Studio Display and Mac Pro without a MPX Module and a 3rd party 6900 XT

[Nitewolf]

May be a stupid question, I know. Please pardon me if so.

I removed the 580X MPX Module from my Mac Pro and am only driving a Sonnet 6900 XT, with has a HDMI port, 2 Display Ports and a USB-C port.

Will the Studio Display work if attached to the USB-C port? Or do I will need a dongle? If dongle is required, will the webcam work?

Or will it work out of the box connecting it to one of the TB ports from the Mac Pro?

 

[Amethyst1]

Will the Studio Display work if attached to the USB-C port?

It will definitely display something via USB-C DisplayPort Alternate Mode, because it's officially compatible with non-Thunderbolt iPads.

The question is, will it be limited to 4K60 because it requires two DisplayPort signals encapsulated in a Thunderbolt 3 stream for 5K60, each driving one half of the panel at 2560×2880 (like the LG UltraFine 5K does)?
Or will it do 5K60 via a single DisplayPort 1.4 plus DSC signal (like the Pro Display XDR can do for 6K60)?

 

[Nitewolf]

Thanks! To be really honest I am fine with 4K60fps if the webcam, speakers and USB hub on the Display would work. I mean, what is the point of buying the Studio Display if not for the extra features not commonly found on other much much cheaper displays out there. I guess I will just wait till that brave someone plays the hero and test it for us, before I actually order one.

 

[Amethyst1]

I mean, what is the point of buying the Studio Display if not for the extra features not commonly found on other much much cheaper displays out there.

I’d rather ask: What is the point of buying an expensive 5K display and living with the immediately visible (to me) blurriness caused by having it upscale a “4K” signal to 5K and macOS’ way of scaling 2560×1440 HiDPI to a “4K” output?

I have a 27” 5K monitor and the difference between the above and a native 5K signal, displaying pixel-perfect 2560×1440 HiDPI, is substantial. Native 5K is much better (in my opinion at least).

 

[Nitewolf]

Yeah true, and that just reinforces my point. If all the bells and whistles of the Studio Display won't gonna work under USB-C, better get a native 5k monitor that actually works. Hopefully there will be a way, instead of paying another kidney for what Apple charges for the 6900 XT MPX module, lol.

 

[joevt]

Check the USB tab of System Information.app. Does it show an AMD USB bus (PCI Vendor ID: 0x1002)?

Can you connect a mouse or keyboard to the USB-C port of the Sonnet 6900 XT with a USB-A to USB-C adapter? If it works, then you should be able to use the USB features of the display. If it doesn't work, then you'll need a method to combine USB and DisplayPort to USB-C (such as the Belkin Charge and Sync Cable) to get all the features of the display.

Let us know if you can do USB with the 6900 XT. I have a W5700 that has working USB but I'm not sure about the 6000 series cards.

 

[Amethyst1]

Ars Technica have tested the Studio Display using an RX 6800’s USB-C port on Windows.

 

[joevt]

Ars Technica have tested the Studio Display using an RX 6800’s USB-C port on Windows.

That article had next to zero info. Well, there was some info about Mac display history, the iOS firmware, fan noise, visual impressions, and Windows usage.

But I want EDID, DPCD, ioreg, AGDCDiagnose, AllRez, System Information.app (USB, PCIe, Thunderbolt) info for all connection types:

- Thunderbolt 3: two HBR2 x4 connections for dual tile (5K 60Hz 10bpc) such as from a Mac mini 2018
- HBR3 x2 with DSC (5K 60Hz 10bpc) such as from a USB-C dock (that doesn't have an MST Hub) connected to RTX, Navi, Ice Lake, Tiger Lake GPU.
- HBR2 x4 with DSC (5K 60Hz 10bpc) (does this work with 20 Gbps Thunderbolt?) such as from a RTX, Navi, Ice Lake, Tiger Lake GPU.
- HBR3 x4 without DSC (5K 60Hz 8bpc) such as from an RX580 (or any GPU that supports HBR3 but not DSC)
- HBR2 x4 (4K 60Hz 10bpc, 5K 60Hz 6bpc) such as from a Mac mini 2018 DisplayPort/non-Thunderbolt connection
- Does it support 4:2:0 and/or 4:2:2? They could be a non-DSC and non-Thunderbolt method to get 5K 60Hz 10bpc even with HBR2.

They were wrong about the USB-C cable being incorrectly identified as Thunderbolt 20 Gbps. All they had to do to verify that was to check ioreg or System Information.app to see if there's any PCIe tunnelling happening to a Thunderbolt controller and USB controller in the display.

 

[Amethyst1]

That article had next to zero info. […]

True, but it was the only article I was able to find that talked about hooking up the display to PCs.

 

[Nermal]

I believe that the Studio Display officially requires OS 12.3. There are currently known issues with 12.3 and aftermarket cards.

 

[PowerMike G5]

May be a stupid question, I know. Please pardon me if so.

I removed the 580X MPX Module from my Mac Pro and am only driving a Sonnet 6900 XT, with has a HDMI port, 2 Display Ports and a USB-C port.

Will the Studio Display work if attached to the USB-C port? Or do I will need a dongle? If dongle is required, will the webcam work?

Or will it work out of the box connecting it to one of the TB ports from the Mac Pro?

May I ask how has your experience been with just the 6900 XT in the machine without the MPX?

I'm thinking about doing this as well. Are there any issues that are apparent, like waking from sleep problems, etc?