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1 Level
1315 Review
48 Karma

Review on Tripp Lite 8 Inch Adapter P132 08N by Jerome Pritchard

Revainrating 4 out of 5

It works and it's cheap

I have an old desktop computer (an early 2009 Mac Pro) with an ATI Radeon HD 5870 1024MB graphics card. It only has DVI and VGA video outputs but will look fine on an old 24" Dell monitor at 1920 x 1280 @ 60Hz over DVI. I bought a new 4K monitor to use with a newer MacBook Pro. This monitor only has DP and HDMI inputs. so I bought this item to continue having access to my old desktop without needing 2 monitors on my desk. I was surprised that the display actually looks a lot worse on a 4K monitor than on an old Dell monitor. Looks like, as if my graphics card can only drive the new monitor at 24hz. I was wondering if this adapter might have something to do with it but figured I could live with it as I rarely use desktop. Then I stumbled across an old Apple DVI-to-HDMI adapter that I forgot (so I didn't have to spend $8 for that one, well) and replaced that adapter with an Apple adapter. I still only get 24Hz, but the display looks a little better with the Apple adapter. Apple's adapter is much smaller and more convenient, but I'm sure Apple will cost $29 if it's still available. This adapter works well enough and costs so much less that I wouldn't recommend buying it - just don't think like me that everything would be fine, if i could just hook up an old desktop to a new monitor. Oh, and it's not the monitor - the display through a Macbook Pro with DP is impressive. Thinking, My old desktop graphics card is too weak for the new monitor. Edit: I just did a more serious display comparison with this adapter and with Apple's adapter. In the end I don't see any real difference. It's definitely not worth paying more for an Apple adapter. In the end I don't see any real difference. It's definitely not worth paying more for an Apple adapter. In the end I don't see any real difference. It's definitely not worth spending more on an Apple adapter.

Pros
  • Converts HDMI hardware to DVI cables
Cons
  • Ugly packaging