Apple never used regular DisplayPort on the laptops they used a variant of it called "Mini Display Port"
Later they switched over to Thunderbolt which is what current Macs use. Adapters going from Thunderbolt to HDMI are cheap off Amazon, around $10 each According to the following, the 30 Cinema Display monitor just needs the middle adapter: https://support.apple.com/en-us/111808 There are also tons of mini dvi to dual link adapters that don't have the extra USB port and USB cable but there were issues with some of those not supplying enough power to the monitor to go over 60Hz refresh rate. These come in either passive or active ones, the active ones typically have the extra USB power line while the passive ones don't. The MacBook I have is a MacBook Pro 2008 that runs Catalina. It has dual-link DVI as it's got an Nvidia GPU in it. The monitor standards for video during this era were frankly ridiculous. You had regular DisplayPort to vga or hdmi, you had mini DP to vga, or hdmi or regular DP, you had HDMI to VGA, and you also had (less common) the reverse - HDMI to DP, and so on. You also had power issues from DisplayPorts and HDMI ports not powering various adapters properly. USB-C/Thunderbolt is far better. DisplayPort was developed to be Royalty Free while HDMI charges manufacturers who use it $10k a year royalty fee. HDMI has HDCP copy protection required as part of the standard. When HDMI was developed in 2002 the founders of the standard basically included the major motion picture movie houses as well as satellite and cable companies all who were tremendously gung-ho on copy protection. This is why the consumer electronics sphere, such as amplifiers and big screen TV makers, all supply HDMI. That entire industry is focused on the walled garden. VESA, who created DisplayPort, was created by the computer manufacturers who didn't give a rat's ass about copy protection nor were they interested in forking over tons o cash to their competitors and their movie industry friends. While you can run the copy protection over it you don't have to. This is why Apple went with a mini-DisplayPort and not HDMI then later Thunderbolt. Thunderbolt is backwards compatible with USB-C and so all manner of existing UCB-C to vga/displayport/hdmi/whatever else adapters can be used with it. This is why DisplayPort works up to HDR (High Dynamic Range) and Ultra HDR 8k TV. Mostly, you get 8K off Youtube and your own video production so monitors that display this like the Dell UtraSharp 32" 8K monitor do not have HDMI, they only have either USB or DisplayPort While there are HDMI 8K cables there's not much interest in them at the moment. Ted -----Original Message----- From: PLUG <[email protected]> On Behalf Of King Beowulf Sent: Monday, January 19, 2026 9:19 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [PLUG] DVI-D vs DP (was: REMINDER: Monthly PLUG Clinic...) On 1/17/26 05:13, Ted Mittelstaedt wrote: > I think it has the mini display port on it, and I think I have an adapter to > dual link DVI in my junk pile. > > Ted > > -----Original Message----- > From: PLUG <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Russell > Senior > Sent: Friday, January 16, 2026 6:08 PM > To: Portland Linux/Unix Group <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [PLUG] [PLUG-ANNOUNCE] REMINDER: Monthly PLUG Clinic on > Sunday, January 18, 2026 > > According to wikipedia: > > "Due to the high resolution (2560×1600), the 30-inch model requires a > graphics card that supports dual-link DVI." > > ... > -----Original Message----- > From: PLUG <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Mark Casimer > via PLUG > Sent: Friday, January 16, 2026 3:18 PM > To: [email protected] > Cc: Mark Casimer <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [PLUG] [PLUG-ANNOUNCE] REMINDER: Monthly PLUG Clinic on > Sunday, January 18, 2026 > > Do you guys take donations? I have an Apple 30-inch cinema display free to a > good home. It also works with Linux and Windows, but neither provides a > driver that gives the best resolution. > > If anyone is interested, it's difficult for me to get to Portland.. At my age > travel is difficult; I live in Cannon Beach. I used to attend the clinics > back when it was at Free Geek. Good memories .. good info and a smart group > of friendly people. Any monitor with a display port (DP, regular, mini, etc) will connect to any relatively newish GPU (~10+ yrs) directly with the proper display port cable. DVI hasn't been used in ages on GPUs. "Dual link" only applies to DVI (-D variety vs -I). All anyone will need is the proper DP cable. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DisplayPort However, I don't recall Apple using DP: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Cinema_Display -Ed
