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Studio Display XDR Impressions

litercola said:
Surprising that Apple couldn't tell me that! Can the M3 Ultra run three at 5K 120Hz?
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That link says it can run 4x 5K 120hz, but has to be distributed across the 2 port groups (ie one group is 4 TB ports on the back, the other group is 2 TB ports on the front and the HDMI port).
 
I don't understand what you don't get from the Apple specs. They clearly say that the second display is either 6K 60Hz or 4K up to 144Hz. That clearly means that 5K 120Hz is out the question. You can still run it at 60Hz though.

And no, 5K (120Hz that is) does NOT sit in the middle.




tothemoonsands said:
The specs are:
  • One display up to a native resolution of 8K (7680 x 4320) at 60Hz, 5K (5120 x 2880) at 120Hz, or 4K (3840 x 2160) at 240Hz and one display up to a native resolutions of 6K (6144 x 3456) at 60Hz or 4K (3840 x 2160) at 144Hz over Thunderbolt or HDMI

It doesn’t mention 5k, which sits in the middle between 6k/60 and 4k/144

Also I was responding to the user Ascender, who just said they were running two 5k/120 on their m4 pro with less cores than me.

So no, not simple as. It seems it’s a bug in their display allocation. Pretty sure the Studio Display had some issues like this back in 2022.
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Thank you! Great to see that someone is using common sense and logic here. I hope more people will post like you.

And yeah, Apple is super clear on what is supported. I really don't get why people spending this much money can't even comprehend a basic tech sheet from Apple.

AbeLincoln1984 said:
Please know that I am not trying to rustle your jimmies here.

Apple could be clearer, but when they say "one display up to a native resolutions of 6K (6144 x 3456) at 60Hz or 4K (3840 x 2160) at 144Hz over Thunderbolt or HDMI" they are listing included resolutions at certain refresh rates. 'Up to A resolution at X Hz, up to B resolution at Y Hz, or C resolution at Z Hz." You'll notice that for both displays, the paired resolutions go down and the refresh rates go up.

I would not read that and expect that I could run dual monitors at 5K 120Hz.

I'm also not entirely convinced that the Ascender user knows what they're doing. Or if they are getting dual 5K 120Hz (on a lesser mac mini), that it isn't some fluke.

I respect you for dumping a large amount of money into some gorgeous displays, and am just trying to say that if I were you, I would not expect to be able to do dual 5K 120Hz because Apple literally says that you can't (and any sales rep should have been able to tell you that).

I will say one thing, however; we all know what this stuff costs. I do not understand spending $6600 plus tax on displays and hooking them up to a mac mini that costs less than 1/4 of that and expecting everything to fire on all cylinders.

If you really want the dual 5K 120Hz, a mac that can provide that is within reach for you.

I hope this doesn't piss you off; again, I respect you investing in what you value, and I'd be disappointed as well, but I wouldn't trust some random internet user when they claim to do something that exceeds Apple's own support page.
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gtg465x said:
Finally saw them today at an Apple Store. Loved the smooth scrolling at 120 Hz, but surprisingly, when I set both the regular SD and SD XDR to max brightness, the XDR did not look noticeably brighter. The displays were about 4 ft apart, not right next to each other, so it was a little hard to compare, but I expected the SDR brightness difference of 600 nits vs 1000 nits to be more obvious.

As a side note, if you didn’t like matte displays before, there is nothing magic about Apple’s nano matte IMO. Looked just as annoyingly shimmery and lacking in contrast as a matte 4K Dell monitor I bought and returned 10 years ago. And this was in a super bright Apple Store, where one would think matte would be preferable.
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Can't say for sure but first thing I did was start up the VIVID app and let me tell you, the 2000 nits SDR vs the 600 nits SDR is hella noticeable!
 
bushman4 said:
XDR is bright and distinctive Color gamut is good. 120 hz refresh better than adaptive
Price is high and tends to lend itself towards professional usage ( editing , graphics creator etc)
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Why is 120 hz refresh better than adaptive? Can you provide more insight?
 
ZARAH__ said:
Can't say for sure but first thing I did was start up the VIVID app and let me tell you, the 2000 nits SDR vs the 600 nits SDR is hella noticeable!
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It can't output 2000 nits sustained, it is peak at ~40% screen area, ment for HDR higlights.
Also in SDR/ OS UI. default max brigjtness is 600 nits, and under flashlight, sun, or something pointed at ligjt sensor it can go to 1000.

And from all features this thing has, first thing is to install vivid and see how bright you can overclock it, why, to use it at the beach? ☹️
 
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goneil45 said:
Any idea if the Windows / PC support situation has changed from the regular Studio Display to the XDR given the update in ports and processor?

I have a M1 Pro MacBook that would be the primary driver for the display but also want to use the monitor with my work laptop alongside a cheap 1080p display via HDMI: Windows 11 machine (Dell Latitude 3520). It does have a USB-C DisplayPort 1.4 and as far as I know it can output 4K 60hz. I know it wouldn't be able to utilize webcam or brightness controls, but I literally just need it as a simple display extension in whatever resolution it can output.

Thinking of doing a DisplayPort Alt out via USB-C to the XDR, which should theoretically work since Thunderbolt 5 is backwards compatible? Maybe it just comes down to a high quality cable. Open to suggestions on that. The Latitude 3520's got an 11th Gen Intel i5-1135G7 with an Intel Iris Xe Graphics card if that makes a difference.
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I want to do he same, use my own Mac and works Windows laptop with it. I plan to go and see the monitor on an Apple Store next month and will take my works laptop with me to test. I'll contact the store first though to confirm it's ok, may book an appointment.
 
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I did a search and it seems there is currently no solution to have a switch box that will put out 120HZ at 5K resolution, no TB5 lines exist yet. So it seem the best solution is something like the caldigit TB5 hub and unplugging Ang plugging in cables, or doing the same on the back of the Studio Display XDR directly. Bit annoying.
 
Pezimak said:
I want to die he same, use my own Mad and works Windows laptop with it. I plan to go and see the monitor on an Apple Store next month and will take my works laptop with me to test. I'll contact the store first though to confirm it's ok, may book an appointment.
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I think ultimately that's gonna be the way to go. Only way to know for sure as it seems like the display is super finicky with Windows if it's not a Thunderbolt port. I would think you could just walk into the store with your Windows laptop and plug it in using the Thunderbolt cable that's already there. Takes three seconds.

But could be helpful to just do an appointment so you get a Genius bar rep and their knowledge working to help diagnose if you can get it to work as well. I wonder if they have adapters on hand to try with it? Or a regular high speed USB-C cable? Would be nice if you didn't have to bring your own to the store.

I'm also wondering if a dock like the Caldigit T5 will help improve things. I don't want to spend the money but looking into all options.
 
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goneil45 said:
I think ultimately that's gonna be the way to go. Only way to know for sure as it seems like the display is super finicky with Windows if it's not a Thunderbolt port. I would think you could just walk into the store with your Windows laptop and plug it in using the Thunderbolt cable that's already there. Takes three seconds.

But could be helpful to just do an appointment so you get a Genius bar rep and their knowledge working to help diagnose if you can get it to work as well. I wonder if they have adapters on hand to try with it? Or a regular high speed USB-C cable? Would be nice if you didn't have to bring your own to the store.

I'm also wondering if a dock like the Caldigit T5 will help improve things. I don't want to spend the money but looking into all options.
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Agreed, sadly there seems to be no way really to make it work with Mac and Windows and get 5k 120 using a KVM, so you have to unplug cables still. I wonder how much TB5 KVM's will cost too.
 
OK, so results are pretty much as expected and I think I've found the culprit.

M5 MBP and M4 Mac Mini (12 core), regardless of direct connection or daisy chaining, its one running at 60Hz and one at 120Hz.

When I use my Caldigit TS4, if I plug that into my Mac mini first, then the XDRs into it, both XDRs show as running 120Hz in Display Settings.

However, with 60hz in Safari disabled and running testufo, one is running at 120Hz and one is running at 60Hz.

If I plug the displays into the Caldigit first, then connect that to the Mac Mini, they both get reported accurately.
 
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Pezimak said:
Agreed, sadly there seems to be no way really to make it work with Mac and Windows and get 5k 120 using a KVM, so you have to unplug cables still. I wonder how much TB5 KVM's will cost too.
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I’m using the cable matters USB-C switch and I’m able to switch between my Mac Studio and Windows PC. The caveat is that I’m not using thunderbolt.

So, it looks like this:

Mac Studio Thunderbolt —-> Caldigit TS4 -> DisplayPort/USB-A to USB-C Cable —-> Cable Matters USB-C Switch

Windows PC —-> DisplayPort/USB-A to USB-C Cable —-> Cable Matters USB-C Switch

With this I can press a button and switch between the two devices and it’s 5k 120hz with all features.
 
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Gloor said:
I don't understand what you don't get from the Apple specs. They clearly say that the second display is either 6K 60Hz or 4K up to 144Hz. That clearly means that 5K 120Hz is out the question. You can still run it at 60Hz though.

And no, 5K (120Hz that is) does NOT sit in the middle.
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Why wouldn’t they mention 5k 60 then? Kinda weird since they don’t sell a 4k display nor 6k anymore. By your logic 5k wouldn’t be compatible at all since it’s not mentioned. You are assuming as much as I am. I tested it and confirmed it is 5k60 right now. We’ll see if it changes because there’s plenty of other reports of display handshake crashes etc.

Defending Apple for absence of necessary information is wild to me.

I’ll buy the M5 Ultra when it comes out, it’s not a big deal that one of my XDR is running at 60 right now.
 
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tothemoonsands said:
Why wouldn’t they mention 5k 60 then? Kinda weird since they don’t sell a 4k display nor 6k anymore.
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these are technical specifications. It is not suppose to purely be a marketing/sales pitch. It is suppose to be about connecting to whatever monitor you have at hand. Apple makes about 0.000000001% of the monitors that have been sold in the last 5 years or will be sold in the next 5. Apple's tech spec do try to substantively lean into selling more Apple product. That is really 'sales' ; not good, responsible technical support.

Whether Apple sells the 6K one or not that doesn't make a difference to the thousands of folks who already own one and need to know that it works before perhaps changing devices connected to that monitor.

similarly there are lots of 4K monitors of 144Hhz or less. Only takes a little common sense to figure out that a less than 144Hz monitor will work also. ( e.g., 60-72Hz 4K monitors .... and how many 10's of millions of those are out there??? )

Same common sense deduction. if 6K at 60Hz works then 5,4,3,2K at 60Hz also will work. Lowering either the number of pixels or refresh rate is less data. That would mean you are still within the bandwidth constraints of the various subsystems involved.

they are trying to concisely describe the various upper bound ranges of coverage. If you monitor is under that then it will probably work. There is no space on these specs to explicitly number the hundreds of monitor variations that are out there on the market.
 
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