Mac Pro 2013 display question

for the Mac Pro dark cylinder, it's six displays total. Up to three can be Hi-dpi.

More than two "legacy" displays uses up all the ability to drive "legacy" displays directly or on simple adapters. Any more require adapters that have signal re-drivers in them , sold as ACTIVE adapters. They used to run about US$40, but one User recently reported getting some for MUCH cheaper, so maybe there is Volume Production behind some of them at last.

"Legacy" displays are anything other than Mini-DisplayPort or direct conversion to [full size] DisplayPort, Including the HDMI port if you choose to use it.

The following HDMI adapter would count as an active adapter - any 4K 60fps HDMI 2.0 adapter has to be an active adapter.

http://www.club-3d.com/index.php/products/reader.en/product/mini-displayport-12- to-hdmi-20-uhd-active-adapter.html

For the benefit of batmandan the built-in HDMI port is HDMI 1.2 only and is therefore limited to 4K at 30fps. If you want to use two 4K HDMI displays then avoid the built-in HDMI port and get two of the above adapters.

The official Apple article is here Use multiple displays with your Mac Pro (Late 2013) - Apple Support

As Grant says it can do 3 x 4K displays, what is not clear in the above article is that it can also do 3 x 5K displays instead of not as well as 4K displays.

batmandan wrote:

I've read the Apple article but am still unclear.

So if I have 2 4k monitors, both connected over DP, could I have two or just one additional display at 2560x1440?

Unfortunately Apple do not seem to list all the possible permutations and the Mac Pro has far more permutations than any other Mac model. My guess would be you could have two 4K displays and one DVI display at 2560x1440. The DVI display would need to use Apple's active Mini Displayport to Dual Link DVI adapter.

It would also seem possible to have six Apple Thunderbolt Displays connected but then you would not be able to connect any 4K displays or DVI displays.

I would also personally feel that if you can as Apple state have three 5K displays connected which de facto are Displayport, then it should also be possible to have instead three 4K Displayport displays connected which is contrary to their document.