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rgetter

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 20, 2008
47
25
Portland, Oregon
I just set up our first new Mac Pro (late 2013) with a Dell UP3216Q. I initially tried connecting with a Thunderbolt cable but the display didn't connect (black screen/power saver). HDMI worked, but not at full resolution. I then tried Dell's DP to mDP cable and that finally worked with 60Hz 4K.

I called Dell and they showed me how to enable DisplayPort 2.1 but the display still won't connect over the Thunderbolt/mDP cable. The tech I had at Dell was pretty clueless about connecting to the Mac. I opened a ticket and when I have another couple of hours to spare, I'll try to talk to a higher-tier tech.

Meanwhile, I was wondering if anybody has had any success connecting one of these displays to a Mac with a standard Thunderbolt cable? I bought two more of these to go with the Pros we just bought (this is a video production group at a large community college) and was hoping I wouldn't have any issues with Thunderbolt connections rather than the rather odd Dell cables.

Thanks,
Ric
 
So, just to confirm that your Mac can actually boot with the monitor connected at 4K 60Hz. And what you want now is just switch to another cable?
 
So, just to confirm that your Mac can actually boot with the monitor connected at 4K 60Hz. And what you want now is just switch to another cable?

Yes, the Mac boots with with the monitor connected at 4K /60Hz via the Dell DP cable. It boots with the Thunderbolt cable but the display doesn't sense the computer. I haven't had a chance to try it with a second display (an Apple Cinema) to see what's going on. I spent too much time on the phone with Dell.
 
You must not use a thunderbolt cable, this display has no thunderbolt port, it's not like Apple's display.

You have to use a good quality mdp to DP cable (minidisplayport to displayport),

it may seem that its the same connector (as it's connected to a thunderbolt port of nMP) but it's totally different, mdp/dp cable is able to transfer video signal only.
 
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