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M3 max support 480 Hz monitor?

T

TechViking

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 3, 2009
188
9
Do we know if the M3 max supports an external monitor running at 480 fps?

The specs says:

  • Support for one display with up to 8K resolution at 60Hz or 4K resolution at 240Hz (M3 Pro and M3 Max)
Since it does 4K at 240 Hz, can it also do 480 Hz at 1080p? (Or even 960 Hz at 720p?)

I need to use a high refresh rate external monitor for a project, and the resolution is not important.

Still three weeks until my CTO M3 max arrives so I cant test this myself yet.
 
It should work. 1080p at 480Hz is less bandwidth than 8K at 60. You can use a video data rate calculator like this one to see what's possible with various connectors.
 
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salamanderjuice said:
It should work. 1080p at 480Hz is less bandwidth than 8K at 60. You can use a video data rate calculator like this one to see what's possible with various connectors.
Click to expand...

I agree that it should work. I think the question is rather whether Apple have added support for it or not. If someone knows for sure or perhaps could test connecting with a 480 Hz monitor, that would be really great.
 
It is supposed to work as long as you are within the bandwidth limit.

But with increasingly obscure combinations of res + Hz, it is likely the stock macOS display settings won't give you what you need, at that point you may need to install 3rd party utilities like Better Display / SiwtchResX to handle that. Also you likely will need EDID editor since your display(s) are probably not the commercially available ones.
 
Chancha said:
It is supposed to work as long as you are within the bandwidth limit.

But with increasingly obscure combinations of res + Hz, it is likely the stock macOS display settings won't give you what you need, at that point you may need to install 3rd party utilities like Better Display / SiwtchResX to handle that. Also you likely will need EDID editor since your display(s) are probably not the commercially available ones.
Click to expand...

I dont think the display settings would be the problem/solution. What would be needed is that the M3 max has actually inplemented support for, say 1080p at 480 Hz.

Does someone know? There are commercially available high refresh rate monitors, ASUS have a 540 Hz gaming monitor. We might see monitors with even higher refresh rates unveiled soon at CES.
 
TechViking said:
I dont think the display settings would be the problem/solution. What would be needed is that the M3 max has actually inplemented support for, say 1080p at 480 Hz.

Does someone know? There are commercially available high refresh rate monitors, ASUS have a 540 Hz gaming monitor. We might see monitors with even higher refresh rates unveiled soon at CES.
Click to expand...
As said, if the specific display setting combination is within bandwidth specification of the given DisplayPort version, it has to be possible. Apple never lists DP version on their machine specs but Thunderbolt mandates this, so by proxy all modern Macs especially the ones with TB4 has to support that.

Now why OS setting matters though? Because Apple does not want to clutter the OS display settings interface to the point being unusable by normal people, so they only list a few typical use case settings by default. This is why you may need a 3rd party app to "unlock" those settings.

You mentioned doing this for a project that's where I inferred that you may have been planning to use a custom / industrial display. But even with that ASUS, it is relatively obscure, though we can expect the EDID to probably be done correctly. Whichever the case, there is a good likelihood that you may need to edit custom EDID in order to force the communication between the display and the Mac the way you want.

You are on the right track in seeking 1st hand experiences instead of listening to conjectures like from myself. But using high refresh displays on Macs has always been a really obscure use case, you may end up being the first to test the 480Hz, at least on this forum.
 
I’m curious how the M3 max reaches 4K 240hz. As the OP said, 4K 240hz is only supported through HDMI. HDMI only supports 4K at 120hz.

I’m wondering if there are monitors that give non-standard support for 4K 240hz through HDMI and if there are cables that support it.

I can’t see any reason why I would need more than 120hz 4K but that is my use need. I’m sure there are others who might need a higher refresh rate like the OP.
 
TechViking said:
Since it does 4K at 240 Hz, can it also do 480 Hz at 1080p? (Or even 960 Hz at 720p?)

I need to use a high refresh rate external monitor for a project, and the resolution is not important.
Click to expand...
What HD monitor supports 480Hz?
 
mad2fly said:
I’m curious how the M3 max reaches 4K 240hz. As the OP said, 4K 240hz is only supported through HDMI. HDMI only supports 4K at 120hz.

I’m wondering if there are monitors that give non-standard support for 4K 240hz through HDMI and if there are cables that support it.

I can’t see any reason why I would need more than 120hz 4K but that is my use need. I’m sure there are others who might need a higher refresh rate like the OP.
Click to expand...
Display Stream Compression. With that it's possible for HDMI 2.1 to do 4K 240Hz.
 
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mad2fly said:
I was able to do some searches including DSC. I came up with.Alienware 4K 240hz through HDMI
Click to expand...
Perhaps you quoted the wrong link? Alienware AW3423DWF only supports 165Hz natively via DP.

1709918626338.png
 
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