So Mac owners are looking at PC hardware makers like Samsung, Acer, and especially Dell to provide a monitor. Ironically, there are a ton of 4K monitors over in the PC world even though Windows still doesn’t do as smooth a job driving them usably. Pretty much the only thing missing is a 4K monitor for all these machines to drive! This is no surprise, since Apple has pioneered high-DPI displays, from the MacBook Pro to the Mac Pro and now the iMac.
Introducing the Dell P2715Q MonitorĪlthough Apple still doesn’t sell a standalone 4K display, Mac OS X and Apple’s new hardware are both pretty much ready for them.
Then all of this will be moot when the Skylake MacBook Pros come out next month and you upgrade to something that can drive 4K natively over DisplayPort at 60 Hz. Then you’ll use The Google, find this article, tweak your monitor and your Mac, and have something that pretty much works. Then you’ll try the HDMI port and see that it does work. If you’re like me, you’re going to plug a DisplayPort to Mini cable into the monitor and your Mac and be disappointed when it shows up as a 2560×1440 display, complete with chunky pixels. So it’s not “plug and play” easy for most people. Mac OS X will default to “ Scaled” (looks like 1920×1080) when connected to a 4K display, and this is pretty jumbo-text for a 27″ desktop monitor.The two Thunderbolt/Mini DisplayPort ports can drive 4K at 30 Hz using MST, but your monitor might not auto-detect this or might require special settings (like my Dell).This is usable for text but not so great for games or video. The HDMI port is capable of driving a 4K monitor or TV, but only at 30 Hz refresh rate.Prior to this, the Thunderbolt/Mini DisplayPort connectors weren’t capable of UHD resolution, and text didn’t look great because it wasn’t scaled properly.
You must have Mac OS X “Mavericks” 10.9.3 or later.You can drive a 4K “Ultra HD” display with this machine. The short answer is, yes it does! The real answer is a little more complicated, though.įact: The 2012 Retina MacBook Pro’s Nvidia GeForce GT 650M with 1 GB GDDR5 memory can drive 4K resolution (3840 × 2160) 1 and the HDMI and Thunderbolt Mini DisplayPort 1.2 ports can output this video signal. If you’re reading this, you likely have a 2012 Retina MacBook Pro and want to know if it supports an external 4K monitor. Here’s a screen shot of my 2012 Retina MacBook Pro driving a Dell P2715Q 4K monitor at 3840×2160 resolution over Thunderbolt/Mini DisplayPort TL DR: Yes, the Original rMBP Does 4K over DisplayPort and HDMI! Here’s how I connected a 4K Dell P2715Q display to may 2012 Retina MacBook Pro, one of the first 4K-capable Macs. 4K video is still in its infancy, but Mac users are clamoring for high-resolution external displays. Many Macs have the ability to drive a 4K display, but it’s not easy to get it to work with older hardware.