Mac Mini 2012 and 4K monitor

[Chuck Rodent]

Just to update, I have the eGPU working under OSX 10.13.2. I'm not sure what changes were needed since too many permutations of cable/monitor/power up sequence were tried. I have a secondary monitor on the Mac Mini HDMI and the primary monitor on the eGPU Displayport. Boot screen shows up on the primary monitor. The secondary monitor does not need to be powered on for the system to boot or wake from sleep, but it appears that using the HDMI on the Mini was required when installing the High Sierra 10.13.2 update.

 

[Synchro3]

One more thing: Even sleep works.

 

[Hessel89]

I've been thinking about this eGPU solution for my Mac Mini 2012 but I discarded it because I thought the data limit on Thunderbolt 1 would be the bottleneck.. But you can conform that it runs fine at 4K ánd 60hz?
How does the mouse feel? does it feel choppy or delayed in any way?
And how about the HiDPI scaling settings on MacOS? are they present?

EDIT: If someone could post a video of this setup working that would be great!

 

[Ubele]

You can use a 4K monitor with the 2012 mac mini you just won't get the high resolution that a 4k monitor provides especially at a lower 30 hertz with mouse movement being choppy.
I had a Dell P2715Q UHD 4K monitor and the best resolution I could get was 2560x1600 at 60 hertz using the cable provided with the Dell and using the thunderbolt/display port on my 2012 mac mini. The mouse movement and scrolling was smooth but the fonts looked not as clear and razor-sharp. The best way to describe was like a hazy soapy like look to the screen but when I used a 2015 or 2016 MacBook Pro with the Dell I got the full sharp, clear 4K resolution at 60 hertz.

I have a Samsung UE510 4K monitor, and this describes my situation exactly: it works great at 4K with my 2105 13" MacBook Pro, but fonts look a bit hazy at 2K at 60 Hz with my late 2012 Mac Mini. Photos look just as sharp, though.

 

[sumo.do]

Hi all

I just bought a second hand 2012 Mac Mini for a small project i'm doing

I have a Dell 4K 24" monitor which I use with my Mac Book Pro 15" 2015 via display port

When I connect the Mac Mini via the display port I dont get any picture, it only works with HDMI

Will the 2012 Mac Mini support the 4K monitor, i'm not looking for 4K but surely it can do 1080P to the monitor ?

Thanks

A 4K monitor requires a 4K device to get 4K. The mini is 1080. It can never output 4K. But the mini will operate on a 4K monitor, just only at its max res of 1080. I have a bunch of minis on my 4K TVs. All good

 

[Hessel89]

A 4K monitor requires a 4K device to get 4K. The mini is 1080. It can never output 4K. But the mini will operate on a 4K monitor, just only at its max res of 1080. I have a bunch of minis on my 4K TVs. All good

So much wrong information in comment I have to chime in. 1080 max is wrong! The Mac Mini can perfectly display 2560 x 1440 at 60hz. Source: I have a Mac Mini 2012 which I used with a TB display for 6 years.
Now I upgraded to a 4K screen and it can actually output full 3840 x 2160 but only on 30hz.

 

[wwohl]

Assuming the Mini's mDP port is working, it should work without issue but with caveats. The mDP>DP cables shipping with the Dell display does have a "DP" symbol on it, but COXOC cables are "compatible" and not "compliant" with DP specs - they don't fully convey EDID info between a PC/Mac and an attached display. I fixed this issue by swapping in a compliant cable. A workaround is to unplug the display, wait a few seconds, plug in the Dell cable leading from the Mac you want to connect to the display, then plug in and power on the display.

I use my two P2715Q displays with my late-2013 rMBP, and often use one of the two displays with my 2012 Mini Server. I get a default of 1440p @60Hz with the Mini, but with a DP-compliant cable; I got 1080p with the Dell cable, which has been binned. With a DP-compliant cable, no more power issues.

Do you have a link with the cable you used?

 

[campyguy]

Do you have a link with the cable you used?

Accell - Links to Staples and Amazon on the product page, I use 2m Black. Still zero issues.
StarTech - Several links on the "where to buy" page that follows. I also use these in my company, zero issues.

Above links are to the specific product I own and use with my Macs and PCs, ordered more since.

 

[sumo.do]

So much wrong information in comment I have to chime in. 1080 max is wrong! The Mac Mini can perfectly display 2560 x 1440 at 60hz. Source: I have a Mac Mini 2012 which I used with a TB display for 6 years.
Now I upgraded to a 4K screen and it can actually output full 3840 x 2160 but only on 30hz.

That is great to know. But... can you explain how to do that. I have a 2012 Mac mini 2.6GHz i7 with 16GB RAM. All I get as display options under any hertz (24, 30, 50 or 60) is 1080P as the max option. I have a 4k Sony Bravia plugged into it using an Apple HDMI cable. I am not getting your options, nor have I ever seen them on the stock GPU. I would be interested to know why.

I've also tried a Belkin MDP cable and can still only get max 1080P.

 

[treekram]

That is great to know. But... can you explain how to do that. I have a 2012 Mac mini 2.6GHz i7 with 16GB RAM. All I get as display options under any hertz (24, 30, 50 or 60) is 1080P as the max option. I have a 4k Sony Bravia plugged into it using an Apple HDMI cable. I am not getting your options, nor have I ever seen them on the stock GPU. I would be interested to know why.

I've also tried a Belkin MDP cable and can still only get max 1080P.

The maximum resolution out of the HDMI port on the 2012 Mini is 1920x1200. When I connect my 2560x1440 monitor via HDMI, I get 1920x1080.

Using MDP, it's likely that the Mini is seeing the Sony Bravia as a TV (which it is, correct?), thus limiting what it can do - although I don't know if limiting resolution is part of that. Take a look at the following link.
https://apple.stackexchange.com/que...formation-report-for-an-external-monitor-that

This article is only useful if the Mini is recognizing the TV as a "Television" (see the first post of this article). If it is, then the last link is the most useful but you'd have to go through the entire article because it was written in 2013 and had subsequent updates and comments which has useful information.
https://www.mathewinkson.com/2013/0...ix-the-picture-quality-of-an-external-monitor

Or, you can search for "macos force rgb mode instead of ycbcr". You can also try search for information specifically related to your TV model and using it with a Mac. If a TV has a MDP or DP input, there's a good chance people have come across this issue before.

 

[i9i9]

mine worked. but im having a hard time reading those tiiny letters.lol, reverted to 2560

It’s not possible because 4K is only supported by DisplayPort 1.2 or newer. HDMI shouldn’t work, too.

I have a Mac Mini 2012 as well and I‘m running it with two 2k displays. I think this is the best way to get the most pixels out of it.

 

[maziboss]

@i9i9
Is 60 Hz? what type of connections are you using? Is Mac mini late 2012?