4K and 5K Display Buyer's Guide for Macs

Really hoping the new Skylake 12" MacBooks can support a single 4K monitor at 60Hz. May be time to finally replace my 2008 aluminum MacBook.

 

Check out the manual, in the "Operating the Monitor" Section for clarification - SST for these displays gets you up to 60Hz, MST for these displays (in either Primary or Secondary Mode) gets you 30Hz. I tried MST, never could get a faster response than 30Hz, so I use both ports on my rMBP. 30Hz is great for spreadsheets and relatively static work, but I can get 60Hz so I use it.

We have a couple of other MST-capable displays here in the office that can refresh up to 60Hz, but not my P-model Dells.

 

Happily I have 60Hz using MST on my UP2414Q using DisplayPort on my late 2015 rMBP.

 

Cool, must be related to the creaky older PCs and Macs we're using. I checked on my office units and manuals (Page 34 of our P2715Q manual, haven't checked the P2415Q manual), still not seeing more than 30Hz. No worries, tho' - we have what we want that's all that matters...

 

Still out of my price range, but I can't wait to have a 4K or 8K monitor.

 

Nice summary, thanks for putting together! Just to confirm one thing (naming conventions still sometimes confuse me);

That's one Ultra HD (3840 x 2160) at 30Hz or one 'True' 4K (4096 x 2160) at 24Hz right?

What's the max res HDMI 1.4 can drive at 60Hz? Or to put it another way what's the best display to get for a MacBook?

 

I have a Mid 2011 Mac Mini which has the Thunderbolt port. If I understand this article correctly, I can't use even the lowest 4K or Ultra HD monitor? Am I stuck paying $999 for an obviously out of date Mac Monitor?

Is anyone out there using a Ultra HD monitor with a Mid 2011 Mac Mini?

I just added a SSD and have 16GB of RAM and the Mini runs great! My bottle neck is the monitor. I hate to think I can't squeeze one more year out of this machine. I just need a monitor thats color accurate, for desktop publishing and web graphics, not gaming.

--- Post Merged, Jan 19, 2016 ---

I have a Mid 2011 Mac Mini which has the Thunderbolt port. If I understand this article correctly, I can't use even the lowest 4K or Ultra HD monitor? Am I stuck paying $999 for an obviously out of date Mac Monitor?

Is anyone out there using a Ultra HD monitor with a Mid 2011 Mac Mini?

I just added a SSD and have 16GB of RAM and the Mini runs great! My bottle neck is the monitor. I hate to think I can't squeeze one more year out of this machine. I just need a monitor thats color accurate, for desktop publishing and web graphics, not gaming.

 

It's 4k, not 5k, so there is a difference in text size. If it were any smaller, I would have trouble reading. When reading articles, I often use the "Reader View" in Safari, and it keeps my eyes from straining.

I believe the monitor supports both MST and SST, but in my case, uses SST, so there haven't been any problems. It is surprisingly smooth with zero lag.

 

I'm always surprised to read comments like this about text size. Surely the point of a 4K or 5K monitor is to run it in a scaled resolution so that each UI element (and text) is made up of more pixels than you'd get natively giving you a sharper display? If you run the 4K or 5K monitor in its native resolution then you're getting no obvious benefit (just a headache from trying to read tiny text). If you need more desktop space, you'd be better off with an ultra widescreen display or run two or three "normal" screens side by side.

There will be exceptions to this, where someone needs to run a single 4K or 5K screen in its native resolution, however I'd suggest that these cases are very much the exception (and extremely rare).

I'm running a true 4K monitor (4096 x 2160) but the "resolution" in OS X is 2560 x 1350 so text, in particular, is sharp and easy on the eyes. And from where I'm sitting (well standing, actually) that's the whole point.

 

Just ordering a Dell P2715Q. I have a late 2013 i7 rMBP with the nVidia GeForce GT 750M 2048MB Graphic. I presume I will be able to run the Dell at 60Hz with that and run my current Thunderbolt display too.

 

What do you think about this...

Facts
- Thunderbolt 3 supports only Displayport 1.2
- 5k resolution at 60Hz only possible with Multi Stream Transport, which is not an "apple like" solution
- Single Stream Transport will be possible with Thunderbolt 4 but it's still far far away..

Solution ?!
- Apple sends the data from the mac to the 5k display through thunderbolt protocol and embeds an eGPU to the display, which transforms the stream with Displayport 1.3 (supported by next gen gpus) to an SST image.

 

I have late 2013 rMBP with p2415Q which worked straight out of the box. I have two reservations though: 1) Dell cable is somewhat flimsy and does not like to be touched. 2) Notebook gets a bit hotter when you use external display.

Since P2715Q is essentially just bigger screen, you should be fine. I am also thinking this model should be capable of running two displays of this kind. If anyone can comment, that would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

 

Interesting perspective. I still use my old Dell UltraSharp U2713H. I also like may others had sleep issues from my rMBP using TB. This rarely occurs on my imac in el Capitan, to the point i forgt it was an issue in the past. One trick i noted that worked for me, was to force sleep, wait a few secs, and then try to log in again. I virtually never needed to hard reset to wake the screen, unless things were dire and i needed an NVRAM/SMC reset.

As for

this sounds awful and frankly unacceptable. I have found dell in the UK to be very good, c.f PC World, Dixons, Currys. If your monitor is still under warranty and they refuse to honor it, did you use a credit card for payment. AMEX is awesome in this regards, unrivalled consumer protection and customer services.
Maybe you can write to dell and state you will dispute the transaction or as your CC for advice, this will depend on you local consumer laws.

 

I have a late 2015 iMac 5k and just bought the Dell 24" 4k (P2415Q) to use as a secondary monitor. Unfortunately, the Dell looks terrible next to the iMac. The whites are more gray/yellow and it just doesn't look nearly as nice. Since the reviews for the Dell have been great, I am wondering if there's something wrong with it or if there's something special I need to do. I've checked various settings and such and everything appears to be set correctly.

Has anyone used this Dell monitor with the iMac 5k and have different results?

 

I also have a 5k iMAC..it's awfully good..I'm waiting for a good 5k/8k 30"+ monitor to come out so I can get a macpro but there's nothing out there yet...come on Apple..give us a new 5k/8k Cinema display LG or otherwise

 

REGARDING THIS STATEMENT:

"The Mid 2015 15" MacBook Pro with AMD Radeon R9 M370X graphics can also drive one 5K display connected with two Thunderbolt cables."

Just to clarify that this setup would only support MST mode, correct?

Sam

 

I just got issued a 31.5" Dell U3216Q and I have to say that the functionality is better through HDMI than Thunderbolt/Displayport, but after those slight issues it's a dream. I don't believe I will ever use anything less for a long time coming.

 

Just reporting in with a Late 2013 MacBook Pro + 750M 2GB graphics. I have two Dell P2715Qs connected at 3840x2160 60hz with no issues and fairly fast performance / low CPU load, although there's a noticeable draw on the GPU when editing in Premiere (Just a general feeling of "damn, this thing is trying) The monitors won't daisy chain, and enabling MST mode in either primary or secondary results in them being capped at 30hz. Both monitors in SST using their own thunderbolt port gets both of them up to 60hz and retains use of the built-in retina display. Only downside is that I now have zero thunderbolt ports for hard drives -_-

 

I do not have the 5k iMac but from what I've read and seen the P2415Q should have really good color profiles and contrast. Didn't it come with the paperwork stating this? So maybe your factory calibration wasn't up to snuff.

 

Interestingly i'm having this exact same problem - along with a lot of of other people. Im running a PB279Q i've found that if i have any other device plugged into the thunderbolt ports the screen won't wake from sleep - but i have to shut down the system to make it come back up. However if i unplug all other devices plugged into the bus it works perfectly. I only run a LACIE 2Big which seems to take power from the system. Haven't tested any other deliver plugged in to thunderbolt wonder if anyone can test my theory.

 

I would like to add that the Macbook Pro 15" (late 2013) with dual graphics + Dell UP2715k works fine, at full 5K resolution.

Neither Dell nor Apple officially acknowledge this, but it works. I have been using this configuration for months with no problems. I just connect two Mini Displayport cables into the Macbook's two Thunderbolt ports, and set the monitor to 5K mode. The framerates with scrolling and OSX animations are a little choppy, but everything else is fine (including HD videos).

As a side note, I also tested this 5K monitor with the 2015 Macbook Pro with dual graphics, and that configuration also exhibited a little choppiness with scrolling and OSX animations, but it was a little bit smoother than with the 2013 Macbook Pro 15" with dual graphics.

 

I can vouch for that. A little not very scientific experiment I did was to measure my rMBP 2013 Geekbench score when P2415Q is attached with standard vs Accel DP 1.2 cable. When using Dell cabe, the score drops about 1000 points (from about 12000 when nothing attached to less than 11000). Accel cable has less impact, I noticed a drop of about 400 points. So yes, $10 can make a difference...

 

I know that's the official line, but I'm using 2 4K (3840x2160 at 60Hz) Monitors on my 2014 Retina iMac with the 4Gig 295X card.

 

No luck on my Mac Pro 5,1 R9 280X on Mavericks on a brand new 2016/2017 55" Samsung 4K KS9500 series TV. 30Hz only.

http://club-3d.com/index.php/produc...layport-12-to-hdmi-20-uhd-active-adapter.html

 

Is there any new 4k monitor worth a mention?