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macOS 27 Golden Gate Gains Native Ultrawide Display Support
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AncTreat5358
macrumors newbie
I have a non-ultrawide Samsung monitor connected with USB-C. There is a known bug working with macOS where the timing is *very* sensitive. If you don't let the monitor wake up from sleep long enough first, macOS shifts to the lowest resolution. The solution is to go to the back of the monitor and briefly disconnect and reconnect the USB-C cable.
I hope this might be addressable in some way because it's a real pain.
Jarman74
Contributor
opeter
macrumors 68030
This wallpaper looks to my like something after the apocalypse. Everything is deserted (or the river is poisoned), the horizon is burning after a nuclear catastrophy or bomb.
I like the default promo wallpaper, that was shown yesterday, it is minimalistic, still shows the desert line, the dunes... And you can see the icons, if you like to have files on desktop.
p.s: Apple doesn't have any ultrawide display, but maybe this will change in future. Anyway, there are some nice display from 3rd party out there. Even 5K (5120 x 2160). My only problem is, that these are big displays, mostly 40+ inches.
Only a few are 34-37" in size and these have 3440x1440 resolution. Some have 5120 x 1440.
I like the default promo wallpaper, that was shown yesterday, it is minimalistic, still shows the desert line, the dunes... And you can see the icons, if you like to have files on desktop.
p.s: Apple doesn't have any ultrawide display, but maybe this will change in future. Anyway, there are some nice display from 3rd party out there. Even 5K (5120 x 2160). My only problem is, that these are big displays, mostly 40+ inches.
Only a few are 34-37" in size and these have 3440x1440 resolution. Some have 5120 x 1440.
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anthonymoody
macrumors 68040
For any/all who are confused here. Just take a peel in the Mac Accessories subforum and head into the threads for the various 5k2k widescreen monitors. The issue is highly inconsistent availability of 3840 x 1620 HiDPI from one Mac model to another. That resolution is considered the sweet spot by many users of these monitors because it gives a great balance of virtual desktop space and text size. (At full 5k2k, text is considered way too small for many).
What was even weirder is that the early M chips, like my M1, seemed to have no issue with this resolution (though you needed e.g. BetterDummy or SwtichResX). But later iterations of the M couldn't get 3840 x 1620 HiDPI no matter what. It was like the Mac lineup went backwards in capability in this regard.
Anyway, this HiDPI resolution for 5k2k monitors is now inbuilt into the OS so it should no longer be an issue. This is indeed a very big deal for those who have been wrestling with it.
What was even weirder is that the early M chips, like my M1, seemed to have no issue with this resolution (though you needed e.g. BetterDummy or SwtichResX). But later iterations of the M couldn't get 3840 x 1620 HiDPI no matter what. It was like the Mac lineup went backwards in capability in this regard.
Anyway, this HiDPI resolution for 5k2k monitors is now inbuilt into the OS so it should no longer be an issue. This is indeed a very big deal for those who have been wrestling with it.
RumorConsumer
macrumors 68000
Zorn
macrumors 65816
Interesting, that might be one issue but definitely not the only one. I don't ever run any of the blown-up scaled resolutions and have always ran my monitors at native. 32:9 resolutions did not exist in macOS previously, those monitors would just erroneously show you 3840x2160 and you'd need hacks to get the proper res. It wasn't possible to just set your Mac at 5120x1440 natively without one of a handful of utilities.
I have the issue with the layout changing every time I switch from using my laptop on it's own to using the two widescreen monitors in my office, so that'll be a nifty update if my apps land in the right places (mail on the laptop screen, calendar on the right side screen, all the rest in their places on the 34" ultrawide main screen).
It's not a daily thing but I detatch often enough that the re-arrangement is annoying.
It's not a daily thing but I detatch often enough that the re-arrangement is annoying.
Strange. I never had any drop to 60 Hz.
Check your monitor Firmware for update.
I don’t use VRR for the screen - Samsung is horrible on these monitors with the flicker.
I just tried it on my 49-inch Samsung monitor with my M2 Air. It now natively gives me the option of 5120x1440. In the past, I would have to use the app BetterDisplay to achieve that. So, people with M1 / M2, this will be very beneficial. The ones with M3/M4/M5, likely already had the setting prior to macOS 27 Golden Gate.
It does. Confirmed. M2 Air / 49-inch ultra wide monitor / 5120x1440.
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mctape
macrumors member
does this mean my M4 MBP will finally support the resolutions that my M1 MBP supported on the same monitor?
anthonymoody
macrumors 68040
It would appear so but you'll have to try it to know definitively.
Oh also @Zorn another issue I forgot to mention with 3840 x 1620 HiDPI is that different Mac/chip models seemed to have different experience with the Dell monitors than the LG monitors. So yeah it was a mess of sorts.
Was this just a problem with hidpi ultrawides? I've used an old 3840x1600 for 10 years and never had these issues.
Zorn
macrumors 65816
Yeah resolution support was a mess for sure. I only had experience with the Samsung OLED 49" that I had when I got my Studio, but the amount of screwing around just to get the native resolution working was infuriating. I think it stems from Apple wanting to deal in nonsense like "more space" "larger windows" rather than just letting people set the damn res.
anthonymoody
macrumors 68040
Not sure about your monitor but the ultrawides definitely have had this mess.
groove-agent
macrumors 68020
routine_analyst
macrumors 65816
Release something. Then break it. It becomes "a known issue". Release a fix for it. Then break it again. It becomes a "Long standing issue." Years later, release another fix for it... and so on.
I have the same monitor, and because scaling options are limited (even with BetterDisplay app), I am forced to run it at 3840x1080 in order to maintain HiDPI resolution. I can do 7680x2160 but everything is way too small and while I can zoom the text in some applications, menu bars and other UI elements remain way too tiny. I am hoping Golden Gate solves this, as I'd like to have the resolution somewhere between what is natively available and what I'm currently running without the font looking blurry.
I'm running it at 120Hz currently; haven't been able to get higher than that, and honestly don't need it (work computer). Using a TB5 dock and then a TB5 --> DisplayPort (2.1) cable.
Same monitor, but M5 Pro MBP, but both support TB5 so it should work. I think above setup would work with TB4 as well. I had to go through a lot of cables/dongles to get it to work properly. I tried direct HDMI and got a high refresh rate, but then had issues with the resolution.
Hoping OS 27 solves all this and then some, especially the scaling issue that you point out.
Riot Nrrrd
macrumors 6502a
There’s literally a 30 page thread on here about issues with Ultrawide monitors missing resolutions (like the default/ideal 3840x1620 HiDPI resolution) on M4 and M5 Macs that is supposedly now fixed in macOS 27 Golden Gate because of this news.
Edit: when I composed this I had not seen @anthonymoody ‘s post basically saying the same thing.
