iMac second display resolution question

[AppleFan360]

I did a quick search and didn't find anything so excuse me if this has been asked before.

I have a late 2013 27" iMac (resolution: 2560 x 1440)

My second monitor is a 27" LG (resolution: 1920 x 1080)

While in mirror mode, the LG monitor scales everything to look like the iMac desktop. Of course it's not pure 2560 x 1440 but at least all items on the screen match the iMac screen from a size standpoint.

When I switch to second display mode, everything on the LG montor looks bigger (mainly because it's not doing any scaling effectively blowing everthing up due to the screen resolution difference).

Is there any way to fix this?

Thanks.

 

[yjchua95]

I did a quick search and didn't find anything so excuse me if this has been asked before.

I have a late 2013 27" iMac (resolution: 2560 x 1440)

My second monitor is a 27" LG (resolution: 1920 x 1080)

While in mirror mode, the LG monitor scales everything to look like the iMac desktop. Of course it's not pure 2560 x 1440 but at least all items on the screen match the iMac screen from a size standpoint.

When I switch to second display mode, everything on the LG montor looks bigger (mainly because it's not doing any scaling effectively blowing everthing up due to the screen resolution difference).

Is there any way to fix this?

Thanks.

Nope. If you mirror the displays, both resolutions have to be the same. So I think you should turn off mirroring. Mavericks actually does a good job of handling displays when not mirroring.

 

[robgendreau]

Not sure what you mean by "fix," but if you use the Display Pref Pane you should get some options for the resolution of the second monitor when in non-mirrored mode. The optimum resolution of that second monitor (native resolution) is 1920x1080, but depending on the monitor, your Mac's graphics, etc you could choose other resolutions that you might prefer. I doubt you'd get 2560x1440, but maybe. Display Maestro or SwitchResX might give you some more options. But of course it's gonna look rather crappy, but at least crappy at the same size. And Display Maestro could put something in your menu bar so you could flip back and forth.

 

[Altemose]

Your only option is to either run the second at optimal resolution or buy a new display. Since the resolutions are different that is bound to happen. Mavericks does a great job with multiple monitors as mentioned earlier.