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G5 to 30" Cinema Display Cable Question

M

Meandmunch

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 3, 2002
496
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I am keeping a Dual 2GHz PowerPC G5 on life support (it is running some old accounting software). But I recently got an old Model 30 inch (free) Cinema Display to hook up to it.

I am only getting 1280x800 max resolution from the setup. I understand I need a different cable but am completely confused on what cable I need.

Can anyone point me directly at the specific cable or adapter I need?

Thanks
 
It may be a limitation in your GPU and not in your monitor. You need a dual link cable, but as far as I know the 30" has its cable permanently attached.

You will likely need to look up the specs on your GPU. The FX5200 which was standard in many G5s does NOT have a dual link port.

The GEForce 6800 Ultra that was introduced with the 30" has two dual link ports, as do the X800XT and X850 XT. The Radeon 9600 Pro(retail card) has a single DL port, but I don't think that the Radeon 9600XT(BTO option) has one.

If your G5 is PCIe based, AFAIK all standard and BTO GPUs have at least one dual link port. Check on this, and make sure you're plugging it into the correct port.
 
bunnspecial said:
It may be a limitation in your GPU and not in your monitor. You need a dual link cable, but as far as I know the 30" has its cable permanently attached.

You will likely need to look up the specs on your GPU. The FX5200 which was standard in many G5s does NOT have a dual link port.

The GEForce 6800 Ultra that was introduced with the 30" has two dual link ports, as do the X800XT and X850 XT. The Radeon 9600 Pro(retail card) has a single DL port, but I don't think that the Radeon 9600XT(BTO option) has one.

If your G5 is PCIe based, AFAIK all standard and BTO GPUs have at least one dual link port. Check on this, and make sure you're plugging it into the correct port.
Click to expand...


Thank you for your help, you seem very knowledgable. The G5 does have an ATI Radeon 9600 in it and the monitors cable is permanently attached. So if I understand your post right it is simply not capable of driving the 30" at higher resolutions?
 
Meandmunch said:
I am keeping a Dual 2GHz PowerPC G5 on life support (it is running some old accounting software). But I recently got an old Model 30 inch (free) Cinema Display to hook up to it.

I am only getting 1280x800 max resolution from the setup. I understand I need a different cable but am completely confused on what cable I need.

Can anyone point me directly at the specific cable or adapter I need?

Thanks
Click to expand...

Try resetting the PRAM:

http://www.macexpertguide.com/reset-pram-mac/

Also you could try booting in safe mode (hold shift key while starting up) and see if you can alter the monitor settings then.

The 9600 Pro card has 2 DVI ports but only 1 is dual link, which is the correct one to drive the 30" screen.
 
Last edited:
From what I can tell, only the final model Dual Core 2.0 G5 shipped with a Radeon 9600 that supported the max resolution of the 30" display. All the other models are limited to 1920x1200 over DVI only. If your card has an ADC port, thats a sure fire way to determine if your card is limited to 1080p output only.
 
CubeHacker said:
From what I can tell, only the final model Dual Core 2.0 G5 shipped with a Radeon 9600 that supported the max resolution of the 30" display. All the other models are limited to 1920x1200 over DVI only. If your card has an ADC port, thats a sure fire way to determine if your card is limited to 1080p output only.
Click to expand...

The 2.0DC shipped with a GEForce 6600LE, which can in fact support a single 30" display.

Some AGP G5s shipped with a Radeon 9600XT, which, AFAIK, does not have a dual link port. The retail 9600 Pro PC&Mac edition does have one dual link port.

CubeHacker said:
If your card has an ADC port, thats a sure fire way to determine if your card is limited to 1080p output only.
Click to expand...

The BTO/retail Radeon X800 and X850(Mac edition) both had ADC+DVI, and I'm almost positive that they can support DL DVI over both ports(obviously with an appropriate adapter on the ADC port).
 
Mac edition ATI X800 and X850 can only support one duel link DVI display. The ADC port cannot do DL-DVI, even with a ADC-DVI adapter.
 
Thanks @Intell for the answer. I could have sworn I had that snippet of information in the back of my head from when the card was introduced that it could drive 2x30"

Does that mean that-speaking strictly of Mac edition cards(not flashed cards), the 6800 Ultra is the only AGP card and the FX4500 is the only PCIe cards that can run 2x30?

Also, do you know if the ATI FireGl that many of us flash into X800XTs has 2xdual link? It would seem that-if the 6800 Ultra can-the more powerful X800 should be able to also as long as it has the correct DL-DVI ports.
 
I am not sure if the flashed ATI FireGL X3 can drive two DL-DVI displays or not. Part of the reason why the Mac X800 can't is because the pins on the ADC port are already in use by Apple for the ADC and thus cannot be used to drive a second DVI channel.
 
9600 didn't support the 30". The Radeon 9650 that came out for the early 2005 AGP Powermacs did have one dual link port on it.
 
bunnspecial said:
As far as I know, the(retail) 9600 Pro PC&Mac does. I have two boxed ones, and a DL-DVI port is advertised on the box. It's the factory/BTO 9600XT that doesn't support it.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I'm unsure about the retail boxed 9600, but I am 100% sure that the 9600 that was included with the Powermac G5 did not support DL-DVI. The year after the 30" was released, they started including the 9650 in order to support it with the higher end G5s.
 
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