DVI to DP or HDMI Cable Recommendations

[m1maverick]

I have a couple of older Macs (Power Mac G5 and Mac Pro 3,1) which have the stock entry level GPUs (GeForce FX 5200 Ultra and Radeon HD 2600 XT respectively). Both GPUs have DVI ports (SL on the FX 5200 and DL on the HD 2600). The monitor I want to connect them to supports 2560 x 1440 and has Display Port (DP), Mini Display Port (MDP), and HDMI connections (one of each).

I am seeking a cable which will connect the DVI port of the GPU to either the DP port (preferably) or the HDMI port. The FX 5200 cannot drive the display at full resolution and the HD 2600 can only do so via DP but not HDMI (as I believe it supports HDMI 1.2). I've been researching cables but most seem to be HDMI (GPU side) to DVI (display side). Some explicitly state they are not bi-direction while others make no such statement.

Does anyone have a recommendation for an appropriate DVI to DP (preferably) or HDMI cable? An adapter could work too but I'd like to avoid having to chain things together.

 

[Amethyst1]

Does anyone have a recommendation for an appropriate DVI to DP (preferably) or HDMI cable? An adapter could work too but I'd like to avoid having to chain things together.

There's no way to directly go from dual-link DVI to HDMI.
There are no cables to go from dual-link DVI to [Mini]DisplayPort, just active adapters like the Atlona AT-DP400, Dr. Bott Digital Video Link DL (that is a clone of the Atlona AT-DP400) or the Gefen GTV-DVIDL-2-MDP.
If you want to avoid all that, you can try a custom 2560×1440 41 Hz timing using CVT-RB or 2560×1440 at 42.5 Hz using CVT-RB v2, which is below/at the 165 MHz pixel clock limit for single-link DVI, so a cheap passive, bidirectional DVI-to-HDMI cable would work in that case, provided that your monitor accepts these custom timings via HDMI (most do, some don't...).

I've used the Atlona AT-DP400 and Dr. Bott Digital Video Link DL and can say they work fine for 2560×1440 at 60 Hz and 3840×2160 at 30 Hz.

[...] the HD 2600 can only do so via DP but not HDMI (as I believe it supports HDMI 1.2).

Uhhh... the HD 2600 XT only has two dual-link DVI ports. No DisplayPort, no HDMI.

 

[m1maverick]

There's no way to directly go from dual-link DVI to HDMI.
There are no cables to go from dual-link DVI to [Mini]DisplayPort, just active adapters like the Atlona AT-DP400, Dr. Bott Digital Video Link DL (that is a clone of the Atlona AT-DP400) or the Gefen GTV-DVIDL-2-MDP.
If you want to avoid all that, you can try a custom 2560×1440 41 Hz timing using CVT-RB or 2560×1440 at 42.5 Hz using CVT-RB v2, which is below/at the 165 MHz pixel clock limit for single-link DVI, so a cheap passive, bidirectional DVI-to-HDMI cable would work in that case, provided that your monitor accepts these custom timings via HDMI (most do, some don't...).

I've used the Atlona AT-DP400 and Dr. Bott Digital Video Link DL and can say they work fine for 2560×1440 at 60 Hz and 3840×2160 at 30 Hz.

Thanks for this information. This is much more complicated than I need. Since this is an infrequently used setup I think I'll just connect both up to the monitor which natively supports DVI connections.

Uhhh... the HD 2600 XT only has two dual-link DVI ports. No DisplayPort, no HDMI.

I was referring to the DP / HDMI specifications which would support the monitors resolution. The specifications I read online stated it only supported HDMI 1.2 which is insufficient bandwidth for the monitors maximum resolution. Now that I read your response it does answer a question I had as to how DVI supports HDMI version 1.2? The answer is: It doesn't.

 

[Amethyst1]

The specifications I read online stated it only supported HDMI 1.2 which is insufficient bandwidth for the monitors maximum resolution. Now that I read your response it does answer a question I had as to how DVI supports HDMI version 1.2? The answer is: It doesn't.

I see - there are PC versions of the HD 2600 which have HDMI 1.2 ports; these are only as capable as a single-link DVI port when it comes to video. But the Mac Pro version only has two dual-link DVI ports. You can directly go from single-link DVI to HDMI or vice versa because they use the same TMDS signals. But you can't go from dual-link DVI to HDMI or vice versa because HDMI stays single-link at pixel clocks higher than 165 MHz, so you'll be missing the second "link".

 

[m1maverick]

I see - there are PC versions of the HD 2600 which have HDMI 1.2 ports; these are only as capable as a single-link DVI port when it comes to video. But the Mac Pro version only has two dual-link DVI ports. You can directly go from single-link DVI to HDMI or vice versa because they use the same TMDS signals. But you can't go from dual-link DVI to HDMI or vice versa because HDMI stays single-link at pixel clocks higher than 165 MHz, so you'll be missing the second "link".

Now that I've given it some thought I think it would be easier to just purchase a single-link DVI to HDMI cable. The display which has the native DVI connector doesn't offer as high a resolution as my current display so I lose nothing by going this route and eliminate the hassle of swapping displays.

 

[Amethyst1]

Now that I've given it some thought I think it would be easier to just purchase a single-link DVI to HDMI cable.

As long as you stay below 165 MHz pixel clock (e.g. 1920×1080 at 60 Hz) that should be fine.