I have a 09 Mac Pro upgraded with dual 3.46 hex processors and dual graphics cards. It came with a Radeon 7950 (sapphire) so I have a boot screen and I also have a EVGA GTX 970 SC ATX 2.0 which I plan on putting in the machine as well, powered by a 5.25" PSU. So ideally I should be able to run 3 4K monitors with these cards, 2 from the 970 and one from the 7950. My question is what monitor do you guys recommend? This is a workstation, so no gaming.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
What 4k Monitor Setup
- Thread starter Macinsquatch
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I'm not sure too many people are going to be able to give you a great recommendation, especially without knowing what you're using your machine for. Do you do image work? You might be interested in an IPS panel monitor instead of a cheaper TN panel. Keep in mind, they get pricey when it comes to IPS panels.
Personally, I use an Acer B286HK, which is a cheaper, TN panel Ultra HD monitor, and I love it. It has a USB 3.0 Hub, height adjust, swivel, tilt, and works wonderfully in OS X, but it has a few trade-offs that might make it less desirable for something as "Workstation Grade" as you might be looking for. For example, my particular monitor has some heavy back light bleed when looking at blacks and dark colours, and the colour accuracy isn't as spot on as the IPS panel I have sitting next to it, but that's why it's sitting there.
In the "Peripherals" section of these forums, there are extensive discussions on 4K and Ultra HD monitors and Macs in general; there might be existing information there to take a peek at. It seems to me though that you have enough graphics horsepower to power 3x4K displays, or whatever you choose to go with.
Hope this helps.
-N
Personally, I use an Acer B286HK, which is a cheaper, TN panel Ultra HD monitor, and I love it. It has a USB 3.0 Hub, height adjust, swivel, tilt, and works wonderfully in OS X, but it has a few trade-offs that might make it less desirable for something as "Workstation Grade" as you might be looking for. For example, my particular monitor has some heavy back light bleed when looking at blacks and dark colours, and the colour accuracy isn't as spot on as the IPS panel I have sitting next to it, but that's why it's sitting there.
In the "Peripherals" section of these forums, there are extensive discussions on 4K and Ultra HD monitors and Macs in general; there might be existing information there to take a peek at. It seems to me though that you have enough graphics horsepower to power 3x4K displays, or whatever you choose to go with.
Hope this helps.
-N
Yes, same dual monitor on nMP with D300 works great, connect same dual setup on Radeon 280X EFI, the system keeps rebooting, not sure what is going with Dell and cMP 280X
Thanks
Just got my P2715Q, it looks awesome.
Has anyone used a 7950 and newer Nvidia card together? I haven't hooked both up yet and I'm wondering if by switching the driver to the nvidia driver rather than OS X built in if I will see performance issues.
-Edit
Just hooked the 7950 up and all seems well, 5.25" PSU is able to power it nicely. Just ordered the second P2715Q.
Just got my P2715Q, it looks awesome.
Has anyone used a 7950 and newer Nvidia card together? I haven't hooked both up yet and I'm wondering if by switching the driver to the nvidia driver rather than OS X built in if I will see performance issues.
-Edit
Just hooked the 7950 up and all seems well, 5.25" PSU is able to power it nicely. Just ordered the second P2715Q.
Last edited:
Sorry that I'm late to this thread as there are a few warnings about the 4,1-7950-P2715Q combo. I'm hoping that your 970 fixes them.
* My 4,1 with 7950 and P2715Q won't boot if the monitor is switched on -- the fix is to wait until 5 seconds after the chime.
* The P2715Q won't wake from sleep once every two weeks or so and needs to be unplugged from mains power to start again.
* Once, after an update, the monitor appeared to be working fine (menus on screen, worked through the HDMI, etc.) but wouldn't work with DisplayPort -- again the fix was a complete mains power shut down.
Even after those problems, I still count it as mostly a good monitor. I love the even lighting and accurate (to my eyes) 10bit colour.
Mine too will not boot with the monitor on for the 7950. Computer sleep still doesn't work because of the aux PSU. I'm hoping that a flash comes out for the 900 series cards so I can get another 970 and ditch the 7950. At this point I don't have my boot screen anyway since I have to power the monitor off.
--Edit
So sleep is now working fine. Just have to turn the power off on the monitor hooked up to the 7950 first. Both are running at 60 hz. Looks like I need a DVI monitor to have the boot screen back. FYI turning on MST on the primary display hooked up to the 970 causes an instant reboot.
--Edit
So sleep is now working fine. Just have to turn the power off on the monitor hooked up to the 7950 first. Both are running at 60 hz. Looks like I need a DVI monitor to have the boot screen back. FYI turning on MST on the primary display hooked up to the 970 causes an instant reboot.
Last edited:
I'm tempted to flash from 4,1 to 5,1 to see if that fixes it. There's a small chance it's just the 4,1 BIOS doesn't support 4k with our particular setups.
Has anyone got a 4k monitor working at boot time on a 4,1 with a 7950?
That happened with me when I ran with a 7950 & a Samsung U28D590, even on a 4,1 flashed to a 5,1. Eventually I switched to a GTX680 because of this. The other alternative is to use the PC bios, but you lose the boot screen.
The GTX680 doesn't give a bootscreen on that display etiher, but at least it does on my 27" also connected. Supposedly the MacVidCards 970/980 will give a bootscreen - mine is coming today so I'll find out for sure.
EDIT: Yep, a MVC GTX970 works great w/ bootscreen on the 4k. Glad I can finally do Filevault again with this card.
Last edited:
Yes I can confirm when the MacPro goes to sleep (mine is 1,1 -> 2,1) with 7950 and using U28D590. Once I installed 7950, even the boot chime is not there and takes a long time to boot as well.
When this happens, when the MacPro boots I see a popup window saying Your Mac restarted after an Error or something.
Glad you found this to work.
By the way, this is a first. There are no "officially released" Apple GPUs that allow a 4K bootscreen in a SST 4K. Through the genius of Netkas we now can offer greater functionality than the KEPLER EFI cards. 4K bootscreen and 5K support. (5k requires small hack, but doesn't need dev mode)
Past EFI cards used existing EFIs that carried limitations of original. By creating a custom EFI we were able to add things not in GTX680 and Quadro K5000.
I can't guarantee that this will work on all SST displays as I can't possibly test all of them, but it works on many.
And we have more surprises coming in future. Keep in mind that all of this magic requires NVIDIA to continue writing drivers for cards that Apple has excluded from the OS.
ALWAYS check here or our blog before updating OSX or running a "Security Update"
BTW, I have found conflicting results using 7950/70/R9 280 with SST 4K. As many have noted I usually end up in an EFI boot loop. But it has sometimes NOT done this. Hope to have good news soon on this.
I went back and forth for a while and ended up going with the 32" BenQ. Hands down the best thing I could have done. I am a photographer and working on a 4k display with 100% srgb is amazing. It literally is a whole new feeling looking at and editing on this screen. I have normally alwYs run a dual monitor setup but after I got this its the only one I use. That may change as prices come down I may get another one but I'll need a bigger desk.
Seriously though the screen is amazing and the 32" size is really I think the best size for a 4k monitor. You get so. You get so much more real estate it's actually refreshing.
Seriously though the screen is amazing and the 32" size is really I think the best size for a 4k monitor. You get so. You get so much more real estate it's actually refreshing.