[Zimwy]

Hi,
I was wondering what would happen if somebody tried to use the 30 incher without a dual dvi card? Would you be able to use it, but just not at full res?

Thanks,
Gabe

[Luca Rescigno]

I doubt it. But now that you can use a Radeon 9650 to drive one I don't think it should be a huge problem... the 9650 is very inexpensive and it shouldn't be too difficult for older G5 and G4 owners to get their hands on one. I think it's the only dual-link DVI card that can be modified for use in a PowerMac G4, too.

[Link]

Yeah I'll mirror what Luca said, the 9650 is the card you want, should cost no more than $150 depending on your luck with ebay, and if you have a g4 you'd tape pins 3 and 11 from the metal back end (where the plugs go), plus it'll be able to drive it at full res.

The Cinema display will work on a non-dual-link card though, There is no physical difference in the plug on a dual-link jack and a single-link jack (the center 6 pins of the plug simply aren't used), though as an interesting side note, the reason ADC didn't continue was apple's short-sightedness to not realize they'd better keep the extra 6 pins [which they ended up using for USB!] for a video signal, whoops!

[Nugget]

Originally Posted by Zimwy

I was wondering what would happen if somebody tried to use the 30 incher without a dual dvi card? Would you be able to use it, but just not at full res?

Plugging the 30" Cinema Display into a single-link DVI port yields a 1/2 resolution image. It functions, but at at a ridiculously unusable 1280x800 resolution. I'm serious about the unusable part. Everything is freakishly large and you'll get vertigo trying to use it. Don't even consider for a minute that you'd be happy using it that way for more than a few minutes.