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LG UltraFine 5K - Owners Thread

spinstorm said:
My order for 10-23 January had gone to preparing for shipment and I have been charged.

That's obviously very efficiently hitting the target dates. This may be like the 4K monitor which took weeks for delivery if you ordered but was usually in store for pick up.

I have a feeling they may be in stores from Monday but still may be a case of 1 or 2 in stock only.

(As far as personal timing goes; I couldn't be happier I am going to return my 4K now before the returns period is over and get a full refund; no eBay required.).
Click to expand...
Snap. 10-23 Jan, just been charged too.

Yeah, I agree, that it'll be iPhone distribution syndrome: drip-feed the stores a few at a time, along with completing online pre-orders, until their availability smoothes out into being completely freely available everywhere.

Hurray! Just have to sort stand issues, desk space, performance testing, and Tbolt 3 cable usage, et al. LOL!


UPDATE (17:39 GMT): confirmation email rec'd:
Dispatched: Delivers 09/01/2017 by Standard Shipping. Signature required.
 
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Dukat said:
No 4k option in Youtube in Safari? Strange, I had the option in Safari and think it ran better than Chrome.
I just got back from the Apple store. Returned the 13" in exchange for a 15".
I lucked out, they had a 15", space gray, with 1TB SSD and 460 GPU!

Time Machine restore will probably take 2 hours, will run the same tests I did with the 13", see if it makes a difference.
Click to expand...

How frustrating will it be if performance is exactly the same :p - I'll probably do the same if you find it makes a big difference (which I'm sure it will!)
 
Dukat said:
Here you go, Chrome with 4k video. Sorry the video is shaky.

It may be hard to tell in the video that the 4k video would pause time to time and it wasn't due to buffering. If you turn the volume up you can here the sound pause.

Click to expand...

Re-ran the 4k video test with the 15" Radeon 460 laptop.

Both Safari and Chrome run the 4k video smoothly, no occasional stutter that the 13" had.
When running it in Safari CPU usage is unchanged.
When running it in Chrome, Chrome Helper CPU usage says 240%. Not sure how it gets over 100.

The only disappointing thing is just like the 13", the metal above the touch bar when playing videos and connected to the monitor gets very hot and the fan runs fairly loud. I was hoping either the quad core or GPU would run it cooler.

I did notice that the 15" has a much worse build-in graphics chip than the 13" so if an application doesn't activate the GPU you will likely get worse performance.

Does anyone know if Safari/Chrome uses the GPU when needed?
Is there an app that will tell you if/when the GPU is being used? I recall something about iStat Menu?
 
Dukat said:
The only disappointing thing is just like the 13", the metal above the touch bar when playing videos and connected to the monitor gets very hot and the fan runs fairly loud. I was hoping either the quad core or GPU would run it cooler.
Click to expand...
Looks like a cooling pad may be a requirement, haha!

So that's:
4050 MBP 15" maxed-out.
1768 LG 5K x2.
~125 basic dongles/cables, various brands.
120 spare Apple power brick with its cables.
~250 full-time desk TB3 dock, various brands.
~120 cooling pad.
~6433 TOTAL.

Oh, and don't forget...
• AppleCare for the MBP 15" if desired (330).
• external storage, TB3 or other; the sky's the limit! Promise Pegasus x2 at ~3500 each, anyone?
• sleeve/case for the MBP, for on the road use.
• a bag for the sleeve/case for the MBP to go in, for when on the road proper.

...and that's pounds sterling, adjust for US dollar/euro/others, accordingly.


Yes, these new MBP's are proving somewhat expensive, aren't they. :eek:
 
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jimthing said:
Looks like a cooling pad may be a requirement, haha!

So that's:
- 4050 MBP 15" maxed-out.
- 1768 LG 5K x2.
- ~125 basic dongles, various brands.
- 120 spare Apple power brick with its cables.
- ~250 full-time TB3 dock, various brands.
- ~120 cooling pad.
= ~6433 TOTAL.

Oh, and don't forget external storage, TB3 or other; the sky's the limit on that!

...and that's pounds sterling, adjust for US dollar/euro/others, accordingly.


Yes, these new MBP's are proving somewhat expensive, aren't they. :eek:
Click to expand...

Mine doesn't get hot, just warm after 10 minutes of 4k video on the LG 5K.

If you're shelling out $1200 for 1 extra TB of storage, why not put that $1000 into NAS, DAS or TB drive instead? You could get 16-24TB NAS with that kind of budget.

The only dongles I bought was the usbc to ethernet and usbc to usba. Most things you can just use a USBC adapter or straight out upgrade to USBC cable.

Not sure why you need spare power bricks when you can charge with TB3 docked. Just travel with the original power brick.

With the LG 5K, especially 2 of them, I see no point on getting a TB3 dock.

Cooling pad is not necessary. Never used one.
 
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I'm getting so nervous about the 5K screen working smoothly on my 13" rMBP. Can't believe the issues people are having when Apple says that the 13" should fully support the 5K screen, even while the screen is on.
 
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hollandog said:
Mine doesn't get hot, just warm after 10 minutes of 4k video on the LG 5K.

If you're shelling out $1200 for 1 extra TB of storage, why not put that $1000 into NAS, DAS or TB drive instead? You could get 16-24TB NAS with that kind of budget.

The only dongles I bought was the usbc to ethernet and usbc to usba. Most things you can just use a USBC adapter or straight out upgrade to USBC cable.

Not sure why you need spare power bricks when you can charge with TB3 docked. Just travel with the original power brick.

With the LG 5K, especially 2 of them, I see no point on getting a TB3 dock.

Cooling pad is not necessary. Never used one.
Click to expand...
Sure thing.

Work in another room regularly/daily (eg. bedroom), you're gonna want a power brick in there to avoid hassle of forgeting the one in the bag.

Dongles are on-road use (eg. in a conference room, etc.).

Desk dock, as the LG 5K's only offer 5Gbps per port and are all USB-C, so to get other connectivity, a dock one will need.

Cooling pad (see above complaints), YMMV.

;)
 
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jimthing said:
Sure thing.

Work in another room regularly/daily (eg. bedroom), you're gonna want a power brick in there to avoid hassle of fogeting the one in the bag.

Dongles are on-road use (eg. in a conference room, etc.).

Desk dock, as the LG 5K's only offer 5Gbps per port and are all USB-C, so to get other connectivity, a dock one will need.

Cooling pad (see above complaints), YMMV.

;)
Click to expand...


Beauty of a laptop is that it is battery powered. It doesn't have to be stay connected. I'm sure it can last you few hours until you take a break.

The only necessary dongles for some I see are the HDMI and USBA.

Just checking what device you have to take advantage of the USBC gen 2 10gb speed?

The laptop is not hotter nor louder than my 2011 13" MBP.
 
hollandog said:
Beauty of a laptop is that it is battery powered. It doesn't have to be stay connected. I'm sure it can last you few hours until you take a break.

The only necessary dongles for some I see are the HDMI and USBA.

Just checking what device you have to take advantage of the USBC gen 2 10gb speed?

The laptop is not hotter nor louder than my 2011 13" MBP.
Click to expand...

Battery not charged... you'll need some power then.

Tbolt 1/2, DisplayPort, non-Tbolt Mini-DP (eg. for 27" Apple Cinema Display), DVI and VGA (for older devices, or VGA for most projectors), analog audio in/out (MBP has out only, of course), eSATA (many have backup devices with this).

Gen 2 devices are coming.

Again, YMMV on heat (per other above comments).

...take a few quid off for dongles/power/etc one might not need, but still somewhat of an cost outlay nonetheless.
 
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inmotionnow said:
I'm getting so nervous about the 5K screen working smoothly on my 13" rMBP. Can't believe the issues people are having when Apple says that the 13" should fully support the 5K screen, even while the screen is on.
Click to expand...

I'm with you on this one. I've been going up and down this forum trying to get an idea of how real life usage would be with my 13" almost maxed out (i7 512 16gb touchbar), but it's virtually impossible to get one.

Mine won't be delivered until the first week of Feb, but I really don't feel like returning the MBP.

Does anyone think the i7 will help significantly? Or is it really the 550 gpu that is holding back the performance. I did try some h265 10bit 4k video's, these totally chocked the Macbook, although that might be software related.
 
sjannapizzle said:
I'm with you on this one. I've been going up and down this forum trying to get an idea of how real life usage would be with my 13" almost maxed out (i7 512 16gb touchbar), but it's virtually impossible to get one.

Mine won't be delivered until the first week of Feb, but I really don't feel like returning the MBP.

Does anyone think the i7 will help significantly? Or is it really the 550 gpu that is holding back the performance. I did try some h265 10bit 4k video's, these totally chocked the Macbook, although that might be software related.
Click to expand...
Where did you source those videos from, I could try them on my 15" maxed-out model, if it helps. Perhaps it would help narrow down video playback efficacy. I have 200/12, down/up.
 
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jimthing said:
Where did you source those videos from, I could try them on my 15" maxed-out model, if it helps. Perhaps it would help narrow down video playback efficacy. I have 200/12, down/up.
Click to expand...

Well we'll go a bit off topic, since my 5k display isn't in yet I've only been able to test them on a uhd HDR capable tv and on the (macbook not connected to anything), but I've downloaded my sample video's here: http://www.4ktv.de/testvideos/.

I'm indeed curious whether your maxed out 15" is able to play h265 files. I've used the VLC player, since quicktime can't open the files.

Specifically
Camp (Nature) 4K HDR Demo (Sony) h.265 (HEVC) 3.840 x 2.160 Ja 75.8 Mbit/s 59.94 10 bit 2:07
-->This video doesn't play, either on my MBP or on the uhd tv (macbook in clamshell)

Jimix: Put Your Hands Up h.264 (AVC) 1.920 x 1.080 Nein 22 Mbit/s 60 10 bit 3:55
--> This video doesn't play, either on my MBP or on the uhd tv (macbook in clamshell)

Jellyfish Bitrate Test 120Mbps h.264 (AVC) 1.920 x 1.080 Nein 120 23.97 8 bit 0:30
--> this video plays perfectly on both my MBP and the uhd tv

I'll add a video in a second, to keep it a bit more on topic I can show the performance of ui animations of osx when a 13" i7 MBP is connected to an 3840 × 2160 resolution display (using the apple av connector, I believe that one uses USB-c to hdmi connection).

Update:

As promised, you can view the video below. I'll have to apologize for my video shooting qualities, but sitting on the ground trying to show off some stuff with the mouse on a rough carpet wasn't ideal ^^.

As you can see I have similar 4k video breaks as pointed out by a fellow forum member a couple of pages back when using the 4k streaming video on youtube. Although I'm not sure to what extent this will impact real life usage. I still have hope I can use the 5k display in extended desktop mode for work without too much annoyences in the form of hiccups and freezes. If someone has a particular test in mind I'm interested.

 
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Just got mine and realized that I don't have the option to rotate it - an option that appears to be prevented via software. (I've never had an external display - going back to the old ACDs - that didn't give the option to rotate 90 degrees.) For my line of work, I need to be able to rotate to "portrait" orientation. It's not only me who can't select this via the display preferences, right? (You used to be able to force the option by holding command and control when opening Preferences, but that seems to be missing from Sierra.)

I switched back to my Dell monitor, which does allow rotation. The LG needs to go back to Apple, sadly, unless there's some pending firmware update. (Shouldn't this all be coming from the MacBook Pro's graphics card anyway? Or is this some bizarre 5K limitation? One would think that the new 15" MacBook Pro with touch pad could drive anything. How can 90 degree rotation be a problem?!)
 
ostimusic said:
Just got mine and realized that I don't have the option to rotate it - an option that appears to be prevented via software. (I've never had an external display - going back to the old ACDs - that didn't give the option to rotate 90 degrees.) For my line of work, I need to be able to rotate to "portrait" orientation. It's not only me who can't select this via the display preferences, right? (You used to be able to force the option by holding command and control when opening Preferences, but that seems to be missing from Sierra.)

I switched back to my Dell monitor, which does allow rotation. The LG needs to go back to Apple, sadly, unless there's some pending firmware update. (Shouldn't this all be coming from the MacBook Pro's graphics card anyway? Or is this some bizarre 5K limitation? One would think that the new 15" MacBook Pro with touch pad could drive anything. How can 90 degree rotation be a problem?!)
Click to expand...
The 5K image is produced by stitching together two separate 4K images. I assume the system(s) that construct the single desktop from two separate video streams don't support portrait.
 
sjannapizzle said:
I'm with you on this one. I've been going up and down this forum trying to get an idea of how real life usage would be with my 13" almost maxed out (i7 512 16gb touchbar), but it's virtually impossible to get one.

Mine won't be delivered until the first week of Feb, but I really don't feel like returning the MBP.

Does anyone think the i7 will help significantly? Or is it really the 550 gpu that is holding back the performance. I did try some h265 10bit 4k video's, these totally chocked the Macbook, although that might be software related.
Click to expand...

Looks like iMore reviewed the screen with a 13" and there was no mention of performance issue.... so positive? http://www.imore.com/lg-5k

On another note, my order is now in PFS.
 
ostimusic said:
Just got mine and realized that I don't have the option to rotate it - an option that appears to be prevented via software. (I've never had an external display - going back to the old ACDs - that didn't give the option to rotate 90 degrees.) For my line of work, I need to be able to rotate to "portrait" orientation. It's not only me who can't select this via the display preferences, right? (You used to be able to force the option by holding command and control when opening Preferences, but that seems to be missing from Sierra.)

I switched back to my Dell monitor, which does allow rotation. The LG needs to go back to Apple, sadly, unless there's some pending firmware update. (Shouldn't this all be coming from the MacBook Pro's graphics card anyway? Or is this some bizarre 5K limitation? One would think that the new 15" MacBook Pro with touch pad could drive anything. How can 90 degree rotation be a problem?!)
Click to expand...

I seem to recall that "SwitchResX" will do what you want to do:

http://www.madrau.com/index.html

I even believe I rotated the LG 5K image but I didn't do anything with it. In any case, "SwitchResX" is there to try. Let us know if it works!
 
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ostimusic said:
Just got mine and realized that I don't have the option to rotate it - an option that appears to be prevented via software. (I've never had an external display - going back to the old ACDs - that didn't give the option to rotate 90 degrees.) For my line of work, I need to be able to rotate to "portrait" orientation. It's not only me who can't select this via the display preferences, right? (You used to be able to force the option by holding command and control when opening Preferences, but that seems to be missing from Sierra.)

I switched back to my Dell monitor, which does allow rotation. The LG needs to go back to Apple, sadly, unless there's some pending firmware update. (Shouldn't this all be coming from the MacBook Pro's graphics card anyway? Or is this some bizarre 5K limitation? One would think that the new 15" MacBook Pro with touch pad could drive anything. How can 90 degree rotation be a problem?!)
Click to expand...

sidewinder said:
I seem to recall that "SwitchResX" will do what you want to do:

http://www.madrau.com/index.html

I even believe I rotated the LG 5K image but I didn't do anything with it. In any case, "SwitchResX" is there to try. Let us know if it works!
Click to expand...

Okay. I just installed "SwitchResX" again and it works perfectly rotating the LG 5K UltraFine Display 90 degrees. It was a little hard turning my head sideways....but is does work. Maybe I need to buy "SwitchResX" and a VESA mount arm....
 
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sidewinder said:
Okay. I just installed "SwitchResX" again and it works perfectly rotating the LG 5K UltraFine Display 90 degrees. It was a little hard turning my head sideways....but is does work. Maybe I need to buy "SwitchResX" and a VESA mount arm....
Click to expand...

You fixed it! Thank you. SwitchResX totally did it. Why this isn't a native option anymore, I have no idea, since it works PERFECTLY. WOO!!!!
 
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I have been reading these posts. I have a 13" and my 5K is due to be delivered Monday. I think unless you use this monitor for work that is graphics intensive that it is fine when watching video and browsing the web. I think you guys are being too pedantic! And expecting the performance of a massive desktop PC on a svelte MacBook Pro!

(Having said that if these problems are really bad I'd go buy a 15" MBP... shame the returns period is over tomorrow!)
 
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