13” MBP & 5K Ultrafine display

[macman4789]

Hi,

I am considering the 2019 13” MBP with iris graphics and wondered if anyone had any experience with using the 5K LG Ultrafine screen and a recent 13” MBP say from 2016 onwards? Has anyone had any issues? Can it cope with using this and doing something like photo editing? General browsing/media consumption?

Many thanks

 

[lankox]

I have the top of the line 2018 13" (i7) with 655 iGPU. With no load on the processor, the only choppy animations that I see is with Launchpad. When at least one core is under load then all of the UI animations become somewhat choppy. The 13" can drive the LG 5k but it is not an optimal experience. I picked up a used blackmagic eGPU off of eBay to smooth everything out. It really does depend on how sensitive you are to these things.

 

[macman4789]

I have the top of the line 2018 13" (i7) with 655 iGPU. With no load on the processor, the only choppy animations that I see is with Launchpad. When at least one core is under load then all of the UI animations become somewhat choppy. The 13" can drive the LG 5k but it is not an optimal experience. I picked up a used blackmagic eGPU off of eBay to smooth everything out. It really does depend on how sensitive you are to these things.

Thank you for this reply. Would you say the eGPU made it near perfect or was it still a bit choppy? I’ve tried it with a 15” MBP and that seems fine but it obviously has a dedicated GPU.

Thanks

 

[lankox]

Everything is smooth with the eGPU. Of course, this adds to the expense and overall complexity of the setup.