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4K Display and Retina MacBook Pro 13"

Great to see the monitor working in both setups :) very nice, guys.

Now I'm intrigued about how SST vs MST might change the display ability. If Intel says the processors w/HD5100 can support 3 streams 3200x2000 @ 60Hz it seems that maybe jonisign is hitting the 52Hz limit because its a single stream. In theory you have 2 display streams remaining.

However if it was an MST monitor, would that essentially mean you'd be using 2 1920x2160 @ 60Hz streams, so 4k @ 60Hz would be possible and only 1 video stream would be remaining?
 
@kwijbo

Yep, I think the 52Hz limit is a single stream 4K limit for the 13-inch. However, over MST, 60Hz is definitely possible. In Windows you can run a 4K monitor over MST at 60Hz no problem-- I think that Intel's drivers may be a bit better for Windows. In OS X this doesn't seem to be enabled for the 13-inch?

That being said, I can get 60Hz 4K if I drive two streams over two different ports (one HDMI, one DisplayPort) on the UD590.
 
Here you are dude
 

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jonisign said:
@kwijbo

Yep, I think the 52Hz limit is a single stream 4K limit for the 13-inch. However, over MST, 60Hz is definitely possible. In Windows you can run a 4K monitor over MST at 60Hz no problem-- I think that Intel's drivers may be a bit better for Windows. In OS X this doesn't seem to be enabled for the 13-inch?

That being said, I can get 60Hz 4K if I drive two streams over two different ports (one HDMI, one DisplayPort) on the UD590.
Click to expand...

Thx! Good to know about the MST differences. Its funny that we're in a sort of inbetween place with the 13" in particular where the less elegant/temporary MST solution works while the more permanent SST solution just misses out on 60Hz. I'm curious as to how the Dell UP2414Q would work as it is MST.

Now just time to decide whether the i7 is worth it - it looks like you have the upgraded i5, any regrets vs the i7? Geekbench indicates the i7 only has about a 3.7% performance advantage so it seems like its probably imperceptible? With Broadwell's extra 20% EUs it'll probably handle SST no problem so maybe I should save the extra cost and get the i5 now and upgrade to an i7 in about 6 months.
 
kwijbo said:
With Broadwell's extra 20% EUs it'll probably handle SST no problem so maybe I should save the extra cost and get the i5 now and upgrade to an i7 in about 6 months.
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Sounds like the best option to me. I will buy the cheapest one and upgrade when next refresh comes out.
 
I want to take back what I said about trying this in Windows, I can't seem to get it to work over MST! It may be that other 4K monitors can do this.

As far as the processors, no regrets, the upgraded i5 is good for me! Now if only there were a quad-core 13-inch, THAT would be worth it. I think the base to the 2.6 ghz i5 is bigger upgrade... the graphics clock is apparently just a tad (100 mhz) faster.
 
I'm sorry if I shouldn't be posting in a thread that hasn't seen activity since June, but I've been reading it with interest; thinking of getting a 24" Dell 4K monitor next year and I was wondering if switchresX could do the same 3840x2160/52hz tweak with that as is being described here with the Samsung?
 
I'm sorry if I shouldn't be posting in a thread that hasn't seen activity since June, but I've been reading it with interest; thinking of getting a 24" Dell 4K monitor next year and I was wondering if switchresX could do the same 3840x2160/52hz tweak with that as is being described here with the Samsung?
Click to expand...

Hello,
I really can't think of any reason why it shouldn't work.
 
Going to be a bit off-topic, but I'm confused here. Is it not possible for the rMBP 13" to drive a 4K UHD display through its thunderbolt/DP connector at 60hz? I thought it should work without any issue.
 
lsquare said:
Going to be a bit off-topic, but I'm confused here. Is it not possible for the rMBP 13" to drive a 4K UHD display through its thunderbolt/DP connector at 60hz? I thought it should work without any issue.
Click to expand...

The Intel Iris (HD5100) graphics don't support 4K @ 60 Hz. Iris Pro (HD5200) is the only integrated GPU from Intel with MST support to drive 60 Hz 4K monitors.
 
Angriff said:
The Intel Iris (HD5100) graphics don't support 4K @ 60 Hz. Iris Pro (HD5200) is the only integrated GPU from Intel with MST support to drive 60 Hz 4K monitors.
Click to expand...

yjchua95 said:
Nope, because the Iris 5100 does not support it.

Only the Iris Pro 5200 supports 4K@60Hz.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the information guys! Seems a bit weird for the rMBP 13" to support 4K at up to 52hz. How does that work in practice with a 4K UHD 60hz display. I'm assuming 4K UHD 30p contents will play without any issues from the rMBP 13"?
 
I have a related and hopefully relevant question.

Will my mid-14 13" MacBook Pro retina drive a 4k monitor at 60hz if the monitor is set to operate at a lesser pixel density?

I ask because my macbook's display is natively operating at a resolution that is lower than it's maximum pixel density, and yet the fonts are sharp and perfect. I'm really only interested in the fonts.

Would a 4k monitor running at, say, 2560x1440, work with my macbook? And would the quality of the text be any better than the 2560x1440 NEC that I'm looking to buy?

Thanks!
 
lsquare said:
Thanks for the information guys! Seems a bit weird for the rMBP 13" to support 4K at up to 52hz. How does that work in practice with a 4K UHD 60hz display. I'm assuming 4K UHD 30p contents will play without any issues from the rMBP 13"?
Click to expand...

Yes it will play without any issues. 52Hz work great, the difference is not remarkable.

Malandra,
Yes it will work at 1440p. But it won't be any better than any decent 1440p monitor.
 
Well that makes sense, logically...but why, then, is the retina display on the rMBP so much better than a lesser pixeled display, even when not taking full advantage of its pixels?

Sorry for the noob questions:eek:
 
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malandra said:
Well that makes sense, logically...but why, then, is the retina display on the rMBP so much better than a lesser pixeled display, even when not taking full advantage of its pixels?

Sorry for the noob questions:eek:
Click to expand...

What do you mean by not taking full advantage of its pixels?
 
Ack. Maybe I'm wrong. But I thought I'd read here that the MBP display is set, out of the box, to operate at a lower resolution than the one that would match it's pixel count. And yet the fonts are immaculate, really very different from those on a MBA display...

Maybe someone can right me here...
 
malandra said:
Ack. Maybe I'm wrong. But I thought I'd read here that the MBP display is set, out of the box, to operate at a lower resolution than the one that would match it's pixel count. And yet the fonts are immaculate, really very different from those on a MBA display...

Maybe someone can right me here...
Click to expand...

You're one of the "retina-confused" guy.

It looks, in terms of space on the desktop, as if you had a lower-resolution display. But the retina process takes advantage of every single pixel on your display. Every pixel is kind of divided by 4.
So it looks as if you had 4x more details.
Here you are :

Normal display :
° °
° °

Retina :
xx xx
xx xx

xx xx
xx xx
 
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Thanks so much, that is a really great explanation. I guess 4k is going to have to wait a couple years, I don't want a 15" MBP...
 
IF you're mainly looking at text, you won't really notice any difference at 30 Hz other than cursor movement looking less smooth.
 
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