Jamie Marchant

Q: what is the name of the video port on the back of my mac?

Hi:

I have a Perfoma 6400 which I want to hook up to a VGA monitor. I have found adatpor on eBay that do this but I'm not sure which ones will work for my Machintosh. Could you please tell me what the name of the video port on my mac is and what adapter I need? Thank you very much.

-Jamie Marchant

By the way I am doing this to hook it up to my "PC" KVM swich, I was very happy when I learned the old USB card I have in it works with a standerd mouse and "Windows" keyborad.

Perfoma 6400, Mac OS 8.6 or Earlier

Posted on Feb 19, 2012 5:47 PM

Close

Q: what is the name of the video port on the back of my mac?

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

  • by Jeff,Solvedanswer

    Jeff Jeff Feb 19, 2012 11:19 PM in response to Jamie Marchant
    Level 6 (11,559 points)
    Feb 19, 2012 11:19 PM in response to Jamie Marchant

    Apple's display port was a DB-15 and the Mac-to-VGA adapter that I used was like this one.  Keep in mind that the 6400's onboard display port has only 1 MB of DRAM for video support.  In my 6400s, I installed an ATI Rage Pro PCI graphics card, which had both Mac and VGA ports and 8 MBs of SGRAM.  If the display that you intend to use is a new widescreen type (16:9 aspect ratio), its optimal resolution/refresh won't be supported by the 6400's onboard graphics controller.

  • by Jamie Marchant,

    Jamie Marchant Jamie Marchant Feb 20, 2012 8:41 AM in response to Jeff
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 20, 2012 8:41 AM in response to Jeff

    Thank you very much for the link, that is exactly the kind of thing I am looking for. I am aware that the 6400 will only be able to go to lower resulutionts and I would not expect more from an old computer, my 16:9 monitor pads all 4:3 resultionts with black bars so it won't look too bad. There is not much I can do about it as both my PCI slots are in use(1 network card and 1 USB card).

  • by Jeff,

    Jeff Jeff Feb 20, 2012 9:26 AM in response to Jamie Marchant
    Level 6 (11,559 points)
    Feb 20, 2012 9:26 AM in response to Jamie Marchant

    To free up a PCI slot for a graphics card, you could install an Apple Ethernet card in the COMM II slot.  Here's the User Guide for the card.  If you're interested, you can probably still find a used one at eBay, but be sure to get the one for the COMM II slot and not the COMM I slot (they're keyed differently).  You'd probably need to find a used Mac Radeon 9200 for native support of widescreen displays, but I'm not sure if the 6400 can support it.  Tom Koons' web site, "The 6400 Zone," was always a great source of info for 6400 users.

  • by Jamie Marchant,

    Jamie Marchant Jamie Marchant Feb 20, 2012 9:34 AM in response to Jamie Marchant
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 20, 2012 9:34 AM in response to Jamie Marchant

    Good thinking , I will keep that in mind as an alturnative.

  • by Jamie Marchant,

    Jamie Marchant Jamie Marchant Feb 20, 2012 9:38 AM in response to Jamie Marchant
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 20, 2012 9:38 AM in response to Jamie Marchant

    Does it matter if the adapter has dim swiches on it? I have found a lot of them but it's hard to find one that will ship to Canada a good price.

  • by Jeff,Helpful

    Jeff Jeff Feb 20, 2012 11:27 PM in response to Jamie Marchant
    Level 6 (11,559 points)
    Feb 20, 2012 11:27 PM in response to Jamie Marchant

    The adapters with a DIP (dual inline package) switch setup are more versatile than those without.  If you get one with 10 switches, I always set #s 1, 4, 6, 7, & 8 in the ON position.  This worked with all of the 17" CRT-type displays that I connected to my fleet of older Macs.

  • by Jamie Marchant,

    Jamie Marchant Jamie Marchant Feb 21, 2012 7:18 AM in response to Jamie Marchant
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 21, 2012 7:18 AM in response to Jamie Marchant

    Thank you Jeff, you have been extremly helpful. I still need to find a local dealer(in Canada) to make the price worth it though. Otherwise the price is way to high.

  • by Jeff,

    Jeff Jeff Feb 22, 2012 8:58 AM in response to Jamie Marchant
    Level 6 (11,559 points)
    Feb 22, 2012 8:58 AM in response to Jamie Marchant

    You're welcome.  When I bought my adapters more than 7 years ago, I did so locally at a "PC" show/sale.  I paid less than $6 USD each, because the show wasn't targeting Mac users with unreasonable prices.