Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

New Apple Silicon M4 and M5 HiDPI Limitation on 4K External Displays

smcleod.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 180 posts

Re: New Apple Silicon M4 and M5 HiDPI Limitation on 4K External Displays

#171

Post by alfanick »

smcleod wrote: post #64
nuker wrote: post #7

Send it to Tim Cook email. It worked for me fixing DisplayPort DSC bug. After Catalina, later MacOSes lost ability to drive monitors at higher than 60Hz refresh. Apple support tortured me with all kinds of diagnostics, with WontFix few weeks later. Wrote email and it got fixed in Sonoma :) https://egpu.io/forums/mac-setup/4k144hz-no-longer-available...

I don't expect emails to get through to busy CEOs of huge companies like Apple unless you're really lucky and they make it through some automation, but I have dropped him an email just in case. I guess you never know.

I did it once, I'm pretty much sure Tim did not read the email, why would he, someone in his team did. I had an awful experience with AASP, no computer, no fix, no timelines (and money was tight), tried to escalate as much as I could and failed. Wrote to Tim Cook, explaining my situation and attaching all references... Got a call from Apple within like 2h, got a brand new Mac in a day. Those emails do work.

Re: New Apple Silicon M4 and M5 HiDPI Limitation on 4K External Displays

#172

Post by rlam2x51 »

I recently bought my first MacBook Pro (M5 Pro) and I kinda regret it. It is a nice notebook but I would never bought it if I knew that it does not work properly with my LG 38WN95C-W Monitor (3840x1600@144Hz via USB-C). BetterDisplay allows me to use 3360x1400 with HiDPI but I still lose screen estate that I got use to.

The worst part is that I did my research if my monitor works nicely with Apple Silicon and got confirmation that this is the case. I would never expected that M5 would perform worse compared to previous generations.

Apple really does a lot of things right but then they mess up the basic.

Guess I will ask Apple Intelligence for advise how to explain to my wife that I need a new Monitor…

Re: New Apple Silicon M4 and M5 HiDPI Limitation on 4K External Displays

#173

Post by runjake »

smcleod wrote: post #64
nuker wrote: post #7

Send it to Tim Cook email. It worked for me fixing DisplayPort DSC bug. After Catalina, later MacOSes lost ability to drive monitors at higher than 60Hz refresh. Apple support tortured me with all kinds of diagnostics, with WontFix few weeks later. Wrote email and it got fixed in Sonoma :) https://egpu.io/forums/mac-setup/4k144hz-no-longer-available...

I don't expect emails to get through to busy CEOs of huge companies like Apple unless you're really lucky and they make it through some automation, but I have dropped him an email just in case. I guess you never know.

Tim rarely reads the emails. There's an executive team that reads them and handles them.

I got nowhere with Apple Support and emailed "Tim" and had a very helpful executive team member reach out and arrange to get things fixed and see it through to resolution.

Re: New Apple Silicon M4 and M5 HiDPI Limitation on 4K External Displays

#174

Post by smcleod »

rlam2x51 wrote: post #172

I recently bought my first MacBook Pro (M5 Pro) and I kinda regret it. It is a nice notebook but I would never bought it if I knew that it does not work properly with my LG 38WN95C-W Monitor (3840x1600@144Hz via USB-C). BetterDisplay allows me to use 3360x1400 with HiDPI but I still lose screen estate that I got use to. The worst part is that I did my research if my monitor works nicely with Apple Silicon and got con…

If you're feeling brave, I've hacked up a way to make proper 4K scaling work, I only have a 60hz screen so it will need some modifications for 120hz but - https://github.com/sammcj/force-hidpi

Re: New Apple Silicon M4 and M5 HiDPI Limitation on 4K External Displays

#175

Post by rlam2x51 »

smcleod wrote: post #174
rlam2x51 wrote: post #172

I recently bought my first MacBook Pro (M5 Pro) and I kinda regret it. It is a nice notebook but I would never bought it if I knew that it does not work properly with my LG 38WN95C-W Monitor (3840x1600@144Hz via USB-C). BetterDisplay allows me to use 3360x1400 with HiDPI but I still lose screen estate that I got use to. The worst part is that I did my research if my monitor works nicely with Apple Silicon and got con…

If you're feeling brave, I've hacked up a way to make proper 4K scaling work, I only have a 60hz screen so it will need some modifications for 120hz but - https://github.com/sammcj/force-hidpi

Impressive, that's quite a feat. It is great that you found a workaround - it gives me hope that Apple will eventually fix this issue. I will hold out for a bit longer an wait for apple to get their act together.

I am still in disbelieve about the issue. I thought I have bought the most advanced notebook on this planet just to find out that it does not support external displays?

Re: New Apple Silicon M4 and M5 HiDPI Limitation on 4K External Displays

#176

Post by raihansaputra »

sgerenser wrote: post #166
whatever1 wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

2560 x 1664 is the resolution of the latest M5 Air. The default UI is 1470 × 956. "More space" is 1710 × 1112. When you set it to "more space" it becomes noticeably slower, but not blurry.

Those numbers of 1470x956 are “points” or “looks like” values, not the size of the frame buffer. The frame buffer for “looks like 1470x956” is exactly 2x that, or 2940x1912. On a 2560x1664 display, that’s a 1.148x scale factor. Again, nowhere near 2x, even on the “more space” setting.

If you’re counting by the framebuffer than the only 2x is the hidpi-forced-into-lowdown like the link suggest. The ratios I’m referring to is the UI scaling against the physical display pixel dimensions.

Apple basically settles into 220 dpi physical displays (250 moc MacBook Pro), rendering UI at a 2x scale as a default, except for MacBook Airs.

Re: New Apple Silicon M4 and M5 HiDPI Limitation on 4K External Displays

#177

Post by tmsh »

smcleod wrote: post #147
tmsh wrote: post #106

You might need a higher quality usb cable. I run ok with LG 5k display and MacBook Pro m4 max.

5k might be a different story, are you actually running it at 5120p with 2.0 scale? You can get that from running `system_profiler SPDisplaysDataType`, if you are running HiDPI with 5k that'd show something like Resolution: "10240 x 5760", UI Looks like "5120 x 2880"

Interesting yeah. Thanks for posting I see:

  system_profiler SPDisplaysDataType

  Graphics/Displays:

    Apple M4 Max:

      Chipset Model: Apple M4 Max
      Type: GPU
      Bus: Built-In
      Total Number of Cores: 40
      Vendor: Apple (0x106b)
      Metal Support: Metal 4
      Displays:
        LG UltraFine:
          Resolution: 4096 x 2304
          UI Looks like: 2048 x 1152 @ 60.00Hz
          Main Display: Yes
          Mirror: Off
          Online: Yes
          Rotation: Supported
          Automatically Adjust Brightness: Yes
To be honest it feels crisp. But good to know maybe I need to upgrade more.

Re: New Apple Silicon M4 and M5 HiDPI Limitation on 4K External Displays

#178

Post by tmsh »

tmsh wrote: post #177
smcleod wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

5k might be a different story, are you actually running it at 5120p with 2.0 scale? You can get that from running `system_profiler SPDisplaysDataType`, if you are running HiDPI with 5k that'd show something like Resolution: "10240 x 5760", UI Looks like "5120 x 2880"

Interesting yeah. Thanks for posting I see: system_profiler SPDisplaysDataType Graphics/Displays: Apple M4 Max: Chipset Model: Apple M4 Max Type: GPU Bus: Built-In Total Number of Cores: 40 Vendor: Apple (0x106b) Metal Support: Metal 4 Displays: LG UltraFine: Resolution: 4096 x 2304 UI Looks like: 2048 x 1152 @ 60.00Hz Main Display: Yes Mirror: Off Online: Yes Rotation: Supported Automatically Adjust Brightness: Yes…

[dead]

Re: New Apple Silicon M4 and M5 HiDPI Limitation on 4K External Displays

#180

Post by smcleod »

tmsh wrote: post #177
smcleod wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

5k might be a different story, are you actually running it at 5120p with 2.0 scale? You can get that from running `system_profiler SPDisplaysDataType`, if you are running HiDPI with 5k that'd show something like Resolution: "10240 x 5760", UI Looks like "5120 x 2880"

Interesting yeah. Thanks for posting I see: system_profiler SPDisplaysDataType Graphics/Displays: Apple M4 Max: Chipset Model: Apple M4 Max Type: GPU Bus: Built-In Total Number of Cores: 40 Vendor: Apple (0x106b) Metal Support: Metal 4 Displays: LG UltraFine: Resolution: 4096 x 2304 UI Looks like: 2048 x 1152 @ 60.00Hz Main Display: Yes Mirror: Off Online: Yes Rotation: Supported Automatically Adjust Brightness: Yes…

It might be crisp but everything in the UI will be massive leaving you little space to work with.
Post reply on HN