MP 6,1 Dual 30" Cinema Displays w/6,1 Mac Pro?

[MacDann]

In other words, can this be done? I'm running a 5,1 with dual 30" Cinema Displays (original DVI connector) and would like to migrate to a MP 6,1. However, I don't want to abandon my monitor setup.

I've got some powered dual link display adapters that have Display Port connectors on them that came with a couple of the Cinema Displays I bought a few years ago, but I've never used them or had a need.

I'm wondering if the Apple Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI Adapter MB571LL/A will do the trick? It's NLA from Apple, but there are plenty on places like eBay.

Thanks in advance for any directions.

MacDann

 

[joevt]

The Club-3d adapters should work. You just need a couple Mini DisplayPort to DisplayPort adapters to connect them to the MacPro6,1. They might have some artifacts. https://insights.club-3d.com/thread...a-and-apple-cinema-display-30-on-mac-mini-m1/ In that case, the Apple adapters may have better behaviour. Plus, the Apple adapters have USB pass thru.

You should be able to connect two 2560x1600 displays to the same Thunderbolt port using a Thunderbolt 3 to Dual DisplayPort adapter. Actually, the Thunderbolt 3 to Dual DisplayPort Adapters have an attached USB-C cable so you would have to use a Thunderbolt 3 dock. Well, the OWC Thunderbolt 3 to Dual DisplayPort Adapter has a detachable Thunderbolt cable, so you could connect the Apple Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter to that. However, I don't know if it will have enough power for the OWC adapter.
https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MMEL2AM/A/thunderbolt-3-usb-c-to-thunderbolt-2-adapter
https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/TB3ADP2DPT/

I know the Apple Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter has enough power for an Apple Thunderbolt to Gigabit Ethernet Adapter or a Apple Thunderbolt to FireWire Adapter but in that case, the upstream is Thunderbolt 3 and the downstream is Thunderbolt 2. Thunderbolt 2 at the upstream might not have enough power for the Thunderbolt 3 downstream device.

 

[kiiso]

I'm wondering if the Apple Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI Adapter MB571LL/A will do the trick? It's NLA from Apple, but there are plenty on places like eBay.

Yes, this is exactly what you'll need.

 

[SkippyThorson]

Two 30" Cinema Displays with a 2013 Mac Pro, you say?! Long-winded response time!



All Apple parts, including the Dual Link DVI cables - no special, third party adapters needed. The vintage of the Thunderbolt ports on the Trashcan is like a fine wine; this is probably the last Apple Desktop to natively play nicely with the awesome family of Cinema Displays.

I once had two 20" screens off to the left as well; the computer didn't really like them too much. It was definitely less snappy (ha) with all four plugged in at the same time. I also get by just fine with its internal speaker; I don't need anything else. I have no need to crank the jams in my humble tech room, but I digress...

Note, there are three Thunderbolt busses on our Mac Pros:

(https://www.techjunkie.com/mac-pro-thunderbolt-performance/)

I have each 30" on their own Bus (1&2) and had the two 20" screens on one combined (Bus 0).

Before I learned this little fact, I couldn't figure out why the second 30" wouldn't let me control its brightness level. The first acted totally fine, but the second, upon adjustment, would show a little lock below the typical brightness icon. Turns out the computer just couldn't figure out what to do and didn't want to power them both together anymore.

Separating them so everyone played nicely together in the Thunderbolt sandbox fixed everything - they both function as you would expect. The nice part is, the additional cabling added for the Dual Link DisplayPort cables tidies up the giant power brick situation. The pair of 20" models didn't have enough slack to get the power bricks where I wanted anyway, so they left the setup to hang out with another computer.

Last but not least, in all situations, all displays can drive their full resolution at full brightness. The 2013 Mac Pro takes it like a champ, even at 10 years old. These displays are my favorite I've ever used, and should a couple of dead pixels on my primary one continue their march towards a new world order, I'm just going to swap their positions and keep going until they fail completely.

 

[MacDann]

Thanks, everyone! I really want to upgrade to a newer Mac Pro but was reluctant to do so if I had to replace displays. That and I love my "wall 'o' video" with my 30" Cinema Displays.

MacDann

Two 30" Cinema Displays with a 2013 Mac Pro, you say?! Long-winded response time!

View attachment 2175974

All Apple parts, including the Dual Link DVI cables - no special, third party adapters needed. The vintage of the Thunderbolt ports on the Trashcan is like a fine wine; this is probably the last Apple Desktop to natively play nicely with the awesome family of Cinema Displays.

I once had two 20" screens off to the left as well; the computer didn't really like them too much. It was definitely less snappy (ha) with all four plugged in at the same time. I also get by just fine with its internal speaker; I don't need anything else. I have no need to crank the jams in my humble tech room, but I digress...

Note, there are three Thunderbolt busses on our Mac Pros:
View attachment 2175958
(https://www.techjunkie.com/mac-pro-thunderbolt-performance/)

I have each 30" on their own Bus (1&2) and had the two 20" screens on one combined (Bus 0).

Before I learned this little fact, I couldn't figure out why the second 30" wouldn't let me control its brightness level. The first acted totally fine, but the second, upon adjustment, would show a little lock below the typical brightness icon. Turns out the computer just couldn't figure out what to do and didn't want to power them both together anymore.

Separating them so everyone played nicely together in the Thunderbolt sandbox fixed everything - they both function as you would expect. The nice part is, the additional cabling added for the Dual Link DisplayPort cables tidies up the giant power brick situation. The pair of 20" models didn't have enough slack to get the power bricks where I wanted anyway, so they left the setup to hang out with another computer.

Last but not least, in all situations, all displays can drive their full resolution at full brightness. The 2013 Mac Pro takes it like a champ, even at 10 years old. These displays are my favorite I've ever used, and should a couple of dead pixels on my primary one continue their march towards a new world order, I'm just going to swap their positions and keep going until they fail completely.

View attachment 2175955

Thanks a bunch for this!

However, just to clarify, you did need the Apple Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI Adapter MB571LL/A to make the transition between Thunderbolt and dual link DVI, however, did you not?

I've been hoarding 30" Cinema Displays. To-date I've got six of them, whenever I see them come up for sale locally I try to jump on them i they're in decent shape.

Sadly, as I've dug into this some more, I realize that if I go to a MB 6,1 that I'll have to also purchase some external storage, as I'll lose three hard drives from my MP 5,1. It's beginning to be far less attractive from a fiscal standpoint, unless I try to look at it as my "next" computer for the future 5-10 years.

Again, thank you!

MacDann


Again, thanks!

 

[SkippyThorson]

Thanks, everyone! I really want to upgrade to a newer Mac Pro but was reluctant to do so if I had to replace displays. That and I love my "wall 'o' video" with my 30" Cinema Displays.

MacDann


Thanks a bunch for this!

However, just to clarify, you did need the Apple Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI Adapter MB571LL/A to make the transition between Thunderbolt and dual link DVI, however, did you not?

I've been hoarding 30" Cinema Displays. To-date I've got six of them, whenever I see them come up for sale locally I try to jump on them i they're in decent shape.

Sadly, as I've dug into this some more, I realize that if I go to a MB 6,1 that I'll have to also purchase some external storage, as I'll lose three hard drives from my MP 5,1. It's beginning to be far less attractive from a fiscal standpoint, unless I try to look at it as my "next" computer for the future 5-10 years.

Again, thank you!

MacDann


Again, thanks!

Indeed, to clarify, you do need the Dual Link DVI adapter (MB571LL/A) for each display.

If we're going for the same setup; you're going from the Mac Pro to the Mini DisplayPort + USB of the Dual Link Adapter. The adapter will then use the Cinema Display's DVI port plus native USB port. The Cinema's Firewire cable will remain neatly dangling unused somewhere in the cable spaghetti.

You may be the only person able to try this, so if you're bored, I'd encourage the experiment:
I wonder if the Mac Pro can handle all six 30" displays...

I like to tinker, but even I don't have the gear or space to find that one out. I've only ever encountered a display flicker upon plugging in or unplugging USB, but the screens continue to work connected with video-only. Other users / machines have found USB is absolutely necessary or they remain on but black.

I also recommend, while they come on or off with the Mac (95% of the time) turning the displays off with their power buttons when not in use. All of my Cinema Display power bricks exhibit a random, high-pitch electronic noise (capacitor-like) which I can hear but none of my colleagues can. Call me crazy; some do! I can only imagine it helps and may reduce power draw in sleep mode and save on the gear - and your electricity. At 150W apiece, you can probably turn the heat off in your house while computing.


---

Tangent time:

I also use a separate Thunderbolt cable connected to a Drobo - an array of drives housing an archive of all the stuff accumulated over the years that I reference on occasion. Cool little device; a fantastic way to leave the storage of stuff at home, and makes migrating to a new device (or any device plugged in to it, running their app) super convenient.

I experience no lag between Thunderbolt devices, and the speed at which I can work with my external storage isn't impacted by the displays. Oddly, like I said above, tossing a couple more displays into the mix does make quite an impact. Graphics, Ram, both? I can't really be sure there.

 

[avro707]

You may be the only person able to try this, so if you're bored, I'd encourage the experiment:
I wonder if the Mac Pro can handle all six 30" displays...

I have three of them at work but not enough desk room to have them all on the one desk. I'm fairly certain three will work.

I have used 1x 30" cinema display with a 4K display and that runs fine.

Sadly, as I've dug into this some more, I realize that if I go to a MB 6,1 that I'll have to also purchase some external storage, as I'll lose three hard drives from my MP 5,1. It's beginning to be far less attractive from a fiscal standpoint, unless I try to look at it as my "next" computer for the future 5-10 years.

Again, thank you!

MacDann

Unfortunately the 6,1 isn't the computer for the future 5-10 years. Too many bespoke components, especially GPUs. If they fail then it's hard to replace them and they will probably get very expensive.

The 7,1 is the safer choice because it can use off the shelf currently available video cards like RX6800XT and RX6900XT (in Mac and Windows) or the 4090 NVIDIA in Windows. The W6800X MPX module is also quite a good card. It's easy to upgrade it with more RAM and storage as well. Upgrading a CPU is also not too difficult. With the 7,1 you'll likely need to buy some adapters for the 30" cinema displays.

I have all the recent generations of Mac Pro so this is my thoughts based on experience with them. I still love the 6,1, it's a lovely looking thing but it has drawbacks.

 

[MacDann]

I have three of them at work but not enough desk room to have them all on the one desk. I'm fairly certain three will work.

I have used 1x 30" cinema display with a 4K display and that runs fine.




Unfortunately the 6,1 isn't the computer for the future 5-10 years. Too many bespoke components, especially GPUs. If they fail then it's hard to replace them and they will probably get very expensive.

The 7,1 is the safer choice because it can use off the shelf currently available video cards like RX6800XT and RX6900XT (in Mac and Windows) or the 4090 NVIDIA in Windows. The W6800X MPX module is also quite a good card. It's easy to upgrade it with more RAM and storage as well. Upgrading a CPU is also not too difficult. With the 7,1 you'll likely need to buy some adapters for the 30" cinema displays.

I have all the recent generations of Mac Pro so this is my thoughts based on experience with them. I still love the 6,1, it's a lovely looking thing but it has drawbacks.

That would be nice but the budget does not exist for a 7,1.

Are the failure rates for the 6,1 any worse than the 5,1? How do we know?

My main motivation is to be able to go to a later OS natively and not have to utilize something like OpenCore, which I've tried and does work, but I'm just not comfortable with it. I would add that I've been doing just about all the OS hacks there have been since the MP 1,2 I owned some years back.

I have four MP 5,1s of various flavors, the two I use most are 3.33 GHz x2 processors with 128GB RAM and an X680 card flashed with the proper firmware for a visible picker boot screen. Worst case scenario is that the ashtray pukes and I have to revert back to one of my cheese graters.

I pulled the trigger on one today as well as a 4 bay TB2 drive enclosure from OWC for my external storage. All-in I'll probably have about $1k invested. Still a bargain for what I'm getting.

MacDann

 

[avro707]

Are the failure rates for the 6,1 any worse than the 5,1? How do we know?

It's not that, it's just that if a a GPU in 5,1 fails then you go out and buy a RX580 or better a RX6600XT, flash that thing in a PC then use it (with Monterey at least for the RX6600XT). They are not even expensive either.

With a Firepro D700 it's a big pain in the you know what, they are bespoke and each card is different to the other. Looking now on eBay a D700 pair is used USD$310.00, apparently working. You could also just as well find a second 6,1 just for parts if needed.

I understand your motivation with OpenCore it's a bit of magic art.

 

[MacDann]

I’ve pulled the plug on my order for a 6,1. I was going to buy a refurb from OWC, but the more I dug into this the less I felt I would gain.

I don’t have a problem with OpenCore, but I’m reluctant to put all my eggs in one basket, so to speak, as if something breaks I’ll have to burn major calories to sort it out.

MacDann