Why the switch to mini displayport?

[Howie]

Silly question, but why have all the graphics cards switched to mini displayport? As far as I know, high end monitors have displayport connections rather than mini displayport. I have a 5850 and it has displayport rather than mini displayport connections. Why the switch to mini displayport in recent years?

 

[robvas]

You can fit 3-4 mini DP ports on a single card. They're small.

 

[Nocens]

Small size, many more features, backwards compatible with previous ports using an adapter.

 

[tangoseal]

DP and mDP are the same damn thing. Just a smaller plug lol...

Just buy a cheap 1$ adaptor

 

[Asacolips]

Size. Personally, I find it rather annoying that there are mini and normal versions of the same ports, like HDMI and DP. I would rather just make the smaller version the standard without the redundancy of the larger ports. I've always been annoyed with fiddling with adapters, even though they work well.

 

[jomama22]

Size. Personally, I find it rather annoying that there are mini and normal versions of the same ports, like HDMI and DP. I would rather just make the smaller version the standard without the redundancy of the larger ports. I've always been annoyed with fiddling with adapters, even though they work well.

Most plugs are originally designed with the larger spec because of a number of different factors. USB/HDMI/DP all started with their larger plug and then later mover to a more compact design. Much easier to get a product out the door and get the specs widespread and implemented with an easy to produce, first revision product.