Is there any point in buying a 4K display to use with the mac mini if things are too small?

[Cassandle]

I have a 27” 4K monitor hooked to an M1 Mini and find that everything looks great when scaled to either 2560x1440 or 1080p. I tend to only scale to 1080p for Steam.

4K native is too small, but I do often run the monitor at this resolution when working from home (I log-in to a virtual desktop via VMware Horizon) as it‘s the only way to get the text to look sharp. If I run my display scaled it makes the text in my work Windows desktop look blurry. When I’m in VMware the only app I really use on the Mini is Music, and I can use that fine at native 4K resolution.

I’ve had absolutely no issues with flickering or performance when scaling the resolution.

I’ve just given an unnecessarily long-winded answer!

TLDR - the screen will look fine at a scaled resolution.

 

[harriska2]

I have a 40” 4k Samsung that is a pretty decent monitor (chroma 4:4:4). I scale it to 1.5x and love it.

 

[Sarah Hamilton]

If it helps out…..

I have a 32” 4K display running at the “Looks Like 2560x1440” scaled option. I’ve only increased the font sizes for my old eyes. So far, I prefer it over the default 4K resolution.
View attachment 1900861

Thanks for the picture dude, what motnir is that and is that the m1 mac mini looks space grey?

 

[stillcrazyman]

Thanks for the picture dude, what motnir is that and is that the m1 mac mini looks space grey?

ViewSonic VP3268 32” 4K - Mini is space grey - 2018 model.

 

[HenryAZ]

If it helps out…..

I have a 32” 4K display running at the “Looks Like 2560x1440” scaled option. I’ve only increased the font sizes for my old eyes. So far, I prefer it over the default 4K resolution.

I've been running a 32" monitor at its native 4k resolution (3840x2160) for five years now, first with a trash can Mac and now a 2018 Mini. The menu bar is a bit small, but still easily readable with my prescription glasses made specifically for a 28" viewing distance. Just about everything else can be adjusted to increase font size, etc. The amount of screen real estate is the big reward.

 

[Sarah Hamilton]

ViewSonic VP3268 32” 4K - Mini is space grey - 2018 model.

Thanks man sorry if I’ve asked twice. I’m slowly getting my head around this website!!

 

[antipodean]

If the OP is running this from an M1 Mini, then the GPU will have no performance problems handling the scaling.

I use a 27" LG 4K monitor (27UK850) over thunderbolt with an M1 Air set to 1440. Performance is good with no noticeable lag and text is crisp enough at that size. It looks much better than the older 2K Thunderbolt monitor I had before.

This 100%.

The Apple Silicon hardware has no problem at all performing the retina scaling. Even intel iGPUs from recent years managed it OK, albeit you could experience increased temps on some of those models (e.g. my 13" Intel MBP would heat up slightly when driving a 4K display at "looks like 1440p" HiDPI mode).

My M1 mini (16GB/1TB) drives a 32" 4K (Dell u3219q) at "looks like 1440p" without breaking a sweat.

My M1 Max MBP (32GB/32cGPU/1TB) still shows the "may impact performance" warning for the retina scaling options in display preferences. Needless to say, any performance impact would be close to unmeasurable.

As others have said, retina scaled 1440p on a 4K display is night & day better than standard 1440p on a native 1440p display. Not as sharp as a 5K iMac, but IMO easily worth the now negligible performance hit on modern Apple GPUs.

 

[yellowhulk]

i have m1 macmini connected to LG27UL550-W via hdmi. Monterey OS. I am a photo retoucher. Installed photoshop 2022. Have wacom intous 5 pro -pth-650-. I am having huge lag issues with my tablet when it is 2560x1440 scaled. When 'more space' option (which is 4k) is active, lagging is slightly less -but still not perfect-. But UI is too small. not possible to increase UI scaling in PS interface options it is greyed out. When default option is selected -feels like 1080p- UI is too big. also less lag -still not perfect-
.
when i take SS of whole screen when -2560x1440 feels like- option selected the result is 5120x2880 somehow?
tried wacom tablet driver: 6.3.44-1, 6.3.44-2 and 6.3.45-2 ddnt work.

I am former iMac (27-inch, Late 2012) user. Any solutions ideas?

 

[joevt]

I am former iMac (27-inch, Late 2012) user. Any solutions ideas?

The 2560x1440 mode is actually a HiDPI or retina mode that draws into a 5120x2880 framebuffer. Everything is drawn twice as wide (in pixels) and twice as tall as they would be on a 2560x1440 display. Then the GPU scales that down to 4K for output to your display.

The display has a DisplayPort input. Did you try that? I don't expect it to behave much better but who knows..

Can you hold the option key and select "Scaled" in the Displays preferences panel? If so, is there a "Show all resolutions" checkbox? If so, then select that. Does it show a 2560x1440 low resolution mode? If so then select that. It will look like crap just like the late iMac 2012 but maybe it won't lag.

 

[now i see it]

i have m1 macmini connected to LG27UL550-W via hdmi. Monterey OS. I am a photo retoucher

The Mac mini wasn’t designed to be a professional graphics workstation.

 

[Tagbert]

The Mac mini wasn’t designed to be a professional graphics workstation.

It's certainly powerful enough for most graphic design purposes. It sounds like the Wacom tablet is having trouble handling the resolution. How does that tablet handle a 27" iMac with a 5K display?

 

[yellowhulk]

Thanks a lot for the quick replies. I appreciate those.

Finally i found the problem: in wacom tablet preferences -tip double click distance adjustment- was set to large. thats why i was getting lags when i tried to clean blemishes on the model quickly and rapidly one ofter each other. i set it -off- problem solved.

 

[nemofish]

The Mac mini wasn’t designed to be a professional graphics workstation.

That's a really dumb take.

I am a professional designer and have been using the Mac Mini for about 10 years, it's no different to when I worked on powermac G4s, Mac Pro towers, or one of many iMacs.

 

[Devvy]

I have a 27" IIyama 4K monitor; first used with a 2018 mini and now the M1.
With the 2018 mini, the GPU clearly struggled if I would use the "looks like" 2560x1440 mode; for instance, when playing a Resolve timeline. I got the best performance with "low resolution" 2560x1440.
Strangely, on the M1, the "low resolution" mode looks worse than it did on the 2018; but I don't need it anymore since the performance with the "looks like" 2560x1440 mode is now great, and it looks beautiful.
Graphics-wise the M1 is so much better!

 

[Tagbert]

I have a 27" IIyama 4K monitor; first used with a 2018 mini and now the M1.
With the 2018 mini, the GPU clearly struggled if I would use the "looks like" 2560x1440 mode; for instance, when playing a Resolve timeline. I got the best performance with "low resolution" 2560x1440.
Strangely, on the M1, the "low resolution" mode looks worse than it did on the 2018; but I don't need it anymore since the performance with the "looks like" 2560x1440 mode is now great, and it looks beautiful.
Graphics-wise the M1 is so much better!

I use a 27" LG 4K running at "looks like" 2560x1440 and it works well. Performance is great on an M1 Air. It might not be quite as sharp as a 5K display running at a pure 1:2 scaling but it is pretty close and much cheaper than the one 5K option we have now.

 

[djc6]

I asked a similar question recently:

27" 4K scaled to 1440p or just get 27" 1440p

I currently have a 27" LG 27UD58P-B 4K display that I run at scaled resolution of 2560x1440 to make things readable. I find this setup pretty legible. The monitor is stating to have bad image persistence issues after 4+ years of use so I am looking to replace it. Will I notice a loss in text...

forums.macrumors.com

I picked up a LG 27UL550-W 27" 4K from Walmart and run it at 2560x1440 and it looks great - text is much sharper than wife's 27" Thunderbolt display with native 2560x1440 screen.