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

Connecting a gaming PC to Apple Studio Display

justin.searls.co

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

261–270 of 322 posts

Re: Connecting a gaming PC to Apple Studio Display

#261

Post by na85 »

gumby wrote: post #239
na85 wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not only that but: >I ordered one the minute that they hit the store in the hope I would receive what I thought I had purchased in 2014 One would think that he'd think twice before dropping that much money on a peripheral. Or at least do some research first. That satirical video where the guy wishes Apple made books so he'd know what to think wasn't far off the mark.

You get two weeks to return anything you buy from apple, no questions asked. I see why they do it: I bought an apple watch 0 figuring I'd get an idea of what the fuss was about and then buy v3 when they got it figured out. Instead, within the first week, I turned around on my way to work because I hadn't put my watch on. OTOH I got an M1 ipad pro when it launched and ended up returning it and getting an air which was…

I guess, but it just seems like the height of disgusting consumerism to spend several thousand dollars on the off chance a monitor has $feature, while planning on returning it and doubling the carbon footprint via shipping, when you could instead just, you know, search the internet.

Re: Connecting a gaming PC to Apple Studio Display

#262

Post by 9935c101ab17a66 »

etempleton wrote: post #217

In the same way Apple has started to listen to users regarding their computer feature set they need to do the same for monitors, especially if they want to charge a premium. They make it hard to justify for anyone that uses a Mac + anything, which is honestly probably most people in the market for a $1,600 monitor. I have Mac, PC and gaming consoles at my desk. Do I buy a separate $1,600 monitor for my Mac and anothe…

1. Sure, it would be nice. But I don't think it's a big omission. 2. You can connect it, the author of the article updated it with the following information:

"If you just want to use the display and don’t care about the speakers, microphone, or USB-C ports, then by far the simplest solution is to just plug a high-bandwidth DisplayPort cable with a USB-C connector or adapter from your GPU to the Studio Display’s Thunderbolt port. No Thunderbolt cable is actually needed, as the display will happily handshake DisplayPort 1.4 alt mode when connected with a high-bandwidth cable."

So, number two is solveD?

3. I think this is a kind of cool idea, but totally unnecessary. It's a 'studio display', I like that it's focused on being one specific thing.

4.I'm 99% sure that 120hz is not possible. Another commenter posted this math:

"Does it use Display Stream Compression or something? Raw 5120x1440 x 240 fps x 8 bits x 3 colors = 39.55 Gbits/sec. DP1.4 has a maximum data rate of 25.92 Gbits/sec. DP2.0 on the other hand does 77.37 Gbits/sec.”

Also, the only other widely available 27" 5k monitor is the LG ultrafine, which is just a few hundred dollars cheaper. With the studio display, you get much better product design, a newer panel, really good speakers, a really good webcam, and better connectivity.

In CAD, the studio display is $1999, the ultrafine 5k is 1749$. If you don't think this is a 'serious' response to people who have been asking for a '5k imac without the imac' display, I don't know what to tell you.

Re: Connecting a gaming PC to Apple Studio Display

#263

Post by radicality »

brigade wrote: post #199
cehrlich wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple's $5000+ Pro Display XDR uses DSC when you plug stuff into the rear USB ports, so I think it would be fine to use it on the Studio Display also.

Even without anything plugged in, or any other displays downstream of the host thunderbolt port, XDR will preferentially negotiate one HBR2+DSC stream if the host supports it. (17.28gbps) Which yes, means that a hypothetical 6k120 could be done at the same compression level as current 6k60 by using both HBR2 streams that a Thunderbolt 4 host port is required to support.

Hey, would you have some details/info on how I can figure out what exactly my XDR is ‘doing’ (find its connection type like you explained, and pixel depth that the graphics card is outputting - 8 bit vs 10 bit).

I have the M1 Max 14”, and also bought the XDR around a month ago for the extra 6k screen real estate. One thing I noticed is that I can’t figure out what pixel depth it’s running at on my M1 (intel shows 30 bit framebuffer in System Report, M1 shows nothing). SwitchResX software is reporting that it’s running in “Millions of Colors” (8 bit), but I’m not sure if that’s true. The same setup is reporting Billions of Colors on an intel MacBook.

It overall seems to be there’s things missing for the XDR M1 interactions :S

Re: Connecting a gaming PC to Apple Studio Display

#264

Post by technobabbler »

function_seven wrote: post #156
fckgw wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would Apple add a connector that none of their computers use?

So people like me would consider buying it. I have a Mac. I also have a work-issued PC. I have both machines connected to the same displays, and switch between them. DisplayPort isn't some obsolete technology here. I understand why this display doesn't have HDMI, or DVI, or VGA, or Composite, or S-Video, etc. But DisplayPort would be nice.

I don't think Apple really wants you to buy their monitor for use on a PC. It's just a support headache, between the cables and graphics cards and refresh rates and gamma and such.

Everything on the product page suggests it was only designed for Mac: https://www.apple.com/studio-display/

That it happens to work on a PC at all is, I guess, an unintentional side effect that they'd rather not even acknowledge. You can try it unsupported but it's not their problem...

They've never been good at supporting standards not invented there. Hell, ever tried to use a Magic Mouse with a PC? Everything about it feels completely off. Part of me wonders if subtle incompatibilities, where hardware works 80% of the way, is maybe even part of their deliberate strategy to introduce small headaches to the PC experience to frustrate you into switching.

(Of course OSX has its own share of frustrations too, but nothing like using PC hardware on a Mac or vice versa).

Re: Connecting a gaming PC to Apple Studio Display

#265

Post by technobabbler »

gumby wrote: post #172
function_seven wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So people like me would consider buying it. I have a Mac. I also have a work-issued PC. I have both machines connected to the same displays, and switch between them. DisplayPort isn't some obsolete technology here. I understand why this display doesn't have HDMI, or DVI, or VGA, or Composite, or S-Video, etc. But DisplayPort would be nice.

> DisplayPort isn't some obsolete technology here...DisplayPort would be nice. Type C is one of the standard interfaces for the Displayport standard, and Displayport is the standard video transport on a thunderbolt cable.

...so, wait, DisplayPort is really more like DisplayProtocol, but there's also a physical port called DisplayPort? :(

Re: Connecting a gaming PC to Apple Studio Display

#266

Post by dbttdft »

oneplane wrote: post #241
LimaBearz wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Flip it. If I buy a monitor why can't I plug it into any computer I want? Same thing no? They all follow interoperability standards that have been around decades and that customers have come to expect as normal. Vendor lockin here isn't an "innovation" customers want

It's only vendor lock-in if you see this as 'yet another monitor', which it is not. Yes, it is made of mostly the same technologies, but it's neither marketed as nor specified for PC-use. The thing is that it's not about what you think the product should be, because the product won't morph itself into your desire. Just because there are 100 variations of the same monitor out there are all behave nearly the same (And…

Pretend there is meaningful market segmentation here all you want. At the end of the day all one has to do is plug in the DP cable and it will work as a regular monitor, and this probably bypasses some of the input lag of the built in OS.

Re: Connecting a gaming PC to Apple Studio Display

#267

Post by snapcore »

gumby wrote: post #92

He purchased a TB monitor to plug into a device that doesn't support TB and says "it shouldn't be this hard". Commenters complain that it's 60 Hz but I don't know of an external interconnect that could drive that many pixels any faster. HN is weird sometimes. (I don't plan to buy this monitor either, but not for the reasons above. The LG 5K monitors are perfectly adequate for my needs. And like the post's author I wa…

To be fair, in the past when going from DVI, Display Port, VGA, HDMI, etc. to other standards, you could just buy a simple cable. Video card manufacturers would even provide convertors in the box. So it makes sense that people may have expectations for simplicity based on their prior experiences.

Re: Connecting a gaming PC to Apple Studio Display

#268

Post by jolux »

noahtallen wrote: post #248
jolux wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thunderbolt 4 is a standard interface, and it supports DisplayPort 1.4 as well as 2.0.

That’s a good point — what I meant was that the DP connector found on graphics cards is pretty common (“standard”), so should be included. As a frame of reference, a similarly priced monitor I have has 2x HDMI, DisplayPort, thunderbolt 3, and a few USB A ports if you use it as a thunderbolt hub. And it’s a 144hz ultrawide with HDR support. And while I acknowledge that Apple made a trade off for pixel density, they we…

> the DP connector found on graphics cards is pretty common (“standard”)

So are D-sub connectors and HDMI. Should it have those as well? What about S-Video? Composite?

> they weren’t forced to make tradeoffs for other features that are common on high end monitors

They don't sell any products with DisplayPort connectors, nor do I think they've ever done so (certainly not recently). Selling a product with that connector is a commitment on some level to supporting what people plug into it, and as demonstrated by the OP, PCs are not really supported. It's also more engineering effort, but that's probably marginal.

This is a standard connector with cheap cables that adapt it to legacy devices using the DP alternate mode of USB-C. Apple are known for getting rid of legacy connectors. USB-C is a superior technology, it's only a matter of time before it's used for everything, and I appreciate Apple's efforts to hasten that day.

Re: Connecting a gaming PC to Apple Studio Display

#269

Post by filmgirlcw »

saysjonathan wrote: post #226
filmgirlcw wrote: post #158

I appreciated this post because I bought an Apple Studio Display to replace my LG 5K UltraFine that I should get in a few weeks (VESA option took longer to ship) and I was curious how much easier/harder it would be when using Windows. I'm primarily a Mac user but like the author, would like to use my external monitor with all of my devices if possible. I built an AMD gaming rig last year with a motherboard with a TB3…

I actually did the exact same thing. Went with the ProArt B550 and didn’t consider that the LG 5k requires two video connections to the graphics card. This[0] eventually helped me realize my mistake. Currently running in 4k and it’s fine. At least camera, speakers, and hub work. 0: http://johnwilger.com/2019/01/27/lg-utlrafine-on-linux-gnome...

Good to know even the ProArt B550 has the same issue (I have the B550 Vision D-P) because I was half-considering swapping for the ProArt B550 (which would ruin the white aesthetic I'm going for, but fine), but if it doesn’t have two DP inputs, that’s a no go. It’s possible the DP 1.4 on the Studio Display would be enough to provide bandwidth on the TB4 connector, but I'll have to wait for others to try it first in the hackintosh forums or elsewhere.

Re: Connecting a gaming PC to Apple Studio Display

#270

Post by tallytarik »

Had a similarly frustrating experience trying to connect a new gaming PC to a LG Ultrafine 4K.

The all-USB C aspect of the monitor was fine when I only used it with my Macbook, but made it terribly painful to use with anything else.

In the end I found a HDMI to USB C dongle which worked, also included a plain USB 2.0 cable for audio.

Apparently I was ‘lucky’ to have the 4K rather than 5K, because, from my research at the time, nobody knew of any dongles or cables that would support the latter at full resolution (I think this is the same issue as in your article)

Post reply on HN