Gaming on Apple Displays — A Practical Guide (PS5, Switch 2, Xbox)

[couscousboulette]

Hi everyone,

I’ve found a solution to get 4K 120Hz HDR working with a PS5 on the Apple Studio Display XDR. I don’t usually post online, but since I couldn't find a solution anywhere else, I wanted to share my findings here.

This is not a perfect plug-and-play solution. In the case of the PS5, it requires you to have access to another 4k120 HDR device to capture its EDID profile. I’m sure there must exist some kind of cheap programmable edid emulator where you could just load a ps5 compatible profile from a computer but I haven’t found the time yet to investigate this.

From reading various forums, it seems that users of both the standard Apple Studio Display and the Pro Display XDR have trouble getting either 4K or HDR to work with consoles. I’m hoping to make this post a definitive guide for gaming on all Apple displays.

Note: I currently only have a PS5 and a Switch 2 to test. If anyone tests the Xbox Series S/X with this method, let me know and I will update the guide!

PS5

What you'll need:

• A Thunderbolt 5 cable (the one included with the display works — TB4 likely works too)
• A Club3D CAC-1336 — HDMI 2.1 to DisplayPort 1.4 converter (4K 120Hz HDR capable)
• A Lindy 32119 — programmable HDMI EDID emulator (4K 120Hz HDR capable)
• Access to another 4K 120Hz HDR display to capture a working EDID profile (I captured mine on my LG OLED TV)

How does it work?
The HDMI => DP converter is capable of 4k120 with HDR. However, there’s a handshake issue there where the console doesn’t receive the proper information as to what the ASD XDR is capable of. With that adapter alone, the PS5 output will be limited to 1440p 60Hz HDR.

To solve that issue, you'll need a EDID emulator. An HDMI EDID emulator is a device that pretends to be a display by supplying fixed monitor information (resolution, refresh rates, audio support, etc.) to keep an HDMI source outputting a stable signal. In other words, placing it between the PS5 and the converter will trick the PS5 into thinking it can output 4k120hz in HDR.

The issue with that emulator is that while capable of 4k120hz HDR, it doesn’t come preloaded with such a profile (highest profile is 4k60 in SDR according to the user guide, for some reason). Thankfully, you can easily capture a EDID profile from a real device following a simple procedure: you’ll need to place the edid emulator between your PS5 and a hmdi cable plugged to a 4k120 HDR capable device and use a paperclip to press the record button (the process takes 10sec or so). On my side, I did it with my LG OLED TV (4K120 HDR).

Once the EDID emulator is loaded with a working profile, the frankencable goes like this:
PS5 ➡ Lindy EDID Emulator ➡ Club 3D HDMI to DP Converter ➡ TB5 Cable ➡ Apple Display

Nintendo Switch 2

No EDID emulator needed here — the Club3D CAC-1336 alone works out of the box. You'll get will get either 4K60Hz HDR or 1440p120Hz HDR.
Switch 2 ➡ Club 3D HDMI to DP Converter ➡ TB5 Cable ➡ Apple Display

Xbox Series X/S

I don’t currently own an Xbox to test this on. If anyone in the community is willing to try this adapter chain, please let me know your results and I’ll update this post!

Important Note on Audio

You’re not getting audio to output on the Apple Displays sadly. Several options exists to output audio for both PS5/Switch 2 that includes 3.5 jack/usb/bluetooth

Compatibility Matrix

	Apple Studio Display (2022/2026 - 5K60 SDR)	Apple Pro Display XDR (2019 - 6K60Hz HDR)	Apple Studio Display XDR (2026 - 5K120 HDR)
PS5	?	?	Club3D CAC-1336 + Lindy 32119 → 4K120Hz HDR ✅
Switch 2	?	?	Club3D CAC-1336 → 4K60Hz HDR or 1440p120Hz HDR ✅
Xbox Series S/X	?	?	?

Stability

Please note that the setup is not a 100% stable. You might encounter the following issues:

• PS5/Switch 2 startup might require you unplug/replug the TB5 until the ASD wakes up. It seems to happen only when you're alternating between the PS5 and another TB source such as a Macbook. If you turn off and turn on again the PS5, the ASD wakes up immediately (as the ASD actively looks for the last input device)
• On PS5, some games doesn't work at 4K120Hz HDR (such as Resident Evil 3 or Hellblade) but they do at 1440p120Hz HDR. Other games works at 4K120Hz HDR (such Fortnite or Trackmania). It's recommanded to disable VRR in the Video Output menu to ensure the best possible compatibility.

Hope this helps!

 

[c.oberschneider]

Thanks a lot for your effort! Curious to see whether someone can get the PS5 to output 4K HDR on the ('old') Pro Display XDR with this solution.

 

[PaulD-UK]

@couscousboulette "A Club3D CAC-1336 — HDMI 2.1 to DisplayPort 1.2 converter (4K 120Hz HDR capable)"

As the item's captions say, it's a DP 1.4 device:
"it only works from an HDMI™ Source device to
an USB C DP™ 1.4 Alternate mode supported display."

Using DSC, DP 1.2 (~17Gbps) could fit the requisite bandwidth for 4K/120Hz (~13Gbps), but DP 1.4 is the lowest spec DP protocol to support DSC.

 

[ClarenceClaymore]

Amazing and appreciate you taking the leap and posting, will be trying this set-up too! All I've been needing is 120fps so I can play some of my more sweaty competitive titles on PS5 with my display! Fingers crossed. 🙏

 

[jabbr]

sweet, so the CAC-1336 really just works perfectly with the switch 2 output? Looks like 1440p 120 HDR or 4K 60 HDR is the max the console supports.

unfortunately, multiple reviews mention the 1336 being not very reliable to start output.

 

[ClarenceClaymore]

@couscousboulette on your LG tv did you do anything specific settings wise? I also have a LG OLED TV that can do 4k in 120hz, so looks like I'd be able to do the same as you.

And for the Thunderbolt cable, did you use the official apple TB5 cable or another brand? I'm struggling to get my setup to work with the Apple cable given how short it is, so was definitely thinking another brand for length or TB4, however from what I can read TB4 will be a loss in the quality the cable can output to my understanding.

 

[couscousboulette]

@couscousboulette on your LG tv did you do anything specific settings wise? I also have a LG OLED TV that can do 4k in 120hz, so looks like I'd be able to do the same as you.

And for the Thunderbolt cable, did you use the official apple TB5 cable or another brand? I'm struggling to get my setup to work with the Apple cable given how short it is, so was definitely thinking another brand for length or TB4, however from what I can read TB4 will be a loss in the quality the cable can output to my understanding.

Hello, I didn’t do anything on my TV, you just need to capture the profile when the PS5 is running and connected to the TV. For the thunderbolt cable, I’ve bought the cheapest 2-meter TB5 I could find on amazon (around 20€) and it works the same as the one provided with ASD.

 

[couscousboulette]

sweet, so the CAC-1336 really just works perfectly with the switch 2 output? Looks like 1440p 120 HDR or 4K 60 HDR is the max the console supports.

unfortunately, multiple reviews mention the 1336 being not very reliable to start output.

Yep, it works right out of the box. I’ve made a quick test on Hollow Knight Silksong to check the 1440p120 vs 4k60 modes in-game. As for the stability, you’re right, it’s finicky on startup. I need to test this a bit more but when I switch inputs from my mac to a console, it takes a while for the ASD to show the image. Curiously, when I turn off and on again the console, it displays the image straight away. It’s as if the ASD actively looks the last input profile 🤔

 

[couscousboulette]

Amazing and appreciate you taking the leap and posting, will be trying this set-up too! All I've been needing is 120fps so I can play some of my more sweaty competitive titles on PS5 with my display! Fingers crossed. 🙏

I’ve tried fortnite on ps5 which seems to be one of the very few true 120fps games available. It does make a big difference when you’re aiming. I’ve also tried God of War Ragnarok (advertised as 120Hz) but I couldn’t really see a difference. My guess is that some games that advertise « 120Hz » gives you that refresh rate whenever the GPU can (and when it can, it’s 60fps at 120hz)

 

[ClarenceClaymore]

Hello, I didn’t do anything on my TV, you just need to capture the profile when the PS5 is running and connected to the TV. For the thunderbolt cable, I’ve bought the cheapest 2-meter TB5 I could find on amazon (around 20€) and it works the same as the one provided with ASD.

Perfect and great that I can avoid the official TB5 cable so I can get some length on it! Will purchase all the parts and hope I get it working.

 

[Baxtrel]

Unfortunately, this doesn't fully work for me. Using my LG HDMI2.1 (LG 27GR95UM-B) monitor and I'm able to clone the EDID and achieve 4K60 with HDR which wasn't possible before. Launching any 120hz game yields a black screen, even with HDR off, and color settings limited.

Guess the display prefers the LG OLED EDID, or it's because I'm on a PS5 Pro but I don't think that would matter.
I'll try a different EDID emulator on Sunday.

Appreciate you posting this, we're closer than ever!

 

[couscousboulette]

Unfortunately, this doesn't fully work for me. Using my LG HDMI2.1 (LG 27GR95UM-B) monitor and I'm able to clone the EDID and achieve 4K60 with HDR which wasn't possible before. Launching any 120hz game yields a black screen, even with HDR off, and color settings limited.

Guess the display prefers the LG OLED EDID, or it's because I'm on a PS5 Pro but I don't think that would matter.
I'll try a different EDID emulator on Sunday.

Appreciate you posting this, we're closer than ever!

I’m sorry it didn’t worked out for you. I wonder what the issue might be. Could it be that the captured edid present a variant of 120hz implementation that isn’t compatible with the Club3D/ASD? Perhaps the solution doesn’t work with all games, a good test would be running fortnite (free game) because it has an explicit high refresh rate setting. VRR and ALL could cause issues as well, you might want to disable them in the PS5 settings. There’s still the possibility that the regular and pro PS5 behave differently.

 

[couscousboulette]

I've made some more testing on my side, picking the few 120fps games that I have on my account.

• Trackmania: 4k 120Hz HDR works with VRR disabled
• Fortnite: 4K 120Hz HDR works (with VRR left enabled)
• Resident Evil 3: 1440p 120Hz HDR works (4K results in black screen)
• Hellblade Senua Sacrifice: 1440p 120Hz HDR works (4K results in black screen)

It looks to me that Club 3D is somehow hitting a bandwith issue with some games. I'll update the original post to reflect this.

 

[Richdmoore]

i just wanted to point out that some 5k monitors (that meet apple’s native display resolution) but also have hdmi are available. I am using the 5k asus pro art 27”

Obviously there are compromises, the speakers suck for example, no isight camera, need a 3rd party program to use the sound/brightness apple keyboard controls.

My holy grail would be a switchbox that lets you use the apple displays with both mac and multiple displayport/hdmi devices, hopefully apple will some day add multipe inputs/common hdmi support.

I will keep this thread bookmarked, if all the problems are eventually sorted out maybe it will be worth it to consider going to a pure apple setup.

 

[couscousboulette]

i just wanted to point out that some 5k monitors (that meet apple’s native display resolution) but also have hdmi are available. I am using the 5k asus pro art 27”

Obviously there are compromises, the speakers suck for example, no isight camera, need a 3rd party program to use the sound/brightness apple keyboard controls.

My holy grail would be a switchbox that lets you use the apple displays with both mac and multiple displayport/hdmi devices, hopefully apple will some day add multipe inputs/common hdmi support.

I will keep this thread bookmarked, if all the problems are eventually sorted out maybe it will be worth it to consider going to a pure apple setup.

It exists, from a brand called Tesmart but it comes at a crazy price (600€ I think) and it comes with plenty of compromises (mono audio, no HDR, no 120hz…)

 

[ClarenceClaymore]

Just want to share a small celebration post as I've now also gotten it to work by using your exact method and equipment @couscousboulette! 🎉

My focus was on 120fps FIRST and then 4K SECOND, so now I got 4K to work by using my gaming monitor as the EDID cloning device to begin with, next up will be to play around with it to get it to 4K, I do wonder if I can just control that on the PS5, as the connection is successfully established, we'll see.

As a backup I also have a gaming ready LG TV that can run 120fps, for some reason however I was struggling to get it to work there as a cloning device, it only spat out 60fps, maybe I need to try another cable, as it was plugged in correctly.

Either way, I'm 90% of the way and already more than satisfied with my outcome.

 

[xieboss]

Thanks for the solution. However, I don’t have any other 4K 120Hz HDR devices besides the Studio Display XDR, so I can’t make use of the EDID.