09-14-2015, 10:33 PM
silvarios wrote:
You could compare DisplayPort, VGA, DVI, HDMI, and Thunderbolt. I've noticed a lot of Apple systems have a port that's technically capable of higher resolutions and refresh rates, but the GPU can't handle that capability off all outputs. Someone was just posting about this recently with an older Mac, 2009 or 2010 model perhaps? In your case, you might be right, Thunderbolt might have more bandwidth than DisplayPort 1.2. Can anyone do the math to push 4K at 50 or 60Hz? DisplayPort 1.2 can handle up to four lanes, 5.4Gbps per lane. How does the GPU and associated connections function on those Macs? If Thunderbolt wasn't present, could those Macs have been given more lanes on DisplayPort?
I'm not sure about the math as I invariably miss some detail about the total bit depth of the bandwidth and this I'm off by a factor of 1.5 or 2. I'll have a look at the specs for these machines and compare to the listed bandwidths in Wikipedia to see.
In any case I was using tests I'd done with a collection of 2011-2013 Macs when I got the LG TBolt ultrawide monitor. You can hook up the monitor to Macs in various ways but the best support for full 3440x1440 resolution and OK refresh rate in 2011 and 2012 is through TBolt. Quickly:
2011 Mac Mini
MiniDisplayPort - 30Hz
Thunderbolt - 50Hz
2012 Mac Mini
MiniDisplayPort - 30Hz
Thunderbolt - 50Hz
2013 15" MacBook Pro
MiniDisplayPort - 60Hz
Thunderbolt - 60Hz
That missing 2013 Haswell Mini is annoying for yet another reason.