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werpu

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 1, 2017
50
21
My trusty 4k IIYAMA monitor basically is dead since yesterday. So I guess it is time to get a new monitor. The problem there is I cannot really find one which suits my needs entirely (well I found one which seems to be sold out or discontinued at the moment)

Here is what I need

a) It should have USB-C (not mandatory but it would be nice since my 2016 MBPro is on its way)
b) Displayport and/or Mini displayport
c) And HDMI 2.0 or higher
d) UHD/4k is a must no 5k for me i need to scale 1080p half the time, half the time I am in 4k.

Things like color accuracy are not a must, I am a programmer but I have to stare 8 hours per day on the screen so it must be ergonomic (which basically shoots out all Samsung monitors because they are not height adjustable)

Pricrange 400-800 Euros/Dollars max.

Yes I have 3 machines I connect to the monitor, so a pure USB-C solution is a no go.

Any recommendations? So far I only could find the LG27UD88-W which fits into this, but this monitor is either discontinued or on a hold at the moment, because it is not buyable within sane prices or even available all over Europe (although it has been on the market for quite a while now)
Are there any other options?
 
Try the Asus MX27UC. I just got one but it was DOA and I'm having it replaced (guess I'm lucky). But for the time it worked, it was fine, and it has all your listed requirements.

Unfortunately you can't adjust the brightness via software, you need to use physical buttons for that. That's the only drawback I could find.
 
Wow that one looks really good. I will give it a serious look. I wonder why I did not find it at my initial monitor research.


Addition: Not height adjustable as it seems, otherwise it would fit perfectly.
 
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Well, your going to have a headache - the new MBP 2016 don't work well with a external display.
You can use it of course but when you will but the MBP to sleep it will crash after some time due to buggs.
Also if you unplug it when the MBP is in clamshell (lid closed) mode you will get graphic buggs any you need to reboot the MBP to fix it.
 
Lets see I will get my mbpro next week. But all that you report sounds like resolvable software issues to me. I had similar issues with my MBPro 2012 with the thunderbolt ethernet adapters (they crashed the computer when plugged into the second TB port). This was resolved over time.
 
Lets see I will get my mbpro next week. But all that you report sounds like resolvable software issues to me. I had similar issues with my MBPro 2012 with the thunderbolt ethernet adapters (they crashed the computer when plugged into the second TB port). This was resolved over time.


Yes I also do think so, or I hope so. The possibility that it's a Software issue are there and I do hope that it is and that 10.12.4 will fix it, me and many others have reported the bug to Apple so they know about it.

See the video here how it looks like after you have disconnected the MBP from the external display:


Se my thread about it here:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/mbp-2016-graphic-bug-when-using-external-display.2032781/
 
I have the LG 27UD88-W and also do a fair chunk of coding. I use it scaled to 1440p though, 1080p looks so goofy on 27".

The monitor is not discontinued - straight from an LG rep:

Much higher sales than expected in December led to poor stock in January. There is now a shortage of 4K 27" panels which means limited stock of many respective monitors.

https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/t...niel-the-lg-rep.18725678/page-3#post-30460846

So basically, it's a very popular monitor for the same reasons you've selected it. It's tough to get hold of as a result. The issues and recalls of the LG UltraFine range won't be helping this.
 
Wow that one looks really good. I will give it a serious look. I wonder why I did not find it at my initial monitor research.


Addition: Not height adjustable as it seems, otherwise it would fit perfectly.

It's weird, there are practically no reviews of this screen anywhere, and *nobody* who reports about how it works if connected to a MacBook Pro. I assume it's not available in the US, and as always, EU-only products hardly get any reviews.

And yes, height is not adjustable, that was also a bummer for me, so I'm using my MBP and the Asus side-by-side, with a Magic Keyboard & Trackpad.

Well, your going to have a headache - the new MBP 2016 don't work well with a external display.
You can use it of course but when you will but the MBP to sleep it will crash after some time due to buggs.
Also if you unplug it when the MBP is in clamshell (lid closed) mode you will get graphic buggs any you need to reboot the MBP to fix it.

Not everyone is having these issues, I can assure you. At least 4 colleagues are using MBPs at work with external screens, 0 problems (and trust me, they slam those things, I cringe when I see it).
 
It's weird, there are practically no reviews of this screen anywhere, and *nobody* who reports about how it works if connected to a MacBook Pro. I assume it's not available in the US, and as always, EU-only products hardly get any reviews.

And yes, height is not adjustable, that was also a bummer for me, so I'm using my MBP and the Asus side-by-side, with a Magic Keyboard & Trackpad.



Not everyone is having these issues, I can assure you. At least 4 colleagues are using MBPs at work with external screens, 0 problems (and trust me, they slam those things, I cringe when I see it).

It work well but not when you disconnect them as I did discribe above.
Also not when they sleep if external display are connected.
 
I have the LG 27UD88-W and also do a fair chunk of coding. I use it scaled to 1440p though, 1080p looks so goofy on 27".

The monitor is not discontinued - straight from an LG rep:

Much higher sales than expected in December led to poor stock in January. There is now a shortage of 4K 27" panels which means limited stock of many respective monitors.

https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/t...niel-the-lg-rep.18725678/page-3#post-30460846

So basically, it's a very popular monitor for the same reasons you've selected it. It's tough to get hold of as a result. The issues and recalls of the LG UltraFine range won't be helping this.

Thanks for the clarification. I got an old 1080p monitor in the meanwhile which should keep me afloat until the LG is available again. Guess I also have to call IIYAMA to replace my monitor a second time (the original monitor was dying a slow death by reacting weirdly after one night in standby, the replacement monitor died with a black screen on me after 2 days of normal use)
Where are the times you could rely on a monitor for 10 years :-(
 
Thanks for the clarification. I got an old 1080p monitor in the meanwhile which should keep me afloat until the LG is available again. Guess I also have to call IIYAMA to replace my monitor a second time (the original monitor was dying a slow death by reacting weirdly after one night in standby, the replacement monitor died with a black screen on me after 2 days of normal use)
Where are the times you could rely on a monitor for 10 years :-(

Keep an eye on that Overclockers thread. I bought my 27UD88 from Overclockers back in November - I happened to be in the market at the exact time they got a delivery of some units. I didn't realise my luck at the time. In fact, my first order got lost in their system so they actually allocated two of them to me for a while (though I obviously only received one!). The level of customer support I received during this mishap has put Overclockers at the top of my personal preferred sellers list.

I've been nothing but impressed by the monitor so far. I've had none of the sleep/wake issues that the LG UltraFines are suffering from, no connectivity/charging issues, it's "just worked" with my gaming PC (DisplayPort) and 12" MacBook (USB-C). But who knows how long it'll last...
 
Thanks, since I am not in the UK, but Austria, I am not sure if ordering at overclockers really is an option for me. But lets see. I will definitely check various sources on a daily base. Also my Mac GPU on my retina macbook pro 2012 has developed symptoms yesterday (the same day my monitor died - I get frequent crashes which are gpu caused) I guess I have had a lucky day. I gotta check out if this is covered by the Apple GPU repair recall, since the computer was bought refurbished mid 2013. Thankfully my new Macbook pro arrives next week, so no downtime for me.
 
They do have international delivery, but I can't comment on the details/quality of it. At least following that thread will give you an idea as to when to search your preferred sellers for availability.

A dead MBP and 4K monitor I think classifies as a bad day! Hope it works out for the better.
 
Thanks, since I am not in the UK, but Austria, I am not sure if ordering at overclockers really is an option for me. But lets see. I will definitely check various sources on a daily base. Also my Mac GPU on my retina macbook pro 2012 has developed symptoms yesterday (the same day my monitor died - I get frequent crashes which are gpu caused) I guess I have had a lucky day. I gotta check out if this is covered by the Apple GPU repair recall, since the computer was bought refurbished mid 2013. Thankfully my new Macbook pro arrives next week, so no downtime for me.

I am from Switzerland and the LG 27UD88 is nowhere to be found. No resellers have it in stock and the most reliable one says LG is not even able to commit a date. Although it's probably "sometimes in March".

I wouldn't order it from out of the country, warranty would be a mess. I saw it with my Asus MX27UC which was DOA: had I ordered it from abroad, it would have been a nightmare. Instead, I walked to the reseller during lunchtime today, and had it replaced on the spot. The new one is perfect. I can only recommend it.
 
Well I was close to order the Asus now, but then I did further research and found out that it is not Vesa enabled. Which means you cannot retrofit a height adjustable stand. Guess no money to Asus from my side. I probably will wait a few weeks until the LG or another similar alternative is available.
 
https://www.amazon.com/ViewSonic-XG...&sr=1-2&keywords=viewsonic+27+inch+monitor+4k

Actually from the connecitivity this monitor is close to perfect:
I simply love the connections on that one two dp, to hdmi 2.0 is almost like a dream come true.

The downside from what I could gather is, that it does not support HDCP 2.2. This is for now not a problem (my old iiyama did not support it either) but once you want to watch a 4k video this might become a problem.
And yes the monitor is ugly, but given the circumstances I dont care. I probably will wait 1-2 months if the LG is available and if not then I will shoot for that one.
 
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As a Mac user/guy who generally keeps his tech up-to-date I absolutely would not buy a monitor that doesn't have a USB-C connection.

That would be the equivalent of buying an HDMI 1.4 monitor when HDMI 2.0 arrived.
 
Ok I finally made a decision and bought a monitor today. I actually went with a somewhat exotic solution. After checking literally out all options and prices I basically went with a TV which can do RGB 4:4:4. So I ended up with a cheap 40 inch Samsung UE40KU6400 tv as monitor. Since my mac will arrive tomorrow I only could test it on my PC. And the picture was extremely good (RGB 8 bit 4:4:4 mode). Fonts were crisp and pixel perfect and with 40 inches in 4k the screen estate was awesome (I still use 125% scaling in Windows atm, because 100% 4k still is somewhat to small). The best part is, the entire TV was as cheap as a mid range 27 inch monitor. (I paid 497 Euros for it) and it has three hdmi 2.0a ports which is exactly the number of machines I need to hook up. Once I have my mac tomorrow I will post of the results with the Mac as well.

Thanks to everyone who has posted. It really helped me.
 
Just to reply to my last post. I finally got my macbook pro 15 inch, and i tested it with the 40 inch samsung tv solution. It works I use a 60hz UHD usb-c to hdmi adapter and get UHD 60Hz on the tv. The sound also is passed through to the TV. However the only downside is I am able to achieve this on one port only. Because the TV allows RGB 4:4:4 UHD/60hz only on one port. The other ports max out at ycbcr 4:2:0 and there seems to be no way to push the mac into the ycbcr 4:2:0 realm, so the mac maxes out at UHD 30Hz here. (A PC / Windows with an nvidia card can push into the 4:2:0 color space)
So for now I will keep the mac connected to port 1 with the RGB color space and will move the PC into the YUV color space. For now until I have found a decent UHD HDR enabled hdmi switch.

If anyone knows how to push the mac towards a ycbcr 4:2:0 output I would be grateful.
 
I have an LG UD88 monitor that I hook up to my MacBook Pro. Looks great under HiDPI mode.
I am following this monitor reviews since months but I still don't understand if it's well suited for a mbp or not. Due to the difficulty of the dpi scaling with retina resolution. Maybe I'll wait for the 32ud99 to come out and see
 
I am following this monitor reviews since months but I still don't understand if it's well suited for a mbp or not. Due to the difficulty of the dpi scaling with retina resolution. Maybe I'll wait for the 32ud99 to come out and see

Bought my 27UD88 in November last year, love it. Not sure what difficulty you're referring to? Was plug 'n' play for me, Windows and Mac.
 
Bought my 27UD88 in November last year, love it. Not sure what difficulty you're referring to? Was plug 'n' play for me, Windows and Mac.
Apparently the 27 inches 4k monitors don't go well with macOS. Due to the number of dpi and the retina resolution it needs to be ran scaled. I'm wondering should I buy a 4k that cannot be ran at native resolution? What's ur reso?
 
Apparently the 27 inches 4k monitors don't go well with macOS. Due to the number of dpi and the retina resolution it needs to be ran scaled. I'm wondering should I buy a 4k that cannot be ran at native resolution? What's ur reso?

I run mine scaled to look like 2560x1440 in high DPI mode. The actual resolution is always 4K regardless of what scaling option you choose (unless you force a low resolution output from your Mac). Scaling just adjusts the size of certain UI elements.

Scaling is not the same as resolution. A 4K monitor connected to macOS will always take an input of 3840x2160 (or 4096x2160). MacOS will scale certain elements to make them bigger or smaller on the screen according to your scaling preferences.

As such, a 27" 4K monitor running scaled to 1440p is significantly better than a native 1440p monitor, visually. That's not opinion, there's literally more pixels per inch.
 
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I run mine scaled to look like 2560x1440 in high DPI mode. The actual resolution is always 4K regardless of what scaling option you choose (unless you force a low resolution output from your Mac). Scaling just adjusts the size of certain UI elements.

Scaling is not the same as resolution. A 4K monitor connected to macOS will always take an input of 3840x2160 (or 4096x2160). MacOS will scale certain elements to make them bigger or smaller on the screen according to your scaling preferences.

As such, a 27" 4K monitor running scaled to 1440p is significantly better than a native 1440p monitor, visually. That's not opinion, there's literally more pixels per inch.

I can confirm, I do the same on my 27" 4K monitor. I scale the UI to 2560x1440, and it looks so much better than the 27" LED Cinema Display which is only 2560x1440.
 
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