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Mac mini 2014 monitor dilema - UHD vs QHD
- Thread starter vddobrev
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
My system preferences state the following:
U28E590:
Resolution: 2560 x 1440 @ 60 Hz
Framebuffer Depth: 24-Bit Color (ARGB8888)
Display Serial Number: HTPH3*****
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Rotation: Supported
Automatically Adjust Brightness: No
Connection Type: DisplayPort
U28E590:
Resolution: 2560 x 1440 @ 60 Hz
Framebuffer Depth: 24-Bit Color (ARGB8888)
Display Serial Number: HTPH3*****
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Rotation: Supported
Automatically Adjust Brightness: No
Connection Type: DisplayPort
2560 x 1440
Is there anything I can do to improve my image quality with the monitor I have?
Alright, now it is clear that this is not HiDPI. Check if DP 1.2 is turned on in the monitor OSD. Sometimes a simple cable upgrade to a DP 1.2 cable can make a difference, this for example.
I am getting mine tomorrow, will report back.
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I received the Dell P2715Q.
The good:
- It worked out of the box with my Mac mini 2014
- Good brightness and colours.
- Text is sharp at 1920x1080 HiDPI mode, very close to iMac 5K.
The bad:
- I cannot get 2560x1440 HiDPI with Mac mini 2014, only 1920x1080 and lower. Various low resolutions are supported, see attached screen shot.
- With Mac mini 2014 only 30Hz refresh rate is supported at 1920x1080 HiDPI mode, but I already knew that.
The just OK:
- Image quality is OK for a $450 monitor, but I am not very impressed, I am spoiled by iMac 5K.
- The anti glare coating is OK (I have to move further away no to see the grains), but I would have liked glossy screen better.
- 30Hz refresh is OK for my usage looking primarily at text, but not optimal for scrolling.
All in all, I am satisfied with the monitor and will keep it. The above mentioned negatives are a limitations of the Mac mini 2014, and hopefully a new Mac mini will be released soon.
The good:
- It worked out of the box with my Mac mini 2014
- Good brightness and colours.
- Text is sharp at 1920x1080 HiDPI mode, very close to iMac 5K.
The bad:
- I cannot get 2560x1440 HiDPI with Mac mini 2014, only 1920x1080 and lower. Various low resolutions are supported, see attached screen shot.
- With Mac mini 2014 only 30Hz refresh rate is supported at 1920x1080 HiDPI mode, but I already knew that.
The just OK:
- Image quality is OK for a $450 monitor, but I am not very impressed, I am spoiled by iMac 5K.
- The anti glare coating is OK (I have to move further away no to see the grains), but I would have liked glossy screen better.
- 30Hz refresh is OK for my usage looking primarily at text, but not optimal for scrolling.
All in all, I am satisfied with the monitor and will keep it. The above mentioned negatives are a limitations of the Mac mini 2014, and hopefully a new Mac mini will be released soon.
Attachments
Exactly what I thought. Low-res mode. The OS only sees the
Are you an admin account and did you remember to write sudo at the beginning?
It'll ask for your password - it won't show it but it is recognising what you write.
Well this is almost exactly what the iMac 4K does (the 21.5 inc one). It's native pixel doubling would be 2048x1152, so yeah, pretty much 1920x1080.
That sucks! – At least if you want more screen space you can go 3840x2160 with no scaling.... You'll get a lot of screen real estate then....
Just to toss this out, I've got the HP Envy 4K monitor (~$500, comes with usb-c) hooked up to my 2011 mid-Mini. I'm getting 2560x1600 with it. (Note, the base is hit-or-miss with this monitor. If it's a miss, then the screen can detach from the base and land face-first... I had to have my 1st replaced by HP for that)
Not to be rude, but your point is what?
A Mac Mini can't run 4K above 30Hz. 1600p is the best you can get at 60Hz and it's better than the 1440p QHD that others are getting. This is for a high quality IPS monitor at the high end of the QHD monitor price range and cheaper than the 30" 2560x1600 screens. And in addition it's 4K...
I'm going to be moving it to a hackintosh in a few weeks to really run it at 4K. Try that with a QHD screen
I didn't mean for my post to sound aggressive or anything either
I simple think I misunderstood what you were trying to say with your post, since there'd bee confusion about hi-DPI and low res modes earlier in the thread, so I thought you were claiming to run 1600p in scaled mode, and just wanted the record set straight for anyone else reading.
For a 60hz experience, your resolution is indeed the best it gets with the mini
A secondary point I was making was also that if the only purpose with someone's screen purchase was to run it with a Mac mini and they wanted 60hz, they shouldn't spend extra for a 4k screen
Update: I managed to get 1920x1080 HiDPI @ 48Hz (47.993 to be precise) with SwitchResX. Anything higher and black screen. Not 60Hz but better than 30Hz.
That's a very funny refresh rate though. Might confuse things like games and such. Hell, I wouldn't be shocked if it confused Quartz enough that it causes tearing, but if not, well, good
. But anything that isn't programmed to recognise odd refresh rates, and tries to sync the frame buffer to the display, i.e. vsync, could act weird in this setup.Regardless, awesome that you made that work.
SwitchResX couldn't get it to be 2560x144@1.5x though, right?
Well with 30Hz movies played with VLC were jerky and looked kind of like skipping frames. 48Hz fixed that, i.e. double the 24Hz. But I agree, 48 is a strange rate and I am almost inclined to revert back to 30.That's a very funny refresh rate though. Might confuse things like games and such. Hell, I wouldn't be shocked if it confused Quartz enough that it causes tearing, but if not, well, good
Regardless, awesome that you made that work.
SwitchResX couldn't get it to be 2560x144@1.5x though, right?
2560x1440@1.5x HiDPI is a no go on the Mac mini, not even with SwitchResX, but works perfectly fine when the Dell P2715Q is connected to my iMac.
As a last resort, I ordered a supposedly better mDP-->DP cable that supports 4K. We shall see if it changes anything when it arrives.
Well if it hasn't given you any issues so far, I say keep rocking it. If you want the double of film though, it ought to be 47,97. But you're close enough 47,992 that you'd probably not be many frames off in the duration of a film.
Isn't it a bit weird though? If it can output 4k at 30hz, I don't see why it wouldn't be able to output any scaled resolution. It's the same output bandwidth requires, since the scaling happens in the GPU before the stream is sent to the monitor, so the monitor would just get a normal 4k signal.
Sure. Doubt it'll make a difference though, seeing you got the expected results with your iMac as the connection device.
It's not just the computer side, the monitor also has to support the resolution. If there's any kind of discrepancy with how either side is handling the resolution, then the communication between the 2 is screwed up and it's a no-go
Sure, but as I said, for all what the monitor is concerned, it is just getting a 4k signal (plus it's documented in this thread that the resolution is supported when the monitor is plugged into an iMac)
@casperes1996 you were right! I had the first crashes today. Started my work day, opened a few apps, started a JVM, then Firefox, and boom.Hell, I wouldn't be shocked if it confused Quartz enough that it causes tearing, but if not, well, good
Reverting back to default refresh rate settings, can't afford unstable machine.
I take it JVM is Java Virtual Machine in this context - What did you run inside Java?
An outright crash is not something I would expect. Visual artefacts, yes, but a crash, no.
Yes, it is Java Virtual Machine. I run Oracle WebLogic Server, and an J2EE app inside it. Well, it was a "crash" in the sense that screen went black, and there was no way to recover, except holding power button.
Very interesting. I don't think this has to do with the software on macOS. If I were to wager a guess, I think you were just pushing the bandwidth of the DP connection so hard that it could only keep up under certain circumstances. I don't know if this specific DP implementation (revision) uses compression, but if so, it could be that it only works on easily compressible signales, or whatnot. Perhaps something like 42hz would work more smoothly. Still an odd framerate that could cause graphical artefacts in some cases, but I doubt you'd see crashes or a similar experience to what you just described.