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5K2K at 120Hz with Mac Mini M4
- Thread starter Newgoblin49
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Missed DSC. I have a Windows laptop and use the TB cable to get 5K2K at 120 Hz. DSC is needed by the Dell U4025QW to get 120 Hz.8.1 GBPS 4-Lane DSC
@maksakal, do you get the same with the TB cable?
I haven't received the DP to TB4 cable. It's going to be delivered tomorrow. Currently, I'm using TB to TB cable which shows 40gbps
It it shows 40 Gbps and not 8.1 Gbps 4-Lane DSC, then some issue with the cable. I have a Caldigit TB cable and with that I get 8.1 Gbps 4-Lane DSC.
You can try a better TB cable for a single cable solution.
I have two cables. First one from LG which came with the monitor and the second one is Amazon Basics. They both provide 40gbps but they both don't provide 3840x1620 HiDPI on Mac Mini M4.
Note: Both cable provide 3840x1620 HiDPI on my MacBook Pro M1.
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Got you, which monitor do you have again ?
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I received the HDMI 2.1 cable and the DP to TB cable. Here's what I've observed:
The Display Resolution screenshots shared on the forum might be misleading, as they don’t always reflect the actual behavior. I assume that the M4 Mini may not fully support HiDPI, despite what Apple’s specifications say. Please refer to the screenshot showing the Resolution Settings, System Report, and RDM.
These are my observations. I’m not planning to pursue this issue further. If I can achieve HiDPI with the MacBook Pro M1 using the same setup, I would expect the same result with the Mac Mini M4, but that’s not the case here. Thanks to everyone for your responses and assistance.
- DP to Thunderbolt: The system detects all available resolutions, but 3840x1620 HiDPI is not supported.
- HDMI 2.1: When connected to the LG CX Oled TV via the HDMI 2.1 port, I can get the full 120Hz refresh rate, but the desired HiDPI still isn't available.
The Display Resolution screenshots shared on the forum might be misleading, as they don’t always reflect the actual behavior. I assume that the M4 Mini may not fully support HiDPI, despite what Apple’s specifications say. Please refer to the screenshot showing the Resolution Settings, System Report, and RDM.
These are my observations. I’m not planning to pursue this issue further. If I can achieve HiDPI with the MacBook Pro M1 using the same setup, I would expect the same result with the Mac Mini M4, but that’s not the case here. Thanks to everyone for your responses and assistance.
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I was hoping to use a base M4 mini with my LG 34WK95U-W, too. I was able to use BetterDisplay's virtual screen scaling feature to get 3840x1620 HiDPI with my M1 Air, but it made the mac run hot.
The monitor is a bit odd, being released in 2018. The HDMI ports only support 4K max, and the TB port does not support USB-C DP cables (only true Thunderbolt). I wonder if this plays into the issue.
In any case, it sounds like getting the base M4 mini working isn't worth the headache. Thanks for saving me some trouble.
Thank you so much for reporting back on your findings @maksakal , This is very disappointing to say the least.
Here you go, if it helps
If you don't mind, can you share the System information -> Graphics/Displays screenshot while you have the 3840x1620 resolution selected? This will show us whether you're using HiDPI mode or not. I just want to rule out the possibility that the issue might be related to the monitor. Thanks!
I'm just thinking out loud here but do you think the Apple Thunderbolt 4 cable would work ?
I doubt very many have that cable to test it out
The HDMI 2.1 and DP cables haven't made a difference with different monitors, so I don't think the cables are the problem. As I mentioned before, the MacBook Pro M1 works fine with these cables, as well as other 2TB cables, and supports 3840x1620 HiDPI. My conclusion is that the Mac Mini M4 base simply doesn't support resolutions above 6K. I might be wrong, but we will see once more people chime in and share their experiences.
Hi all, thanks for your work on this. Please consider submitting feedback to Apple about this issue at feedbackassistant.apple.com
You can mention the ticket I already opened, FB15750642. If enough people complain maybe Apple will do something.
The M4 mini can go higher than 6k, it's confirmed to support 8k output, however HiDPI appears to be blocked for certain resolutions, including native 4k and 5k2k. There is some discussion over in this thread with the Better Display dev.
I think Apple does this to drive sales of Studio Displays. I will hang on to my Mini through the holiday return window, if no updates by then I'll return it
You can mention the ticket I already opened, FB15750642. If enough people complain maybe Apple will do something.
The M4 mini can go higher than 6k, it's confirmed to support 8k output, however HiDPI appears to be blocked for certain resolutions, including native 4k and 5k2k. There is some discussion over in this thread with the Better Display dev.
I think Apple does this to drive sales of Studio Displays. I will hang on to my Mini through the holiday return window, if no updates by then I'll return it
Thanks for sharing the link to the discussion. We can all agree that there's a limitation with HiDPI above certain resolutions. Hopefully, Apple will remove it before the return window closes.Hi all, thanks for your work on this. Please consider submitting feedback to Apple about this issue at feedbackassistant.apple.com
You can mention the ticket I already opened, FB15750642. If enough people complain maybe Apple will do something.
The M4 mini can go higher than 6k, it's confirmed to support 8k output, however HiDPI appears to be blocked for certain resolutions, including native 4k and 5k2k. There is some discussion over in this thread with the Better Display dev.
I think Apple does this to drive sales of Studio Displays. I will hang on to my Mini through the holiday return window, if no updates by then I'll return it
@dinosauradventure - I don't think this is in any way malicious on Apple's part, more like a kind of simplified approach to things. The M4 mini seems to behave the way older Macs did, except when certain ultrawide, 6K or 8K displays are connected - in which case (to comply with specs) the logic that populates display modes probably goes to a different path. Since this behavior is ok for most users and fulfills the advertised capabilities, it's probably fine by their standards, especially for an initial rollout. Apple engineers might feel that it does not make sense to have HiDPI resolutions available beyond a certain scale and certainly not at a native resolution level (which produces only a 2x supersampling), despite the fact that some users want this feature. Hopefully this will be tweaked in the future.
Based on some reports even on M4 Pro and even with the Studio display there are annoying limitations (no 3840px HiDPI there as well) - which would not make sense if their goal was to drive sales to that display.
Also, there might be other factors there, like a balancing act - if the system thinks a display would not benefit much from some higher resolution options, it just does not provide that in case an other display is connected later on which needed that resource. This is because these Macs support different resolutions and refresh rates depending on the number and type of displays connected (see the specs - it can do 3x6K or 1x8K+1x6K). Obviously the system does not know the user's intent in advance about what kind of displays will be connected later on - so it is trying to be as economical as possible (since if 8K resources are granted to a connection, the user can later on connect 1 less external display).
Based on some reports even on M4 Pro and even with the Studio display there are annoying limitations (no 3840px HiDPI there as well) - which would not make sense if their goal was to drive sales to that display.
Also, there might be other factors there, like a balancing act - if the system thinks a display would not benefit much from some higher resolution options, it just does not provide that in case an other display is connected later on which needed that resource. This is because these Macs support different resolutions and refresh rates depending on the number and type of displays connected (see the specs - it can do 3x6K or 1x8K+1x6K). Obviously the system does not know the user's intent in advance about what kind of displays will be connected later on - so it is trying to be as economical as possible (since if 8K resources are granted to a connection, the user can later on connect 1 less external display).
This thread was posted on Reddit today, with a link to a writeup on HiDPI scaling on macOS. Not sure if it is of interest to anyone here.
Hey everyone,
I have to admit that I just registered here to chime in since I have a Dell U4025QW on order and currently own a Macbook Air M3 which is apparently not capable of scaling to 3840x1620 HiDPI.
However, @maksakal: What I do not completely understand about your posts is that you say you own a 34 inch 5k2k LG monitor. The screenshots above (in your reply that I quoted) however show that you tried the connection to the mentioned 4K OLED TV by LG.
That TV cannot at any point give you a HiDPI scaling of 3840x1620 as this is a scaling for 5k2k and not for 4k. You receive the correct scaling as shown in your screenshot with 3008x1692.
Thus I am just wondering if I am making a mistake here or we are all just confused now.
If you also compare the product page for the Macbook Pro M4/M4 Pro, there is no differentiation anymore between the base and pro model for the external displays. Thus I am quite sure that the base M4 in any case will be able to scale 5k2k to 3840x1620 HiDPI. Just not on a 4k native display, but on a 5k2k (5120x2160) display (like the Dell U4025QW)
I mentioned 3840x1620 in DP to TB part which was 5k2k monitor. Anyways, let's summarize the issue. Looks like currently M4 can't go above 3072 HiDPI and looks like it's a software limitation. You can follow this thread as it was shared by @dinosauradventure.
@MxDaviD already posted a screenshot of his M4 outputting 3840x1620. It's confirmed to be HiDPI as the screenshot image size is 7680x3240. I downloaded the screenshot, and looked at the info:
David is using a UGREEN 8K DisplayPort - USB C cable with his Dell U4025QW.
Thank you for clarification. I didn't check the size of the screenshot. I used a different brand DP cable and didn't work for me. I'll try UGREEN.
Would Tb4 be the best option since technically it should have the highest bandwidth of them all ?