Thunderbolt vs. Mini Displayport

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Level 1

5 points

Thunderbolt vs. Mini Displayport

Greetings everyone,

I've got a question about compatibility between Thunderbolt and Mini Displayport.

I have a mid 2011 MacBook Air. It has one thunderbolt slot. I've got an external monitor connected to it and I just realized that I have a Mini Displayport / DVI adapter connected to my Thunderbolt slot. I'm not quite satisfied with the image. Could that be the reason? I previously had another (an older) MacBook connected to the same monitor via Mini Dvi to Dvi and I always thought the image was great.

Second question, I just bought (will receive it tomorrow) a Belkin Docking station which has two thunderbolt slots. One of them I'll connect to the computer, the other one I was planning to use for my external monitor using this Mini Display Port - DVI adapter I just wrote about. This should work, right? And furthermore, is there a difference between Mini Displayport cables and Thunderbolt cables? The latter are much more expensive, but if I plug this Belkin Dockingstation to my computer using a Mini Displayport cable for it, will I have problems?

Thank you for the answers.

MacBook Air, OS X Yosemite (10.10)

Posted on Nov 10, 2014 7:08 AM

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Answer 1

tbirdvet

Level 6

14,345 points

Nov 10, 2014 12:02 PM in response to CEMaia

TB cables are not the same as Mini Display port cables although they look the same. The TB cable is designed to move much more data at a faster speed. and can only be connected to TB ports. Your Belkin should work hooked up with your Mini Displayport to DVI adapter but not sure what you are gaining unless you need to extra features of the Belkin Hub. For best resolution you need a TB Display connected using the TB cable.

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