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Apple Said to Be Working on Lower-Priced External Monitor to Succeed Thunderbolt Display
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How did you connect it to your MacPro using 2 ports? Can you paste a link to the adapter?
The LG UltraFine 4K/5K both use identical panels to the 24" and 27" iMacs; which also happen to have significantly better displays than the old Cinema Display...
Two of these....
apple Thunderbolt 3 to thunderbolt adapter.
I bought the 4K and it worked with the two adapters plugged into the 4K monitor. This is the LG 4K updated monitor that came out a year or two ago (not the first 4K ultra fine sold at apple). Has now two USB-C ports instead of one. Did not like it.
I returned it because I needed a bigger monitor and also did not want any glossy screen (monitor has a little glossy mirror) so instead bought a LG 27UL850-W for Mac Pro 2013. Used one USB-C to thunderbolt 2 adapter instead to a thunderbolt 2 port. I went eventually to HDMI hookup and worked fine. Saved $250 instead of going with the apple version and the LG 27UL850-W monitor is to me better, including non-glossy screen.
Replaced my much loved Apple Thunderbolt monitor due to too much reflection from lighting and my aging eyes got tired of two much glare from lights (saw myself like a mirror using the monitor).
That is the adapter I bought but it didn't work, so I sent it back. How did you get it to work? How did you get the two thunderbolt ports to go into one USB-C port? I am really confused now. Can you post pics of your set up?
While connecting a TB2 device to a TB3 port is a thing (with the Apple adapter and others), is connecting a TB3 device to a TB2 port a thing?
The LG 24MD4KL-B sold in the Apple Store is TB3-only so the only way I can think that it might work is using a USB-C female to HDMI male adapter by plugging the TB3 cable from the LG into the female USB-C port and then the HDMI male port into the Mac Pro's HDMI output. Though you would be limited to 30Hz.
The Apple TB3 to TB2 adapter will not work because that is for connecting TB2 devices to TB3 and you'd need the reverse for the LG and the Mac Pro (TB3 LG to TB2 MP).
The LG 24MD4KL-B sold in the Apple Store is TB3-only so the only way I can think that it might work is using a USB-C female to HDMI male adapter by plugging the TB3 cable from the LG into the female USB-C port and then the HDMI male port into the Mac Pro's HDMI output. Though you would be limited to 30Hz.
The Apple TB3 to TB2 adapter will not work because that is for connecting TB2 devices to TB3 and you'd need the reverse for the LG and the Mac Pro (TB3 LG to TB2 MP).
I returned it after a week because I did not like the light glossy finish that reflected from my lighting in my workroom (bothered my eyes). I think I have somewhere on the forum my comments when I got the 4k monitor saying it worked etc. I don't remember where the post is (a year or so ago).
I hooked two USB-C to Thunderbolt 2 adapters to the two thunderbolt ports on the back and plugged them into two thunderbolt 2 ports in the Mac Pro. It worked but not the greatest experience. Speakers were terrible and plastic-y coming from my experience with the Apple Thunderbolt Monitor (best speakers I have used from any monitor). Also, when it booted up, screen did not turn on but then after it is fully booted up it turned on. Once the screen came on it worked fine with no issues. I do not think Apple recommends it because of the quirky startup with the monitor and limitations when going into recovery or using the option key to boot into another OS if you have double partitions. When I tried doing this the screen did not turn on. Was using macOS Mojave at the time.
The 5K is suppose to work with the Mac Pro 2013, but to me it is not worth the price in my opinion from buying it at Apple. That is why I went with the LG 27UL850-W and works well, especially at a price of $449.99 on Amazon right now (I bought it last year when it came out at $550). Better experience, especially with multiple port options (USB-C, display ports and HDMI ports option). Matted screen is much better.
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Apple's adapter is bi-directional so it should work both ways.
Thanks for the info. My display only has one USB-C port. I guess there's just no way to connect it to a trashcan Mac.
Here. This is the why. I can't remember when/where but I recall Tim Cook saying they got out of the monitor business because A) it was ancillary to their core B) monitor focused manufacturers were providing good enough solutions C) and the monitor market was becoming commoditized. Bottom line = t just wasn't Apple's lane and they thought the market was gonna provide good solutions. BUT! what we have seen is a gap in the market for a while now and no one is moving to fill it. There is only one consumer level "Retina" level panel made today and that is the LG panel used in the 5K and 4K Ultrafines, the iMac, and used to be used in the Dell 5K. Now that Dell stopped producing their 5K, Apple is the only company driving HiDPI/HiPPI monitor production (via their iMacs and their basically forcing LG to continue producing the 5K/4K UF monitors). Side note: the reason those are the only consumer monitors using those PPI levels are that not enough people bought them. We can quibble about why but the market just dosen't care, customers are fine with 4K at 27" or larger (and that ain't 'Retina' or HiDPI/HiPPI). Anyway, it looks like Apple sees the gap and is interested in filling it again.
The problem is capacity in TB. The reason there are not more TB ports on the LG5K is that the single TB cable is nearly maxed out carrying 5K worth of pixels. TB4 doesn't increase the bandwidth so no hope for more TB ports on the back
No man - He's right. There is only one 5K panel produced. LG makes it. They put it in their LG5KUF (because Apple incentivizes them to, if Apple didn't they would have shut down production of that monitor years ago because very few people buy it), and they sell it to Apple for the 27" iMac. That's it, no one else uses that or any other 5K panel. Dell used to buy it and put it in their 27" 5K display but because no one bought it they discontinued it.
In the past only TB3 had enough bandwidth to carry the 5K signal. That is why there were no other input ports on the LG5K or Dell 5K. HDMI or DP couldn't do it. Now DP 1.4 and HDMI 2.1 have enough bandwidth to carry 5K so maybe it'll happen.
That is very informative, thanks. Explains a lot.
It also could explain why Apple is now motivated to introduce their own monitor (if this prediction turns out to be true), since it will provide their iMac desktop customers with a monitor to pair with their computer. It also will be a lower cost monitor choice for Mac Pro owners (the Pro Display XDR is surely too expensive for many of them, in fact it would be interesting to know how many Mac Pro owners purchase Apple's XDR display and how many purchase less expensive third party displays, even the LG5KUF).
With Apple moving to MiniLED, that might be what shifted the decision needle for them to offer a standalone Apple monitor again as it would be a "differentiation point" versus most "commodity" monitors.
Also, LG does not go through the calibration steps on the UltraFine 5K display that Apple does on the iMac 5K so there have been complaints that the LG 5K display does not look as nice as the iMac display when used side-by-side. An Apple-branded monitor would have the same calibration so they should be very close in general picture quality.
If Apple's TB3 controller supports DisplayPort 1.4 (and I expect it does), then it can support 5K at 120Hz and 4K at 144Hz with Display Stream Compression so we might actually see Pro Motion come to the iMac and Apple Display.
Also, LG does not go through the calibration steps on the UltraFine 5K display that Apple does on the iMac 5K so there have been complaints that the LG 5K display does not look as nice as the iMac display when used side-by-side. An Apple-branded monitor would have the same calibration so they should be very close in general picture quality.
If Apple's TB3 controller supports DisplayPort 1.4 (and I expect it does), then it can support 5K at 120Hz and 4K at 144Hz with Display Stream Compression so we might actually see Pro Motion come to the iMac and Apple Display.
The Dell 5k UP2715K (discontinued, but the page is still online - look under "Superb Usability" for ports) didn't use Thunderbolt. It used two DisplayPort 1.2 inputs (each driving half the display) to provide 5k and also had an additional miniDP port that supported 4k.
Pretty sure the original LG5K worked the same way internally - Thunderbolt 3 didn't support DP1.4 until about 2018, nor did anything with an Intel iGPU - so we're stuck with multi-stream DP1.2 until Apple can drop support for 2+ year old Macs. It's just that Thunderbolt 3 can carry two 4-lane DisplayPort 1.2 streams in one cable (so could Thunderbolt 1/2 but the peripheral controller chips could only extract one of them per device). There's no technical reason why it couldn't have had an additional 4k miniDP or HDMI, or even a pair of DisplayPorts for 5k (just needs some switching circuitry) - it was just LG nickel and diming on the extra circuitry (probably at Apple's behest - as I said, it does look spookily like an abandoned Apple design in am LG plastic case).
I think the LG5K got an upgrade a year or two back, to support USB-C alt mode from an iPad (4K only). That was because the newer TB3 peripheral controllers got the capability to have the upstream port fall back to USB-C so they could do it without adding a separate port.
THIS!
I just fear they will come up with some crazy plan, add a $599 stand and a $159 "Lightning Pro" proprietary plug (and sell the power supply for that separately). If they really wanted to be courageous they could also detach all the buttons and sell a separate AppleDisplay Remote with all the adjustment buttons for those who Want To Use It Wrong. $299 only for you my friend.
100%. I was trying to keep it short after I realized I basically spammed the thread (sorry all!), but you're right. Now that the DP & HDMI specs can handle 5k, we'll see more port options. I really feel like Apple does not like 4K@27" because it is not 'Retina' level (and maybe because their OS doesn't render it as easily or well?) so while it would have been possible to run a 4k signal to the 5k, they wouldn't allow it.
The LG Ultrafine allows 4k when you connect it to a Mac or iPad that can't fo 5k: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT210205 - so that doesn't seem to be an issue.
But, yeah - full 5k @ 27" is the "sweet spot" for the Mac for various historical and technical reasons - plus the ability to show 4k video with space for toolbars, whereas it doesn't seem to have caught on in the PC world. So it makes sense for Apple to make a 5k display as there aren't many other options for that.
A 4k, 27" screen on the Mac is OK - the "best" 2x1080p mode makes the icons and fonts a bit too big, but the Mac will let you run it in a "looks like" scaled mode in which it is barely distinguishable from 5k unless you climb on the desk with a magnifying glass -but that uses extra GPU horsepower. There are a ton of perfectly good 4k displays out there so it makes sense for Apple to concentrate on 5k.
Interestingly, it seems like the LG UltraFines are already gone for good, at least in Europe. I have been looking to buy one from Apple for some time and both the 4K and the 5K were marked as "Out of stock". I talked to a specialist in December, and they told me that the displays should be available at the beginning of 2021 again, but today, the product pages were not available anymore. Both displays were still listed in the product overview, but they were both named "not defined" and now, even these listings are gone.
