How can I hook up 3 screens to a Mac Pro 8 core 2010 model?

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How can I hook up 3 screens to a Mac Pro 8 core 2010 model?

How can I hook up 3 screens to a Mac Pro 8 core. One is a 23' Apple Cinema Display, the second is a 20" Apple cinema display and the 3rd is a 32' Sony Bravia HDTV (connected to mini port with mini/HDMI connector) Do I need to buy another video card? I have heard about 4 different scenarios about this, and they all sound a bit complicated. I thought that you could automatically connect 3 displays with the card that comes with the MacPro. It has a DVI port and 2 mini ports, so it appears that would be for 3 displays. But this is where it gets strange. Any thoughts?

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8), connect 3 displays to Mac Pro

Posted on Feb 3, 2012 2:39 PM

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Answer 1

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X423424X

Level 6

14,265 points

Feb 3, 2012 3:56 PM in response to Soft Studio Nash

Which video card? 5x70? If you read about the various scenarios thern for 5x70's you need two active adapters for thee monitors (TV considered a monitor). And you should have seen references to these apple docs:

Mac Pro (Mid 2010), Mac Pro (Early 2009): Issues with three displays and multiple DVI, HDMI connections

Mac Pro (Early 2009), Mac Pro (Mid 2010): Supported display configurations

It's not really complicated. Search out the appropriate adapters and hook 'em up. For the 23" and 20", if they are DVI, you need single link adapters. For the TV, if you end up using the DVI port for it (because possibly you can't find the appropate adapter cmbination) then you need to handle the audio separately since DVI doesn't carry audio.

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Answer 2

Feb 4, 2012 5:06 AM in response to X423424X

Thanks so much for the info. It helped clear things up. I have the ATI Radeon HD 5770 in my MacPro.

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