can't run two 30" ACD's in that setting.
 
Alternative to the Apple version of this adaptor?

I've gone through 2 of these adaptors already. They start flickering and eventually fail altogether and leave you with a 30" multi-color salt and pepper fight.

I've looked all over for a non-Apple replacement. Someone mentioned a Dell adaptor, do you have a link?

I came across this one on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Accell-B087B-003J-UltraAV-miniDisplayPort-Dual-Link/dp/B0030XMREG/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1268323836&sr=8-2

But I cant find any reviews. Does anyone have any experience with this or any other 3rd party solution?
 
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
grue said:
Oh reallllly? I wasn't aware of that.
Click to expand...

We think it's because of the DisplayPort, funnily enough. Not a huge dealbreaker, though - people with two 30" displays can and probably will just spring for the 285.
 
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