Old Power Mac G5, new 2560x1440 monitor. Possible?

December 28, 2019 3:02 PM

I have an old Power Mac G5 with two DVI outputs, presumably dual-link. I did have a 30" Cinema display (2560x1600), but I destroyed it because I'm a complete idiot. Let's say I want to connect a newer non-Apple 2560x1440, 60Hz display. Is this possible with currently available options?

I've tried a passive DVI-to-HDMI adapter, and of course it doesn't work. I suppose that an active dual-link DVI-to-DisplayPort adapter is the only option, but I need someone with some actual real-world knowledge to tell me what will work and where it can be found.

Forum posts are either inconclusive or very old, and refer to hardware that doesn't seem to exist. The electronics/computer store staff are, naturally, completely unhelpful. The claims of adapter manufacturers seem suspect.

Have you done this with success? Is buying a used Cinema display the only option?

posted by klanawa to Computers & Internet (3 answers total)

This chart at everymac.com What graphics cards are provided by the Power Mac G5? Which have ADC ports and which have DVI ports? What is the maximum supported resolution on a primary and secondary display? explains the video cards which were available with each model of the PowerMac G5, their outputs, maximum resolution, and such like, with my point being that none had two dual-link DVI ports. My Dell UltraSharp monitors have DVI-D inputs but it looks like later models (like your newer display) have dropped those, however, that does mean you are not limited to used Apple displays if nothing else works out.
posted by channaher at 4:07 PM on December 28, 2019 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: none had two dual-link DVI ports

That's correct, only one of the ports is dual-link. I only need one. That this is hypothetically possible already seems to be established. I'm after concrete solutions, if there are any.

An additional piece of important info: I'm using Xubuntu and had been happily for years with the cinema display.
posted by klanawa at 5:04 PM on December 28, 2019

I did this in reverse - I had an ancient Mac Pro cheese grater with the same DVI Cinema Display. I got rid of the cheese grater a while back but the monitor is still in use. I had a really hard time figuring out how to match DVI with modern hardware as well. According to Apple and all the documentation I could find, the only way to do this was with an expensive active converter.

I tried several things and this $9 DVI-to-Thunderbolt worked fine. "Thunderbolt" is also known as "Mini DisplayPort" on monitor spec sheets. I sold the Cinema Display to a colleague and he's still using it with his Macbook Pro (prior generation w/ Thunderbolt2).

So I would try looking for a mDP/Thunderbolt monitor instead. IME Thunderbolt stuff is way more consistent than HDMI when trying to convert/dongle/hub monitors up to weird hardware.
posted by bradbane at 5:24 PM on December 28, 2019