External Monitor & Maximum Resolution

[ra4oasis]

Hi everyone. I don't know if we even know the answers to this yet, but with all the reviews out there, figured I'd ask. My bosses bosses boss, whatever, he's up the corporate food chain, wants a new Retina Macbook. And before I get the "it's going to be his work machine? Does he know it is underpowered?", yes, he and I have talked about it, and I think he'll be fine. He's maxing it out, so highest possible storage and processor. But right now he has a Thunderbolt display, which of course won't work with the new machine. So, do we know what sort of behavior the new Macbook's do with external displays? I thought I read someplace that it doesn't actually a second display/desktop, but only mirror's what is on the laptop display. Is that right?

Also, when I'm shopping around for a new monitor for him, any idea what resolution I should look for? It'll probably end up being a Dell monitor, but I'm not sure what resolution the new Macbook can output. Anyone else know?

 

[newellj]

From the Ars review, fwiw:

Using a USB Type-C to DisplayPort cable (one of Google's, actually, hooray for standards), we were able to drive a 3840×2160 display at 30Hz. This is likely some limitation of the GPU, since the USB Type-C port supports DisplayPort 1.2. We had to put our Dell P2415Q into MST mode to make it happen, though, and higher scaling modes weren’t available. Performance is poor. In short, both the 2015 Airs and Pro are better choices if you’re looking to drive an external 4K display.

 

[ra4oasis]

He doesn't want to drive a 4K monitor by any means. 1080p would be fine I'm sure. I just want to be sure that'll perform okay, and does he have to mirror the display, or will the display extend into a second desktop?

 

[theSeb]

Yes, this will work.

Dual display and video mirroring: simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display and up to 3840x2160 pixels on an external display, both at millions of colours

No one can tell you if it will "work ok", because that is an ambiguous requirement.