For my unusual external display setup, M4 is worse in many ways (yet better in a few ways) than M1 Pro.
The 32:9 ultrawide (G95SC) is recognized fine no problem, and can run VRR 240Hz (unlike up to VRR 120Hz on M1 Pro). But I'm running into new problems.
1. Slow & failed wakeup
Whenever I toggle HDR or VRR, the display is disconnected (disappearing in settings) then Macbook Air struggles a bit and reconnects. I believe that creates a huge problem for clamshell mode (btw I'm using a thunderbolt dock with DisplayPort), not only it takes forever to wake up the monitor, but also it fails and falls back to sleep sometimes.
That did not happen on other monitors though (this is the only 240hz & non-16:9 monitor I have), so I'm not sure it's a G95SC problem or MacOS. But it was just fine before running 120hz with M1 Pro.
2. Dual Monitor
The thunderbolt dock can handle two monitors (5120x1440@120hz and 3840x2160@144hz) simultaneously when connected via just 1 thunderbolt port on M1 Pro.
But now with M4 running 32:9 monitor at 240Hz, it simply cannot handle another monitor? not even when tuning it down to 120hz, or connecting the second monitor via second thunderbolt port.
(It still works with two regular 16:9 144hz monitors though)
3. Alternatives
the DP1.4->HDMI2.1 adapter (as many have discussed here) did not work for my M1 Pro setup, but almost perfect for M4: 5120x1440@240hz (no VRR though), no slowness whatsoever, which is great.
But the color seems to be oversaturated? no matter which color profile I switch to
The 32:9 ultrawide (G95SC) is recognized fine no problem, and can run VRR 240Hz (unlike up to VRR 120Hz on M1 Pro). But I'm running into new problems.
1. Slow & failed wakeup
Whenever I toggle HDR or VRR, the display is disconnected (disappearing in settings) then Macbook Air struggles a bit and reconnects. I believe that creates a huge problem for clamshell mode (btw I'm using a thunderbolt dock with DisplayPort), not only it takes forever to wake up the monitor, but also it fails and falls back to sleep sometimes.
That did not happen on other monitors though (this is the only 240hz & non-16:9 monitor I have), so I'm not sure it's a G95SC problem or MacOS. But it was just fine before running 120hz with M1 Pro.
2. Dual Monitor
The thunderbolt dock can handle two monitors (5120x1440@120hz and 3840x2160@144hz) simultaneously when connected via just 1 thunderbolt port on M1 Pro.
But now with M4 running 32:9 monitor at 240Hz, it simply cannot handle another monitor? not even when tuning it down to 120hz, or connecting the second monitor via second thunderbolt port.
(It still works with two regular 16:9 144hz monitors though)
3. Alternatives
the DP1.4->HDMI2.1 adapter (as many have discussed here) did not work for my M1 Pro setup, but almost perfect for M4: 5120x1440@240hz (no VRR though), no slowness whatsoever, which is great.
But the color seems to be oversaturated? no matter which color profile I switch to