LG UltraFine 5K - Owners Thread

[Ianblackburn]

I have a small hairline scratch on my 5k ultrafine and was considering using Novus Plastic Polish Kit to try and remove it. However, I have questions:

1) Is the screen plastic, coated plastic or glass?
2) Is this a terrible idea lol?

Cheers

Ian

 

[Saad-M]

I have a small hairline scratch on my 5k ultrafine and was considering using Novus Plastic Polish Kit to try and remove it. However, I have questions:

1) Is the screen plastic, coated plastic or glass?
2) Is this a terrible idea lol?

Cheers

Ian

Sounds like a terrible idea. The worry I would have is the scratch remover acting as an abrasive and removing any coating on the screen leaving you in a worse position than where you started.

 

[KPOM]

In case anyone is wondering, my MacBook Air M1/16/512 can power the LG Ultrafine in native 5K when plugged in directly, or through my HP Thunderbolt Dock.

 

[Mike Boreham]

In case anyone is wondering, my MacBook Air M1/16/512 can power the LG Ultrafine in native 5K when plugged in directly, or through my HP Thunderbolt Dock.

Thanks for this info. I have a M1/16/512 coming next week and an LG 5k Ultrafine is a definite possibility.

Any comment about the combo? I am not a prolonged heavy load user (or I would have got the MBP) but wonder how much overhead a 5K monitor puts on the M1 Air.

I am also considering the 4k Ultrafine because of the lower overhead.

 

[LiE_]

Anyone running the 5K from a base MBA?

 

[KPOM]

Thanks for this info. I have a M1/16/512 coming next week and an LG 5k Ultrafine is a definite possibility.

Any comment about the combo? I am not a prolonged heavy load user (or I would have got the MBP) but wonder how much overhead a 5K monitor puts on the M1 Air.

I am also considering the 4k Ultrafine because of the lower overhead.

I only briefly used it with the MacBook Air today, but will use it more this week. Based on the Metal scores in the benchmarks, I don't anticipate an issue.

 

[joevt]

In case anyone is wondering, my MacBook Air M1/16/512 can power the LG Ultrafine in native 5K when plugged in directly, or through my HP Thunderbolt Dock.

There's no way to tell it is native 5K unless you look at AGDCDiagnose output or timing info in SwitchResX.
You are probably running 5K framebuffer scaled down to 4K.

 

[saulinpa]

There's no way to tell it is native 5K unless you look at AGDCDiagnose output or timing info in SwitchResX.
You are probably running 5K framebuffer scaled down to 4K.

AGDCDiagnose doesn't work for M1s nor does SwitchResX give details. Waiting for AS version of SwitchResX.

 

[joevt]

AGDCDiagnose doesn't work for M1s nor does SwitchResX give details. Waiting for AS version of SwitchResX.

Yes, no AGDC nodes on M1 Mac so nothing is output for that command.
For SwitchResX, what does it show? Double click a resolution in the Current Resolutions tab?

 

[saulinpa]

Yes, no AGDC nodes on M1 Mac so nothing is output for that command.
For SwitchResX, what does it show? Double click a resolution in the Current Resolutions tab?

 

[umbilical]

I'm thinking buy one LG UltraFine 5K, my question is, works for my macbook pro late 2013?
I see this macbook pro have two thunderbolts of Speed: Up to 20 Gb/s x1

note: I'll be wait for the second gen of the M1 to buy the macbook air, now now, but for now I'll continue with the 2013 but I really need a monitor right now.

I see the LG 5Ks sold on ebay for around $600 to $900, is a good idea buy it used?

Buy it new for $1300 is too much, overpriced.

any help?

 

[kerplunknet]

‎

 

[KPOM]

I'm thinking buy one LG UltraFine 5K, my question is, works for my macbook pro late 2013?
I see this macbook pro have two thunderbolts of Speed: Up to 20 Gb/s x1

note: I'll be wait for the second gen of the M1 to buy the macbook air, now now, but for now I'll continue with the 2013 but I really need a monitor right now.

I see the LG 5Ks sold on ebay for around $600 to $900, is a good idea buy it used?

Buy it new for $1300 is too much, overpriced.

any help?

You might have issues getting the LG Ultrafine 5K working with your older Mac because it has only Thunderbolt 2 ports, while the LG relies exclusively on Thunderbolt 3 to connect to the Mac. I don’t know if there are workarounds involving a Thunderbolt 2-to-3 adapter.

 

[saulinpa]

I'm thinking buy one LG UltraFine 5K, my question is, works for my macbook pro late 2013?
I see this macbook pro have two thunderbolts of Speed: Up to 20 Gb/s x1

note: I'll be wait for the second gen of the M1 to buy the macbook air, now now, but for now I'll continue with the 2013 but I really need a monitor right now.

I see the LG 5Ks sold on ebay for around $600 to $900, is a good idea buy it used?

Buy it new for $1300 is too much, overpriced.

any help?

Buying used is fine on eBay if you can return it for any problem. Look at the listing carefully for the return policy. If the screen has nicks, dead pixels, color problems, etc. it needs to be noted otherwise should be listed as-is. Also they should include the original TB3 cable, power cord, stand, and VESA adapter.

On your old machine use a TB2 cable and an Apple TB3<>TB2 adapter as many others don't work. You won't get 5K but 3840x2160 as TB2 doesn't have the bandwidth for 5K.

 

[saulinpa]

Also verified as much as I could that the 27MD5KA does indeed display 5K from a AS M1 Macbook Air. Brought up a simple static 4k test image in the middle of the display (several inch thick black borders around it) and could just make out the individual lines. From my 2013 MP it looks terrible even though it reports it is at 5K. Other than test images the display works fine for me on the old machine.

 

[joevt]

I'm thinking buy one LG UltraFine 5K, my question is, works for my macbook pro late 2013?
I see this macbook pro have two thunderbolts of Speed: Up to 20 Gb/s x1

note: I'll be wait for the second gen of the M1 to buy the macbook air, now now, but for now I'll continue with the 2013 but I really need a monitor right now.

I see the LG 5Ks sold on ebay for around $600 to $900, is a good idea buy it used?

LG UltraFine 5K display requires two DisplayPort 1.2 signals 2560x2880 over Thunderbolt 3.
Thunderbolt 2 cannot do that.
The MacBook Pro late 2013 can't even do 4K 60Hz (unless maybe it can for an old 4K display that uses MST).

The LG UltraFine 5K doesn't work at 5K on M1 Macs now. The same might be true for second gen M1 Macs also.

Therefore, I see no reason for you to get an LG UltraFine 5K with these options.

Also verified as much as I could that the 27MD5KA does indeed display 5K from a AS M1 Macbook Air. Brought up a simple static 4k test image in the middle of the display (several inch thick black borders around it) and could just make out the individual lines.

"could just make out the individual lines" makes it sound like the lines were not as clear as they should be. I'm sure it's 5K scaled down to 4K by the GPU, then scaled up by the display to 5K so the lines may be a little blurry.

From my 2013 MP it looks terrible even though it reports it is at 5K. Other than test images the display works fine for me on the old machine.

SwitchResX on Intel Mac will show what resolution it's running at. Maybe it's 2560x1440.

 

[saulinpa]

LG UltraFine 5K display requires two DisplayPort 1.2 signals 2560x2880 over Thunderbolt 3.
Thunderbolt 2 cannot do that.
The MacBook Pro late 2013 can't even do 4K 60Hz (unless maybe it can for an old 4K display that uses MST).

The LG UltraFine 5K doesn't work at 5K on M1 Macs now. The same might be true for second gen M1 Macs also.

Therefore, I see no reason for you to get an LG UltraFine 5K with these options.


"could just make out the individual lines" makes it sound like the lines were not as clear as they should be. I'm sure it's 5K scaled down to 4K by the GPU, then scaled up by the display to 5K so the lines may be a little blurry.


SwitchResX on Intel Mac will show what resolution it's running at. Maybe it's 2560x1440.

Have you even seen a 5K display? As stated above it is 3840x2160 with TB2

The 5K works at 5K on M1 Macs now.

 

[joevt]

Have you even seen a 5K display? As stated above it is 3840x2160 with TB2

The 5K works at 5K on M1 Macs now.

Not possible for the LG UltraFine 5K because it requires two DisplayPort 1.2 signals over Thunderbolt 3 but the M1 Macs have only one DisplayPort connected to Thunderbolt. Are you talking about a different 5K display?

Since AGDCDiagnose and SwitchResX don't work on M1 Macs, the following may show what resolution it's outputting (I don't have an M1 Mac to test):
log stream --style compact --info --debug --predicate 'message matches ".*[^0-9]0*(1920|2560|3840|5120|6016|6200|7680)[^0-9].*" and not senderImagePath matches ".*(MediaToolbox|Safari|webinspecterd|deleted|IconServices)" and not processImagePath matches ".*(Safari|System Preferences|Dock|SwitchResX Daemon|NotificationCenter|Terminal)"'

Run the command then change the resolution to 5120x2880 and see what gets logged. Press Command-Period to stop streaming. Press Command-K to clear the terminal window.

If you see many of === Messages dropped during live streaming (use `log show` to see what they were) then stop streaming, and change log stream to log show --last 1m to show that last 1 minute of messages.

If you see a lot of extraneous messages, change --style compact to --style json, look at the processImagePath and senderImagePath info of some of the extraneous messages and add to the processImagePath or senderImagePath exclusions in the log command predicate and try again.

 

[umbilical]

LG UltraFine 5K display requires two DisplayPort 1.2 signals 2560x2880 over Thunderbolt 3.
Thunderbolt 2 cannot do that.
The MacBook Pro late 2013 can't even do 4K 60Hz (unless maybe it can for an old 4K display that uses MST).

The LG UltraFine 5K doesn't work at 5K on M1 Macs now. The same might be true for second gen M1 Macs also.

Therefore, I see no reason for you to get an LG UltraFine 5K with these options.


"could just make out the individual lines" makes it sound like the lines were not as clear as they should be. I'm sure it's 5K scaled down to 4K by the GPU, then scaled up by the display to 5K so the lines may be a little blurry.


SwitchResX on Intel Mac will show what resolution it's running at. Maybe it's 2560x1440.

Wow thank you! you save me to spend $ on the LG 5K

Now, what about this: LG 27UL850-W ?

Also not works on this mac, same thing about 4K?

Ouch! I feel lost, I don't want the M1 yet, but I want a 27 4K monitor, so I can't use it on this Mac 2013?

so any monitor recommendation for this mac?
thanks again!

 

[joevt]

Wow thank you! you save me to spend $ on the LG 5K

Now, what about this: LG 27UL850-W ?

Also not works on this mac, same thing about 4K?

Ouch! I feel lost, I don't want the M1 yet, but I want a 27 4K monitor, so I can't use it on this Mac 2013?

so any monitor recommendation for this mac?
thanks again!

Maybe 4K 30Hz might work?

Or maybe the pixel clock patch? I haven't tried the pixel clock patch recently. I don't know if it still works. I don't know if it will help the MacBook Pro 2013.

You could also try an eGPU. Go to eGPU.io website for more info.

 

[bobbydaz]

I have an MBP 15" 2016 and looking for 4k/5k options and the LG seems to fit the bill. As I work on web design I am used to working on Apple 24" display at 1920 x 1080 res. Working at this viewport makes sense as it's more common for web use. Working at the 5k full res will be too large and not accurate to what most web users will see. I assume I can set the resolution to something lower than 5120x2880 but still retain sharp text (retina)?

 

[Weaselboy]

Not possible for the LG UltraFine 5K because it requires two DisplayPort 1.2 signals over Thunderbolt 3 but the M1 Macs have only one DisplayPort connected to Thunderbolt. Are you talking about a different 5K display?

It is hard to believe Apple would release these new M1 Macs without support for the LG 5K display.

The specs says the new Air for example supports up to 6K at 60Hz and it seems like the LG 5K is well below that. What am I missing?

 

[joevt]

It is hard to believe Apple would release these new M1 Macs without support for the LG 5K display.

The specs says the new Air for example supports up to 6K at 60Hz and it seems like the LG 5K is well below that. What am I missing?

View attachment 1673671

LG UltraFine 5K requires two DisplayPort 1.2 HBR2 signals of 2560x2880 over Thunderbolt to support 5K resolution.
The XDR display requires two DisplayPort 1.4 HBR3 signals of 3008x3384 over Thunderbolt to support 6K resolution for computers that don't support DSC.
If the computer supports DSC, then the XDR can use a single DisplayPort 1.4 HBR2 with DSC signal of 6016x3384 to support 6K resolution.

The M1 Macs only have one DisplayPort input to the Thunderbolt controller, therefore it cannot do 5K for the LG UltraFine 5K but it can do 6K (with DSC) for the XDR.

There are 5K displays that use a single DisplayPort 1.4 HBR3 signal that should be compatible with the M1.

Update: M1 Mac has two displayPort connections but can only use both for a tiled display, not for two separate displays. #2,055

 

[Weaselboy]

The M1 Macs only have one DisplayPort input to the Thunderbolt controlle

Where are you seeing that in the specs?

It seems like quite a few members are reporting their M1 does show 5K with the LG monitor.

 

[saulinpa]

Not possible for the LG UltraFine 5K because it requires two DisplayPort 1.2 signals over Thunderbolt 3 but the M1 Macs have only one DisplayPort connected to Thunderbolt. Are you talking about a different 5K display?

Since AGDCDiagnose and SwitchResX don't work on M1 Macs, the following may show what resolution it's outputting (I don't have an M1 Mac to test):
log stream --style compact --info --debug --predicate 'message matches ".*[^0-9]0*(1920|2560|3840|5120|6016|6200|7680)[^0-9].*" and not senderImagePath matches ".*(MediaToolbox|Safari|webinspecterd|deleted|IconServices)" and not processImagePath matches ".*(Safari|System Preferences|Dock|SwitchResX Daemon|NotificationCenter|Terminal)"'

Run the command then change the resolution to 5120x2880 and see what gets logged. Press Command-Period to stop streaming. Press Command-K to clear the terminal window.

If you see many of === Messages dropped during live streaming (use `log show` to see what they were) then stop streaming, and change log stream to log show --last 1m to show that last 1 minute of messages.

If you see a lot of extraneous messages, change --style compact to --style json, look at the processImagePath and senderImagePath info of some of the extraneous messages and add to the processImagePath or senderImagePath exclusions in the log command predicate and try again.

The log stream output isn't very helpful. "2020-11-19 11:39:06.045 Df WindowServer[139:728] [com.apple.SkyLight:display] [ Display:Config ] setting origin (-1929.0, -1620.0) -> (-5120.0, -1620.0)
" and messages dropped. I didn't see anything obvious in the log.