I think the consensus in some other threads has been that it's definitely better than the thunderbolt display, but not as sharp as the 5k imac or the LG in native 5k mode (as expected).
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
LG UltraFine 5K - Owners Thread
- Thread starter iBrooker
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I think the consensus in some other threads has been that it's definitely better than the thunderbolt display, but not as sharp as the 5k imac or the LG in native 5k mode (as expected).
The stock TB3 cable comes with these little prongs to keep it 'coiled'. I uncoil the amount I need and leave the rest of the coil rested on where the top of the base connects with the monitor. I also use a black velcro strip to keep the cables to the back/spine of the stand.
My USB hub + TM HDD are velcro-ed on the back of the monitor directly to keep everything tidy
See attached 'top' view of the monitor (you can see my USB hub + the coiled TB3 cable, TM HDD not pictured as it's more on the right hand side) and the clean front view.
[doublepost=1484362902][/doublepost]
See post below post by @ABCDEF-Hex from earlier in this thread. Link used a 2014 MBP but I would imagine the results would be similar with a 2013 MP.
Last edited:
Actually, the right side ports are the ones you should use for video on the 13" tbMBP. They have "half" the PCIe bandwidth, but should have full display output bandwidth. Hooking an external monitor on the right will leave the "full bandwidth" left side ports available for a TB3 dock, TB3 external drive, or other TB device.
saw it in an Apple Store. it looks better than I thought, better than a Mac mini that they had hooked up. It's almost as if the Mac pro's graphics card has better scaling than a built in intel card.
It is not as clear as 5k, but if you never saw 5k, you'd think it looks almost retina at normal viewing distances. For non-techies, I think you could tell them it's retina and they wouldn't really ever know.
So: better than a 2560x1440 non-retina monitor but worse than a 4k native monitor, worse than a 5k. I'd rather have a 27" 4k monitor compared to a 27" 5k running in 4k mode.
The issue is how soon you will upgrade the rest of your laptops to 5k capable. If so, then the 5k is a better long-term investment. If the older thunderbolts were being used for 7 years, this 5k could be used for that long no problem.
Last edited:
It works great and looks just as good as a native 4K display, IMO. Not blurry at all. I can definitely tell the difference, but it's the difference between "great" and "amazing" image quality. Nothing wrong with it in 4K mode at all.
I just got the Ultrafine 5K along with my touch bar MBP. At work though, I still have a previous-generation MBP, and a Dell 27" 4K monitor. When I bring my work MBP home and plug it into the Ultrafine through the TB2-TB2 adapter, it looks just as good as my monitor at work (actually, slightly better because the Ultrafine seems to have better contrast).
Hi to everyone, I've read the whole thread and I'm planning to buy the Utrafine 5K, along with a MacBook 13'' with touchbar.
I'm trying to decide the exact specs of this new mac. Before reading this thread I was thinking to buy the base model with touchbar, with 8gb of ram. Now I'm revaluating it and thinking that 16gb could be a better choice, due that the MacBook 13'' doesn't have dedicated VRAM but shares the system memory.
I use lots of web apps such Google Adwords, Asana, google analytics that effectively take up quite a lot of memory (Adwords takes alone 500mb-1gb sometimes). Then I use the mac for keynote, numbers, Photo, iMovie. Sometimes a bit of graphics with Sketch. And lastly I produce music with Ableton, but usually I close every other applications when I make music, and 8gb are fine just for Ableton.
Are 16gb of ram needed to run without problems the ultrafine 5K? Any experience with a 8gb MacBook 13''? Thanks
I'm trying to decide the exact specs of this new mac. Before reading this thread I was thinking to buy the base model with touchbar, with 8gb of ram. Now I'm revaluating it and thinking that 16gb could be a better choice, due that the MacBook 13'' doesn't have dedicated VRAM but shares the system memory.
I use lots of web apps such Google Adwords, Asana, google analytics that effectively take up quite a lot of memory (Adwords takes alone 500mb-1gb sometimes). Then I use the mac for keynote, numbers, Photo, iMovie. Sometimes a bit of graphics with Sketch. And lastly I produce music with Ableton, but usually I close every other applications when I make music, and 8gb are fine just for Ableton.
Are 16gb of ram needed to run without problems the ultrafine 5K? Any experience with a 8gb MacBook 13''? Thanks
8 vs 16gb of ram won't make any difference for display performance.
You'll benefit from 16gb if you're using high memory intensive tasks like 3d rendering software, editing multiple huge raw photos, etc.
Thanks to all of the posters on this thread for all of the good information.
Since I live quite a distance from an Apple store I appreciate the feedback on how the LG 5K looks at 4K.
My 5K is scheduled to arrive on Monday. I will report back on how it looks hooked up to my nMP.
I will probably be biased since I am coming from a non-retina iMac - So it should be a great improvement over what I had.
Also, since I have been having some eye problems, it will be nice to have plenty of resolution options to suit my needs.
it's great to receive feedback from a variety of posters who are all using their displays for different types of work - thats the hard part about finding the right display to fit "your" needs - and not have to make a decision based on just one review.
Since I live quite a distance from an Apple store I appreciate the feedback on how the LG 5K looks at 4K.
My 5K is scheduled to arrive on Monday. I will report back on how it looks hooked up to my nMP.
I will probably be biased since I am coming from a non-retina iMac - So it should be a great improvement over what I had.
Also, since I have been having some eye problems, it will be nice to have plenty of resolution options to suit my needs.
it's great to receive feedback from a variety of posters who are all using their displays for different types of work - thats the hard part about finding the right display to fit "your" needs - and not have to make a decision based on just one review.
How long are you planning on keeping the machine? Keep in mind that you can't update the ram later. If you can afford to upgrade to the 16gb, I would say go for it... Better to have more ram than not enough.
Thx Dukat, are you totally sure about it? All that pixels are not going to use any more system memory then the MacBook Pro display?
[doublepost=1484433755][/doublepost]
Five years or more possibly. I'm using now a 2009 MacBook Pro, it still works quite well but I've update it two years ago with SSD and 8gb of RAM. In the last weeks I've kept an eye on the RAM in normal usage and I'm always on about 6gb, never go in yellow or red. so 8gb should be ok. I was wondering if a 5K display use some more RAM then this and I should take it in account.
Yes, I'm fairly certain that display performance isn't related to system ram. Video ram yes, but not system ram. Running a 5k display will not use any more system memory than a standard monitor.
16GB is nice to have if you're going to use memory intensive tasks, and as someone else mentioned, you can't upgrade the memory so if you plan on keeping it for many years the extra memory could come in handy in future. Maybe you'll decide to run Windows in Parallels while editing raw photos and have many other apps open at once.
If you open an app that uses 2gb of ram and close it, often that 2gb will show up as in-use even though it really isn't. It sits in memory as cache in case you re-open the app and need that data. If you open something else that needs the space, the memory clears up for use by the new app.
Sierra has a new memory display reading called 'Memory Pressure' which I think is a better gauge than 'Memory Used'. This is handy to determine whether you're actually getting low on memory and about to take a performance hit since Memory Used doesn't actually mean you're about to run out since much of 'used' can be cache from apps that are no longer running.
If you're not set on the 13", having a GPU offered in 15" models will give you a big video performance boost along with making apps that can use the GPU for calculations run faster...and I think all 15" GPU models come with 16gb of ram so you'd get the best of both worlds if you don't mind the price increase or larger size.
Last edited:
It does not seem to. Here is mine running the LG 5K and it used the same amount with the previous Thunderbolt Display. I think that memory amount used for video is capped.
The way I understand it, a single screen of pixels for a 5k screen is around 60mb vs around 20mb for the on board screen (for a 15). So "technically" the system does use some more memory...but we aren't talking a lot more. There will be at least two buffers and some other buffers but you are probably talking about 100-200mb more ram/graphics ram is needed to manage the various screen buffers. The bigger difference is the GPU/CPU needed to compute what to draw into all of those pixels and the bandwidth (memory speed) to move the data around. For that we need more CPU/GPU and fast memory.
You are using the same machine I would like to buy, with 8gb of RAM (well I have to decide yet if 8gb or 16gb). Are you happy with your 5K? Any lags or other performance issue? Thought that you would need a better machine to run it? Thanks for reporting
[doublepost=1484440838][/doublepost]
Thanks, this is exactly the information I was looking for. So it's more of a CPU/GPU thing. Maybe I could go with a better processor instead adding RAM. Is the 3,1ghz a worth upgrade?
Totally happy with it and no lag at all. Everything operates very smoothly.
Thanks for the info everyone. I looked at the 5K today at an apple store and surprisingly they had it hooked up to a mac pro with similar to specs to mine except I'm 32GB and 1TB ram/ssd. Downscaled monitor output image looks just like good old 4K to me. Icons in the dock were pretty sharp, just like on my 13" rMBP. Ran through some PDF's and vector images in Preview and zoomed in on text and such to judge sharpness, and then went to some footage in FCP X in the sample project they had loaded on there and I had no problems distinguishing critical focus in camera shots, either HD or 4K. So the downscaling is pretty damn good on this setup.
The lag from the brightness controls was pretty annoying. I wonder if that's a TB3 dongle issue? Hopefully they iron it out in an update.
At this point I just have to sell myself on the $974 asking price. I can get a Dell UP2415Q for 379, but it doesn't have the build quality, resolution, future proof-ness of TB3, and webcam/mic (something sorely missing in my nMP setup) for calls. But the price is 1/3 of the LG for a similar 10bit, 60hz, 4K-ish signal.
The lag from the brightness controls was pretty annoying. I wonder if that's a TB3 dongle issue? Hopefully they iron it out in an update.
At this point I just have to sell myself on the $974 asking price. I can get a Dell UP2415Q for 379, but it doesn't have the build quality, resolution, future proof-ness of TB3, and webcam/mic (something sorely missing in my nMP setup) for calls. But the price is 1/3 of the LG for a similar 10bit, 60hz, 4K-ish signal.
Don't think that the brightness control lag is due to the TB3 dongle as I'm experiencing the same lag when adjusting brightness via my keyboard (Bluetooth Logitech K811) with the screen plugged in directly to my late 2016 MBP. No lag if i use the brightness slider through System Preferences though.
I have a desktop lamp connected in one of the USB ports but just to annoy me the screen delivers power to the USB ports even when the computer is off so the lamp is on 24/7. Why, oh why.
Other than that the screen works great with my 15". The first time I connected it I got a lot of beach balls just trying to click things but after the first reboot it has been working just fine. The only thing (besides the USB power) would be that the cable that came with the screen is very touch sensitive. If I so much as touch the cable it loses connection for a second or so before the screen comes back.
Other than that the screen works great with my 15". The first time I connected it I got a lot of beach balls just trying to click things but after the first reboot it has been working just fine. The only thing (besides the USB power) would be that the cable that came with the screen is very touch sensitive. If I so much as touch the cable it loses connection for a second or so before the screen comes back.
Why, oh why? Because the LG 5k Display is a powered hub. I actually prefer this behavior so I can power/charge USB devices with the MacBook Pro off or even absent.
Hehe, I know it is a good thing in most cases. I'm just so used to having the light turn on/off with the screen as I have been using it for the last few years this way.
Finally got my 5k monitor a couple of days ago. Verdict? This stuff is awesome! Text is crystal clear, as you would expect from a 5K screen, but the best part is the fantastic color reproduction. Colors really "pop", and are generally more intense than I'm accustomed to: this becomes especially evident when I look at the greens and the reds.
I tried watching "the force awakens" on this last night: and there was a very noticable difference compared to both my Sony TV and my spouse's iMac 2014 (also 5K).
An interesting glitch though: I hooked up my wireless mouse to the USB-C hub on the back of the screen, and whenever I disconnect the MBP from the monitor + later reattach it, I have to disconnect the mouse transmitter from the screen, and then reattach it to re-establish contact with the mouse?
Having said that, I would recommend this to anyone. Go buy it!
EDIT: Also tried using bootcamp with Windows 10 yesterday: running it on 4K resolution went perfect: scaling on this monitor is working very well. Gaming with Battlefield 1 and DooM tested without incident. It's workning perfectly, and games look stunning on this monitor. Top marks!
I tried watching "the force awakens" on this last night: and there was a very noticable difference compared to both my Sony TV and my spouse's iMac 2014 (also 5K).
An interesting glitch though: I hooked up my wireless mouse to the USB-C hub on the back of the screen, and whenever I disconnect the MBP from the monitor + later reattach it, I have to disconnect the mouse transmitter from the screen, and then reattach it to re-establish contact with the mouse?
Having said that, I would recommend this to anyone. Go buy it!
EDIT: Also tried using bootcamp with Windows 10 yesterday: running it on 4K resolution went perfect: scaling on this monitor is working very well. Gaming with Battlefield 1 and DooM tested without incident. It's workning perfectly, and games look stunning on this monitor. Top marks!
Last edited:
Wow! Really nice setup!Picked up my displays from the Apple Store on Thursday and just got them hooked up on two monitor mounts in my office. Haven't had a chance to really use them so can't comment on how responsive it is yet.
One thing I don't like is that I have to use both sides of the MacBook to connect the displays -- would have so much cleaner to just have everything connected on 1 side.
I'm running a BTO MBP with 2.6 GHz / 460 Graphics / 512GB SSD.
