Mac mini M1 Ultra Wide Monitor Issues

[JuanitoIvanisios]

So I am using a iiyama G-Master GB3461WQSU-B1 Red Eagle with a resolution of 3440 x 1440px and just hooked up my base Mac mini M1 to it.

It will not put out the correct resolution, neither over HDMI nor through a Thunderbolt 3 Elgato Dock that can do HDMI 4K60. The resolution is limited to 800x600 as a native resolution. I tried two different HDMI High-Speed cables that had no problems in putting out 4K60 to other devices.

I tried different adapters to Display Port as well and the monitor seems to have issues with the Mac mini.

Anybody else tried any Ultra Wide monitors with their Mac mini yet and was successful?

 

[slyk]

I came here to post that I'm having problems with the font clarity with my new M1 Mac mini and my Dell U3417W. But, mine is displaying at 3440x1440 via hdmi according to the control panel.

 

[IngerMan]

Something not right and hopefully it will get addressed soon.

I have a 2018 MM and just connected to my HDMi on the mini to my 38" Dell HDMi 1 it is great. I also use it from a eGPU display port with out issues.

If you go to the apple logo top left and hit about this mac, then system report, then graphics display like I have below. What does it show?

 

[slyk]

Here is what mine shows

 

[IngerMan]

That looks correct. I am not sure what you are coming from to compare. I came from a 5K iMac and it took me a week to get use to the matt screen vs glossy screen. At first it seemed less crisp but I grown to like it. I been on this a few years now and find it to be a great screen. There are some options in settings and Accessibility under display that can
affect the look.

 

[slyk]

Some web pages are worse than others -- amazon is among the worst it seems -- but I have been switching the input source between my Surface Laptop and the new mini and the new mini definitely does not look as nice. This thing will go straight back to Apple if I can't get it figured out. Performance is nice, but I"m not going to just "deal with" text that doesn't look right.

 

[slyk]

I use the same monitor for my Surface Laptop 2, and it displays beautifully.

 

[IngerMan]

I use the same monitor for my Surface Laptop 2, and it displays beautifully.

just for checking try switching the inputs on the monitor so the MM is going into the Surface port and vice versa. Just to make sure you don't have a difference between HDMi 1 and 2

 

[slyk]

MM is connected via HDMI, Surface via DP and I don't have an adapter to connect the MM via DP. But, I will switch to the other HDMI port (there are two on the monitor) to make sure that's not the problem..

 

[IngerMan]

I’m down loading big sur now. There might be some preference settings in Safari that can also effect things. I will look tomorrow, I probably won‘t get through the update tonight.

 

[slyk]

Thanks. After googling it looks like it’s a fairly widespread issue with Mac mini and external monitors. I guess people just learn to deal with it.

Switching to the other hdmi input didn’t change it.

 

[President-Elect Beachball]

Thanks. After googling it looks like it’s a fairly widespread issue with Mac mini and external monitors. I guess people just learn to deal with it.

Switching to the other hdmi input didn’t change it.

I have a 2560x1440 dell monitor that is now connected to a windows PC, but when I used it with Macs it had a weird issue in which it would be recognized as a TV and not a monitor via HDMI and default to the YPbPr color system instead of RGB, one of the symptoms of that was fuzzy fonts. To use that monitor with a Mac I had to use it via DisplayPort. I don't know it this is still the case with those new M1 minis.

 

[OneWeb]

I have 2 Dell Ultrasharps connected to the M1 mini. They are both USB-C monitors. I cannot use them both connected through USB-C to the Mac mini, which was working fine connected to an Intel MPB. Had to switch 1 to HDMI, but now both defaulted to YPbPr and the 1 connected through HDMI is showing 1344x756 for the default resolution. I had to hold down the option key and click scaled to change it to 2560x1440 which is the native resolution.

Also, both monitors have USB hubs, and now I have to connect USB-C and HDMI on 1. The problem with that is that the mini doesn't know which of the 2 monitors to send the signal to using thunderbolt when waking from sleep or after a reboot. I've had it where it picked the HDMI 1 and I had to reseat all the cables to fix it. The monitors came with a USB-C to USB-A cable, will be testing that next.

 

[JuanitoIvanisios]

Interesting. I will try to change the resolution by holding down option key for the Ultra Wide monitor. I was quite shocked when I started the initial setup of the Mac mini and everything was shown at a terrible 800x600 resolution. My MacBook Pro on the other hand has no issues with the monitor at all. Everything just works Plug & Play.

I want to use the Ultra Wide along with a 27" WQHD and the plan was to connect either through HDMI and the other through a Thunderbolt 3 Dock via Display Port. I expected this to be a non issue and that the system would just detect the monitors and set resolutions accordingly.

Holding down the Option key did work to setup the correct resolution on the Iiyama Monitor. During boot up the wrong resolution is still applied though up to into the log-in screen.

 

[bushnrvn]

Just wanted to chime in with my experience. 2560x1080

HDMI and TB -> HDMI present the same result.

Issue manifests as alternating darker gray and light gray lines that seem to oscillate. It is most apparent in dark mode, but is still visible in dark colors while in Light mode. Moving the window to a different position sometimes stops the issue, but it is not consistent. And moving it back to its previous position doesn’t always reproduce the issue.

EDIT: 1920x1080 does show the issue, it is just much less apparent.

 

[slyk]

I ordered a USBC to miniDP cable from Apple to make sure that's not the problem...but from searching around a bit more, it sounds like an issue with MacOS font rendering in general.

External Display Recommendations - Ultra Widescreen vs Retina

Hey all! I'm in the market for a new monitor. My primary computer usage is for software development. I've been racking my brain, looking at all sorts of monitors, and was wondering what y'all are using, or if there are any in particular that you love or I should avoid. Based on prices I've seen...

forums.macrumors.com

This seems absolutely crazy to me that people can't use ultrawides with Mac devices without living with blurry text. How has Apple not fixed this?

 

[IngerMan]

Delete

 

[The_Interloper]

I ordered a USBC to miniDP cable from Apple to make sure that's not the problem...but from searching around a bit more, it sounds like an issue with MacOS font rendering in general.

This seems absolutely crazy to me that people can't use ultrawides with Mac devices without living with blurry text. How has Apple not fixed this?

I can confirm this is correct with both ultrawide and regular 1440p monitors. They look like trash on a Mac regardless of HDMI, USB-C to DP etc.

I currently run an AOC 100Hz 3440x1440 ultrawide and text is jagged and awful to work with on my 2018 Mac Mini. On my Windows PC, however, it’s perfect - pin sharp and crisp. This is down to macOS changes to font antialiasing since (I think) Mojave.

There are various command line tricks on the Internet to try to correct things but nothing I have tried has worked - it still looks like garbage. Seems Apple want you to use at least a 4K monitor, even when the Mac provided (e.g. Mini) doesn’t come with one.

 

[slyk]

Super frustrating!! I like everything else about the machine, but not sure I want to just deal with it...every time I browse these websites it bothers me.

 

[warp9]

The most likely issue here is the monitor/tv is not reporting it's capabilities to the mac, so macos sets it to a generic YCbCr tv mode which results in gray-ish blacks, fuzzy text, and missing resolutions. This can be fixed in a few steps.


1. Disconnect all monitors except the problem monitor. If you're on a macbook, close the lid and use only the external monitor.

2. Download patch-edid.rb from https://gist.github.com/adaugherity/7435890 ("Download ZIP" link on the right side) and unzip the file. Copy the patch-edid.rb file to your user/home directory.

3. Open Terminal and type ruby patch-edid.rb. This will create a new directory in your user/home folder. Mine was named DisplayVendorID-593a. Yours will have a different number.

4. Copy that directory to <your mac hard drive>/Library/Displays/Contents/Resources/Overrides/ (you can use Finder to copy it).

5. Reboot.


What's happening here is when the mac encounters your unknown display, it will look in the "Overrides" directory for a matching ID file. It will now find the one that you just created and use it to set up proper resolutions and color spaces.

This will not always work for everybody because EDID monitor reporting is not consistent and all sorts of things can cause problems, from cables to adapters to screen settings. However if it works with Windows, it will probably work with macos.

 

[slyk]

The most likely issue here is the monitor/tv is not reporting it's capabilities to the mac, so macos sets it to a generic YCbCr tv mode which results in gray-ish blacks, fuzzy text, and missing resolutions. This can be fixed in a few steps.


1. Disconnect all monitors except the problem monitor. If you're on a macbook, close the lid and use only the external monitor.

2. Download patch-edid.rb from https://gist.github.com/adaugherity/7435890 ("Download ZIP" link on the right side) and unzip the file. Copy the patch-edid.rb file to your user/home directory.

3. Open Terminal and type ruby patch-edid.rb. This will create a new directory in your user/home folder. Mine was named DisplayVendorID-593a. Yours will have a different number.

4. Copy that directory to <your mac hard drive>/Library/Displays/Contents/Resources/Overrides/ (you can use Finder to copy it).

5. Reboot.


What's happening here is when the mac encounters your unknown display, it will look in the "Overrides" directory for a matching ID file. It will now find the one that you just created and use it to set up proper resolutions and color spaces.

This will not always work for everybody because EDID monitor reporting is not consistent and all sorts of things can cause problems, from cables to adapters to screen settings. However if it works with Windows, it will probably work with macos.

Does that fix work with the M1?

 

[warp9]

Does that fix work with the M1?

Untested.

 

[ludena]

I am using a Mac mini M1 with Samsung LC34 ultra wide at 3440x1440 connected with USBC and no problems at all, it works both at 60Hz and 100Hz, USB ports on the monitor work fine.

 

[slyk]

I am using a Mac mini M1 with Samsung LC34 ultra wide at 3440x1440 connected with USBC and no problems at all, it works both at 60Hz and 100Hz, USB ports on the monitor work fine.

But is your text clear in all circumstances? (Excel, amazon have been the two worst for me)

 

[slyk]

The most likely issue here is the monitor/tv is not reporting it's capabilities to the mac, so macos sets it to a generic YCbCr tv mode which results in gray-ish blacks, fuzzy text, and missing resolutions. This can be fixed in a few steps.


1. Disconnect all monitors except the problem monitor. If you're on a macbook, close the lid and use only the external monitor.

2. Download patch-edid.rb from https://gist.github.com/adaugherity/7435890 ("Download ZIP" link on the right side) and unzip the file. Copy the patch-edid.rb file to your user/home directory.

3. Open Terminal and type ruby patch-edid.rb. This will create a new directory in your user/home folder. Mine was named DisplayVendorID-593a. Yours will have a different number.

4. Copy that directory to <your mac hard drive>/Library/Displays/Contents/Resources/Overrides/ (you can use Finder to copy it).

5. Reboot.


What's happening here is when the mac encounters your unknown display, it will look in the "Overrides" directory for a matching ID file. It will now find the one that you just created and use it to set up proper resolutions and color spaces.

This will not always work for everybody because EDID monitor reporting is not consistent and all sorts of things can cause problems, from cables to adapters to screen settings. However if it works with Windows, it will probably work with macos.

I tried this, but when I type ruby patch-did.rb it says "No display data found! Are any external displays connected?"

But the Mac recognizes the dell when I go to displays within control panel. Maybe the patch/fix doesn't work with M1?