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skaertus

macrumors 601
Original poster
Feb 23, 2009
4,281
1,443
Brazil
I have a 13-inch MacBook Pro with touch bar. It is the 2016 version with a 3.3 GHz Core i7 processor, 16 GB RAM, and 512 GB SSD, and it has an integrated Intel Iris Graphics 550 1.5 GB for driving the display.

I also have a 27-inch IPS LG monitor capable of displaying a resolution of 2560x1440, which has served me well since 2014. I connect it to the MacBook Pro and it works just fine as an external display.

I am planning to buy a new external display, mainly to upgrade the screen resolution so I get the extra comfort of "retina". The display would be a 27-inch with a 3840x2160 resolution.

The thing is, given how macOS renders the images in HiDPI mode, if the graphics card were to render images at 3840x2160, I would have the screen real estate of 1920x1080, which is less real estate than I have now. For me to have the same real estate that I have now, macOS would have to render images at 5120x2880 and show them at the 3840x2160-resolution monitor, so I have a real screen estate similar to 2560x1440.

So, my questions would be:

1. If I connect a 27-inch 3840x2160 display to my MacBook Pro, will macOS allow me to use 5120x2880 in HiDPI mode (to have the same real screen estate as a 2560x1440 monitor)? Will I be able to drive an even higher resolution in this display?

2. Is the Iris Graphics 550 video card enough to drive such screen resolution? Will I have lag of any sort?

Thanks for the help.
 
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