Using your MacBook with the new LG UltraFine 4K display (USB-C)

[ahostmadsen]

I imagine it'll work well at 1080p @2x (default "retina" scaling), but it looks so goofy to have 1080p on a 27" screen. When you scale it to look like 1440p, performance may start to suffer.

Good luck!

Now I got both the HP Envy 27" and the LG 4K Ultrafine, and I must agree. On the HP Envy 27" at 1080p @2x everything looks ridiculously big. It also doesn't look as sharp as on the LG display, probably because it's fewer pixels blown up to a bigger display. The 27" display has the advantage though that you can show a group of people things on the screen. For the LG display you have to have it right in front of your nose, like a laptop display.

Sigh. Having both displays to try hasn't made the decision easier.

 

[andy9l]

Now I got both the HP Envy 27" and the LG 4K Ultrafine, and I must agree. On the HP Envy 27" at 1080p @2x everything looks ridiculously big. It also doesn't look as sharp as on the LG display, probably because it's fewer pixels blown up to a bigger display. The 27" display has the advantage though that you can show a group of people things on the screen. For the LG display you have to have it right in front of your nose, like a laptop display.

Sigh. Having both displays to try hasn't made the decision easier.

Try the Envy scaled to look like 2560x1440. It's the first 'more space' option in Display preferences.

Not as sharp, no, but likely sharp enough depending how far back you sit.

 

[ahostmadsen]

Try the Envy scaled to look like 2560x1440. It's the first 'more space' option in Display preferences.

Not as sharp, no, but likely sharp enough depending how far back you sit.

Not sure if the MacBook (2015, 1.2 GHz) can handle it well.

 

[bill-p]

Yeah, I find the 2016 M7 model to struggle slightly at 2560 x 1440 scaled. Don't think the 2015 can do any better.

But you can try 2304 x 1296 or 2048 x 1152, too.

And additionally, if you find performance is still not up to par, you can try disabling transparency effects in Accessibility settings. That does help me, and I run 2048 x 1152 scaled daily. It's just about the right size for the 27" display. Things don't look massive, but they don't look too tiny either. I sit a fair distance away (around 4-5 feet) from the screen so having big fonts help.

 

[ahostmadsen]

Well, I tried 2560 x 1440 and I don't really see any sign of it 'affecting performance.' UI animations are not smooth, but that seems to be case also for 1080p. Scrolling in Safari and MS Word seems about the same. Where exactly do you see it struggle?

The only disadvantage is that text is no longer as ultra-sharp as at 1080p. Slightly fuzzy.

 

[bill-p]

Well, I'm used to everything running smoothly, so any small sign of it is pretty obvious. At a minimum, I want the experience between just running the internal display versus driving an external display to be about the same.

The 2015 MacBook I had before was also much more stuttery/laggy compared to my current 2016, though, so I guess that explains the discrepancy.

Right now, the only thing that suffers is when Safari goes full screen with its videos, or when I run Google Chrome.

 

[ahostmadsen]

Well, I'm used to everything running smoothly, so any small sign of it is pretty obvious. At a minimum, I want the experience between just running the internal display versus driving an external display to be about the same.

The 2015 MacBook I had before was also much more stuttery/laggy compared to my current 2016, though, so I guess that explains the discrepancy.

Right now, the only thing that suffers is when Safari goes full screen with its videos, or when I run Google Chrome.

Well, with my 2015 rMB, it seems any external display slows down things, even my old 1920x1200 display. For example, the mission control animation where windows shrink is basically not there. One moment the windows are normal size, the next they are shrunk. Only on the built-in display do they work (and there is a point to the animation: to see where the front window went). But it doesn't seem to be worse with a 4K display at 1440p.

 

[bill-p]

Yeah, I know how it was, I did just push that computer away. For driving an external display, I think the 2016 model does a much better job than the 2015 model.

Mission Control animation is definitely visible on the 2016 even at 2560 x 1440, Lightroom is more responsive, especially in the Develop module, I can play some games at 1080p, even. In fact, I'm running Lightroom alongside Linux in VirtualBox and watching a 1440p video in the background right now. All animations still seem to work decently at 2048 x 1152. In fact, 1920 x 1080 scaled would make it pretty much on par with my 15" MacBook running its internal display.

If anything, I think that's one thing you can look forward to when you upgrade your 2015.

 

[andy9l]

My performance 'issues' with my 2015 are purely the result of me trying to use my rMB for more than it was originally intended for - whilst also connecting a 4K display.

The day I decided my rMB could not continue be my main Mac was one productive Saturday. I was steaming iTunes via AirPlay to my TV (decent speakers connected), editing GoPro clips in iMovie and running the usual browser tabs/mail/iMessage. All of that on a 4K display with 1440p scaling. You could have fried an egg on the bottom of my rMB! When moving the cursor over clips in iMovie, it would stutter horribly, even the music stream. I could just feel the stress and struggles.

I completely accept this and will upgrade to a Pro, as they're more suitable for me today. As I've said in this thread, my rMB remains to be my favourite Apple purchase.

These rMBs were never made to run external monitors in this way, especially not scaled 4K ones. Apple always marketed them as wireless ultra-portables for simple tasks on-the-go. They promoted iCloud syncing to transfer to your 'main' Mac.

People like us have just about been getting away with these lovely little machines being our main Mac. For use with 4K screens, though, you're best off with the Pro range.

 

[ahostmadsen]

My performance 'issues' with my 2015 are purely the result of me trying to use my rMB for more than it was originally intended for - whilst also connecting a 4K display.

The day I decided my rMB could not continue be my main Mac was one productive Saturday. I was steaming iTunes via AirPlay to my TV (decent speakers connected), editing GoPro clips in iMovie and running the usual browser tabs/mail/iMessage. All of that on a 4K display with 1440p scaling. You could have fried an egg on the bottom of my rMB! When moving the cursor over clips in iMovie, it would stutter horribly, even the music stream. I could just feel the stress and struggles.

I completely accept this and will upgrade to a Pro, as they're more suitable for me today. As I've said in this thread, my rMB remains to be my favourite Apple purchase.

These rMBs were never made to run external monitors in this way, especially not scaled 4K ones. Apple always marketed them as wireless ultra-portables for simple tasks on-the-go. They promoted iCloud syncing to transfer to your 'main' Mac.

People like us have just about been getting away with these lovely little machines being our main Mac. For use with 4K screens, though, you're best off with the Pro range.

As for me I bought the rMB because I had a 27" iMac for my main computer. But the iMac broke at the end of last year, and instead of buying the current long-in-the-tooth iMac, I decided to just use my rMB while waiting for an updated iMac. As it seems to be not soon forthcoming, I decided to at least buy a bigger screen for my rMB (working on a 12" screen is quite limiting).

 

[ahostmadsen]

I made my decision between the LG Ultrafine 4K display and the HP Envy 27", after trying both for a few days. I used the Ultrafine at 2X (i.e., 1080p, or, more exact, 1152p) and the HP Envy scaled at 1440p. The decision was not easy: the LG Ultrafine is just ultrasharp, a pleasure to look at, but the HP at 1440p just has much more real estate, with the tradeoff that the characters are slightly fuzzy. In terms of performance (e.g., lag), I didn't see any difference, although Apple warns that 1440p might see performance degradation. None of them are that smooth with my 2015 rMB, but they are equally bad. So, sharpness versus real estate. In the end real estate won out, and I choose the HP Envy 27".

One more thing that discouraged me from the LG Ultrafine: the display wobbles like hell when I type. I read several reviews complaining about that, so that's the design. The HP also wobbles, but so little at to be unnoticeable. I final note is that the HP Envy has no USB output ports, and probably cannot be connected through a USB-C hub. So, when you connect it, that's it, nothing else can be connected.

 

[iMi]

Read with interest and today ordered the Lenovo ThinkVision X1. I think it has the best features for the money and with the $511.79 shipped price tag just too good to pass up. The only downside is the ship date as they are 4-5 weeks out as of today. I don't know how the standalone 27 HP Envy display looks in person, but I can say that it was extremely reflective (like a mirror) on the 27 Envy AIO machine. Plus it was a touch screen on the computer and that made a huge difference in image quality. I just couldn't get used to it.

Decided to go with the Surface/Macbook + Display option for now and will probably build a custom PC to handle more gaming and other heavy duty tasks. All will run from the single Lenovo display. We'll see how it goes.