2011 iMac 4k?

[Nyy8]

I'm hearing Apple slowly rolling out 4k over the last few months, I think starting in 2013 with 10.8.3 or something.

Anyways, could my 2011 iMac at this point run a 4k monitor and what limitations would I have? what is holding it back? Hardware or Software?

Thanks guys.

 

[rkaufmann87]

I'm hearing Apple slowly rolling out 4k over the last few months, I think starting in 2013 with 10.8.3 or something.

Anyways, could my 2011 iMac at this point run a 4k monitor? If not, what is holding it back? Hardware or Software?

Thanks guys.

It will support some 4K displays if you update to Mavericks 10.9.3. Here is one article that explains more about it:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT6008

 

[yjchua95]

It will support some 4K displays if you update to Mavericks 10.9.3. Here is one article that explains more about it:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT6008

4K only works on late-2013 rMBPs and nMPs, both with TB2. TB1 doesn't have enough bandwidth to drive a 4K display at 60 Hz.

 

[omvs]

You can easily do 3840x2160 at 30Hz - I'm doing it on both a 2011 iMac and a 2012 rMBP. For the iMac, you need an dp->HDMI adapter - passive might work, but I use a active adapter. I'm also using SwitchResX, though not sure if its required or not.


60Hz is trickier - it doesn't appear you can get displayport 1.2 signals out of a TB1 port, so I don't think there's a single-cable solution that will work.

I believe some displays support using 2 cables to drive at 1920x2160, so you could use both thunderbolt ports w/ TB->HDMI 1.4 adapters or hook displayport into both ports. However, I don't have such a display, and can't verify. You'd also need to make sure you had both thunderbolt ports open -- if you have a TB device that doesn't allow chaining, you lose a port.