MP 6,1 Mac Pro 6,1 compatible with Cinema Display?

[dprevett1]

hello, I'm considering cobbling together a hobby setup based on a trashcan Mac Pro.

I have an old 27 inch Mini Displayport Cinema Display, and bought an Answin USB-C to Mini Displayport adapter planning to connect it to a M1 Mac Studio when they first hit the market. In the end I bought a new Studio Display along with the Mac Studio, never used the adapter or Cinema Display, and stashed them away in a closet.

Would a D500 equipped trashcan be able to drive the Cinema Display using the MDP to USB-C adapter plugged into one of the thunderbolt ports? Thanks!

 

[tsialex]

hello, I'm considering cobbling together a hobby setup based on a trashcan Mac Pro.

I have an old 27 inch Mini Displayport Cinema Display, and bought an Answin USB-C to Mini Displayport adapter planning to connect it to a M1 Mac Studio when they first hit the market. In the end I bought a new Studio Display along with the Mac Studio, never used the adapter or Cinema Display, and stashed them away in a closet.

Would a D500 equipped trashcan be able to drive the Cinema Display using the MDP to USB-C adapter plugged into one of the thunderbolt ports? Thanks!

You can connecty the Cinema Display directly to the mini-DisplayPort/TB2 of the MacPro6,1.

 

[keksikuningas]

Also if you are ever bored, you can get a tb2 cable and a tb3 to tb2 adapter and connect your Studio Display to the trashcan. It should do 5k@30 iirc wtih that setup

 

[dprevett1]

oops my bad, I totally spaced that the 6,1 has Thunderbolt 2, which is physically and electrically compatible with the Mini Displayport Cinema Display, so no adapter required. My intent is to use that Cinema Display only with the 6,1 (the Studio Display is in use with the M1 Mac Studio as my main productivity station). It's been awhile since using these old devices, and I got fuzzy on those details, so thanks tsialex for straightening me out!

I guess now my question is OS upgrade paths. If I employ OCLP to update past mac OS 12 Monterey, is there some point at which Cinema Display support breaks, due to lack of driver support or some such. Alternately I could use a 2018 Mac Mini which would natively support all the way up to mac OS 15 Sequoia, but USB-C on the Mini *would* require the USB-C to Mini Displayport adapter, which i guess is where I got the wires crossed.

Use case for the 6,1 once I get it up and running is a user unfamiliar with Macs who probably only needs Safari, Messages, Mail, Photos and perhaps Apple TV apps at most, plus printing to a USB-A printer. It's weird to me that the refurb 6,1 is actually cheaper than the 2018 Mini, but I'd like to figure out which would better support the latest possible OS and first party applications with fewest glitches or non-support limitations...

 

[tsialex]

Use case for the 6,1 once I get it up and running is a user unfamiliar with Macs who probably only needs Safari, Messages, Mail, Photos and perhaps Apple TV apps at most, plus printing to a USB-A printer. It's weird to me that the refurb 6,1 is actually cheaper than the 2018 Mini, but I'd like to figure out which would better support the latest possible OS and first party applications with fewest glitches or non-support limitations...

Get a Apple Silicon mini, if you are not limited to past compatibility for some workflow or need to run Windows natively, does not make any sense to invest in a Intel Mac right now.

You probably can find a M1 or M2 mini very inexpensively that will run some future macOS releases.