LG UltraFine 5K - Owners Thread

[saulinpa]

Pictures of display attached to M1 Air set to 5120x2880.

Small box on lower left has horizontal lines every other pixel. 25 lines/box means 50 pixels per box. There are about 57.5 boxes up and down. 50*57.5=2875

 

[Asi24]

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!

This dude who keeps saying no 5K doesn’t know what he’s talking about. I am a content creator and I am eagle eyed about PPI differences on displays. The LG 5K looks EXACTLY the same on my m1 Mac mini as it does my 15 inch i9 mbp. You will love how it looks. This guy is just trolling.

 

[umbilical]

This dude who keeps saying no 5K doesn’t know what he’s talking about. I am a content creator and I am eagle eyed about PPI differences on displays. The LG 5K looks EXACTLY the same on my m1 Mac mini as it does my 15 inch i9 mbp. You will love how it looks. This guy is just trolling.

me? I don't say anything, actually I don't know anything lol, I just ask here. you mean to the guy that say to me that the the 5K LG not works on my macbook pro late 2013? correct, now I'm more confused...

I just want a 4k Monitor that for now! works on my macbook late 2013, and keep to later works on the next Air to be released M2 or whatever the chip has. For now I want keep alive this 2013.

 

[Asi24]

me? I don't say anything, actually I don't know anything lol, I just ask here. you mean to the guy that say to me that the the 5K LG not works on my macbook pro late 2013? correct, now I'm more confused...

I just want a 4k Monitor that for now! works on my macbook late 2013, and keep to later works on the next Air to be released M2 or whatever the chip has. For now I want keep alive this 2013.

No not you sorry. The guy you’re responding to hahahaha

 

[joevt]

It may be that while the M1 Macs can only support 1 display via Thunderbolt, it might actually have two DisplayPort connections to support 5K on the LG UltraFine 5K and also dual cable displays like the Dell UP2715K and HP Z27q. The LG display doesn't have an onscreen menu to see verify the input resolution but the Dell does. I'm not sure about the HP.
The following command might give more info:
ioreg -firw0 -n AppleCLCD2 > ioreg_M1_displays.txt
zip the result and post here please.

This is a similar situation to some Nvidia GPUs in Windows. While Nvidia only allows 4 displays, it will let you connect a dual cable 5K display as the fourth display which means it allows 5 connections.

 

[KPOM]

It may be that while the M1 Macs can only support 1 display via Thunderbolt, it might actually have two DisplayPort connections to support 5K on the LG UltraFine 5K and also dual cable displays like the Dell UP2715K and HP Z27q. The LG display doesn't have an onscreen menu to see verify the input resolution but the Dell does. I'm not sure about the HP.
The following command might give more info:
ioreg -firw0 -n AppleCLCD2 > ioreg_M1_displays.txt
zip the result and post here please.

This is a similar situation to some Nvidia GPUs in Windows. While Nvidia only allows 4 displays, it will let you connect a dual cable 5K display as the fourth display which means it allows 5 connections.

 

[joevt]

Thanks for this. While I can see that it knows about the dual cable resolution of 5120x2880 ("IsSplit"=Yes), I can't see anything that says that mode is being used. Actually, wait a sec. It says "DPTimingModeId" = 2000 which matches the ID for the 5120x2880 split mode ("ID"=2000). I guess that's enough to show that it's using the dual link SST mode.

A question: where's the pixel clock value? There is a "PreciseSyncRate" and "SyncRate" for horizontal and vertical but I don't know the units or what the difference is between precise and not precise sync rates.
horizontal sync: {"PreciseSyncRate"=3931929, "SyncRate"= 3932160} is 59.996 Hz?
vertical sync: {"PreciseSyncRate"=11646374, "SyncRate"=11665408} is. 177.71 kHz?
pixel clock: 483.37MHz (where is this in the ioreg - can it be calculated from the horizontal or vertical sync rate numbers?)

 

[jimthing]

Why can't Apple just release their normal Kb article to clarify display connections on each M1 machine. 🙄

 

[Wortak]

On the M1 mac mini my UltraFine 5K display (first version) is being recognized only as a 4K display The 2016 MBP works fine with it.

 

[saulinpa]

On the M1 mac mini my UltraFine 5K display (first version) is being recognized only as a 4K display The 2016 MBP works fine with it.

I've had that happen sometimes when I screw something up. Use SwitchResX to select the correct resolution.
Also - Are you connecting directly or through a hub?

 

[Wortak]

I've had that happen sometimes when I screw something up. Use SwitchResX to select the correct resolution.
Also - Are you connecting directly or through a hub?

Thanks, that worked. Now it's being recognized as 5K in "About this Mac", it's a bit weird though why it didn't work before. It's connected directly to the Mac Mini, I guess it makes no difference which TB3 port I use?

 

[saulinpa]

Thanks, that worked. Now it's being recognized as 5K in "About this Mac", it's a bit weird though why it didn't work before. It's connected directly to the Mac Mini, I guess it makes no difference which TB3 port I use?

It should not matter. As far as we know the two TB3 ports are identical in functionality and performance.

 

[RamondeN]

Thanks, that worked. Now it's being recognized as 5K in "About this Mac", it's a bit weird though why it didn't work before. It's connected directly to the Mac Mini, I guess it makes no difference which TB3 port I use?

I am in the same situation. What did you need to do exactly to get the M1 Mac Mini to recognize the 5K as 5K.

 

[Wortak]

I am in the same situation. What did you need to do exactly to get the M1 Mac Mini to recognize the 5K as 5K.

I installed SwitchResX.

 

[pacificblue]

The LG Ultrafine 5K works fine on its native 5120x2880 resolution on my M1 Mac mini, apart from one issue.

Occasionally after the Mac has gone to sleep and the display has turned off, the resolution is locked to 4096x2160 after wake up.
The display cannot be set back to the native 5120x2880 resolution in the display settings and the only way to restore the native resolution is to swap the Thunderbolt port — sometimes multiple times — or restart the Mac.

Anybody else running into this issue? It's somewhat annoying but not critical. And yeah, I've sent feedback to Apple — I hope it will get fixed eventually.

Notes:
- This issue has occurred only on the Mac mini with M1. It cannot be reproduced on late 2016 MacBook Pro 13” running on the same beta version of macOS Big Sur.
- The issue occurs regardless if there is a second monitor connected to the Mac or not.
- The issue occurs only after sleep and wake, not on initial boot. It also does not occur every time after sleep.

 

[badsimian]

I have installed SwitchResX and rebooted but it still comes up with 4K. I am on a MacBook Air with first version LG 5K and an active TB3 cable (which works perfectly well with my MBP16).

UPDATE, after a reboot and switching the cable into which port again twice more it finally came back as proper 5K. Looks crisper now. Hopefully will get fixed soon.

 

[bobbydaz]

So finally decided to purchase an LG 5k to use with my 2016 mbp. So far pretty pleased with it. The display quality is very good and a big step up from my old Apple 24 Display.

Is the LG Ultrafine the best colour profile to use? I'm sure I remember seeing an article that suggested a profile that matches Apple mbp? Also is it better to turn off auto brightness?

One slight criticism is the wobbleness of the screen, other than that build quality seems pretty good. I do actually quite like the functional design, it works well with my space grey keyboard and mouse.

 

[nativeneil]

Anyone managed to reliably get this working with the new M1 Apple Silicon macbooks? I've got an M1 MacBook Air and the LG Ultrafine 5K 27MD5KA (1st Gen) running 11.0.1 but only displaying as 4k. Multiple reboots and port switches but can't get it to recognise 5k. Also the LG Screen Manager doesn't recognise the monitor.

I don't think the M1 has a SMC to reset...

 

[saulinpa]

Anyone managed to reliably get this working with the new M1 Apple Silicon macbooks? I've got an M1 MacBook Air and the LG Ultrafine 5K 27MD5KA (1st Gen) running 11.0.1 but only displaying as 4k. Multiple reboots and port switches but can't get it to recognise 5k. Also the LG Screen Manager doesn't recognise the monitor.

I don't think the M1 has a SMC to reset...

It's been working fine for me using the TB3 cable that came with the monitor. I did screw it up once and had to use SwitchResX to fix the resolution.

 

[nativeneil]

Strange I wonder if the 2560x1440 resolution works the same even if it is detecting as 4k or if everything is slightly off. Anyone know a way to test?

 

[joevt]

Anyone managed to reliably get this working with the new M1 Apple Silicon macbooks? I've got an M1 MacBook Air and the LG Ultrafine 5K 27MD5KA (1st Gen) running 11.0.1 but only displaying as 4k. Multiple reboots and port switches but can't get it to recognise 5k. Also the LG Screen Manager doesn't recognise the monitor.

I don't think the M1 has a SMC to reset...

Did you try sleep/wake?

 

[nativeneil]

Yes tried that and reboot but nothing working...

 

[joevt]

Yes tried that and reboot but nothing working...

What about the rotate 90° and back trick?

Since you are getting at least 4K, then it means that you are using a cable that at least partially works, but does it fully work? Check the Thunderbolt info in System Information.app. Is it connected with "Speed: 40 Gbps x1" and "Current Link Width: 0x2"? If not, then there may be a problem with the cable only connecting at 20 Gbps instead of 40 Gbps.

 

[nativeneil]

90 trick didn't work but I checked the Thunderbolt and it is:
Link Status: 0x2
Speed: Up to 20Gb/s x1
Current Link Width: 0x2
Link Controller Firmware Version: 0.14.0

I thought this was the original cable that came with the monitor but am I wrong?

 

[whiteonline]

90 trick didn't work but I checked the Thunderbolt and it is:
Link Status: 0x2
Speed: Up to 20Gb/s x1
Current Link Width: 0x2
Link Controller Firmware Version: 0.14.0

I thought this was the original cable that came with the monitor but am I wrong?

I was having the same issue using a shorter third-party cable. I just tried the original cable from the monitor, and it comes up as 5k.