Mini Display Port to Display Port Cable v1.4 – 4K 144Hz, Braided, 1m 2m 3m

Description

If your laptop has a small trapezoid-shaped video socket, this is the lead that gets it onto a monitor.

The connector, and who still has one

Mini Display Port turned up on MacBooks and MacBook Pros from 2008 until 2016, on Surface Pro and Surface Book, on Thunderbolt 1 and 2 Macs, and on a long run of desktop graphics cards. Apple moved to USB-C a decade ago and Microsoft followed, so nothing new ships with it.

That is exactly why people come looking for this lead rather than a new machine. A 2015 MacBook Pro driving a second screen is still a perfectly good second screen, and a mini displayport to displayport cable is a twenty-dollar answer to a problem that otherwise costs two thousand.

Either way round, which is not true of most video leads

This lead works in both directions. Mini Display Port source into a full-size monitor, or a full-size output into a device with the smaller socket. Both ends are male and the protocol is the same at each, so there is no wrong way to plug it in.

That is worth saying because it is unusual. Most video leads that change connector are one-way — a Display Port to HDMI lead will not run backwards, and neither will most USB-C video leads. This one really does, and nobody has to check the arrows on the packet.

What DP 1.4 actually gives you

The link runs at 32.4Gbps. That is enough for the resolutions most people are actually buying for:

• 4K at 144Hz — the standard high-refresh gaming target
• 1440p at 240Hz and above
• 1080p at 165Hz
• Two 4K monitors at 60Hz from one output, daisy-chained

On 8K at 60Hz, the honest version. DP 1.4 reaches it, but only with Display Stream Compression — an uncompressed 8K 60Hz signal needs somewhere near 100Gbps and the link carries 32.4. DSC is visually lossless and it is how every DP 1.4 8K setup works.

The catch is that DSC lives in your graphics card and your monitor, not in the lead. If both support it, this mini displayport monitor cable carries 8K at 60Hz. If either does not, you get 8K at 30Hz instead, and no cable on the market changes that.

On certifications, since we are being precise

The lead carries CE and RoHS marks. Neither of those is a performance certification — CE is a European conformity mark and RoHS restricts hazardous materials. Both are fine things; neither tells you the lead will hold HBR3.

The mark that would tell you that is VESA’s DP8K certification, which tests Display Port leads specifically for the 8.1Gbps-per-lane rate that DP 1.4 needs. We are not claiming it, because we have not been shown it. If a supplier certificate turns up, we will say so; until then the figures above are what the lead is built to rather than what an independent programme has verified.

Three lengths

One metre for a monitor on the same desk. Two metres for a screen on an arm or across a dual setup. Three metres for a wall-mounted display or a machine on the floor.

At these lengths the standard is comfortable. Display Port gets marginal at high bandwidth past about five metres; three is well inside it, so the full 32.4Gbps is available on every length here rather than only the short one.

Braided, because of where it lives

Nylon braid rather than moulded PVC. A video lead behind a desk is pulled sideways every time the monitor is adjusted, and the failure is always the same — a crease at the plug that becomes a break. Braid does not hold the crease, and the strain relief is moulded around the join rather than butted against it.

Why purchase this mini displayport cable from Core Connect Aust?

Stocked in Melbourne, not drop-shipped with a three-week wait. Order before 10am and your mini displayport to displayport cable ships the same day via Australia Post with tracking and insurance, backed by our 90-day warranty and a team who will tell you plainly when a cable is not the thing that will fix your problem.

Check the socket on your laptop. If it is the small trapezoid, this is the one. Order today.

Compatibility

Devices with a Mini Display Port socket:

• MacBook Pro 2008–2016 · MacBook Air 2008–2017 · MacBook 2008–2011
• iMac 2009–2015 · Mac Pro 2009–2013 · Mac mini 2010–2014
• Microsoft Surface Pro 1 through 6 · Surface Book 1 and 2 · Surface Studio
• Thunderbolt 1 and Thunderbolt 2 Macs — the socket is shared
• Desktop graphics cards with a Mini output — many AMD FirePro and Radeon, Nvidia Quadro and some GeForce
• Lenovo ThinkPad docks, older Dell and HP workstations

Monitors and displays with a full-size socket:

• Dell UltraSharp · LG UltraFine and UltraGear · Samsung Odyssey · ASUS ProArt and ROG · BenQ · AOC · Acer · ViewSonic · Philips · Gigabyte
• Any monitor, television or projector with a standard Display Port input

It runs both ways. Mini into full-size, or full-size into Mini. Both ends are male and the protocol is identical at each, so either can be the source.

Audio travels with the video. No separate lead is needed for a monitor with speakers or a headphone socket.

On 8K at 60Hz: the lead carries it, but your graphics card and monitor both need Display Stream Compression. Without DSC on both, 8K drops to 30Hz — a limit of the standard, not of this lead. 4K at 144Hz needs no special support and works with any DP 1.4 device.

If your laptop has an oval USB-C socket rather than the small trapezoid, this is not the lead you need and we stock the USB-C version separately.

Core Connect Aust is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Apple, Microsoft, Dell, LG, Samsung, ASUS, BenQ, AOC, Acer, ViewSonic, Philips, Gigabyte, Lenovo, HP, AMD or Nvidia. DisplayPort and VESA are trademarks of the Video Electronics Standards Association. All brand and model names are used here for compatibility reference only. This is not a manufacturer-branded product.