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2013 nMP Display Issues Thread

E

edanuff

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 30, 2008
578
259
Between this forum and the Apple support discussions forum, I've seen that a lot of users are experiencing an assortment of display-related issues. It might make sense to have a thread (perhaps sticky) that details what people have found works and doesn't work with the nMP.


Dual 1920x1080 DVI monitors using mini-DP to DVI connectors, tried with 10.9.4, 10.9.5, and Yosemite

  • HP 2310m DVI monitors, worked fine with Mac Mini. With nMP, had wake-from-sleep and dual-monitor-freeze-on-boot with 10.9.4. Also lots of screen glitches. 10.9.5 fixed the dual-monitor-freeze-on-boot issue, wake-from-sleep became a lot worse. Yosemite had the return of both plus lots of screen glitches and random reboots.
  • Genius Bar found no hardware issues with nMP, reformatted drive to 10.9.4.
  • No problems under Bootcamp to Windows. All games work fine.
  • Computer was essentially unusable with these issues, would have returned if I hadn't missed the return window. Switching to single monitor use made computer reliable enough, but not enough display area.
Dell UP2414Q with Dell-supplied COXOC mDP to DP 1.2 Cable as well as Accell mDP to DP 1.2 Cable, single monitor setup

  • Ran at 3840 x 2160 @ 60Hz MST with either cable.
  • Display Settings at "retina" resolution i.e. scaled 1920x1080 with 2H x 2V physical pixels per screen point. IPS display quality is perfect, looks as good as retina iMac assuming you prefer matte to glossy
  • Wake-from-sleep under 10.9.4 and Yosemite. Toggling power button on monitor causes nMP to reboot during wake-from-sleep. Frequent screen glitching and GPU restarts.
  • Flakey under Bootcamp to Windows. Games not working well under Windows.
  • Computer was essential unusable with these issues. Returned monitor.
Samsung U28D590D with with C2G mDP to DP 1.2 Cable and Accell mDP to DP 1.2 Cable, single monitor setup

  • Ran at 3840 x 2160 @ 60Hz SST with either cable.
  • Display Settings at scaled 2560x1440 with 1.5H x 1.5V physical pixels per screen point. Ends up smoother than TBD (more physical pixels for the same logical resolution at same physical size), not as good as the iMac 5K. TN display has all the TN display issues, a bit too bright but if you turn down brightness the colors look washed out.
  • No tearing under Yosemite, tearing on right hand side under 10.9.4
  • No display glitches, no GPU restarts, etc.
  • Infrequently experience wake-from-sleep but have seen it, toggling monitor power solves
  • Monitor is recognized by OSX as a television, this can be fixed using the custom EDID techniques described elsewhere, no difference in color noticed between custom EDID and default settings.
  • No display until boot complete - display is dark until login screen. Holding down the option key to switch drives no longer works because screen won't light up until full login.
 
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LG 31MU97 4K Monitor with Yosemite and supplied cables
  • Ran at 3840 x 2160 @ 60Hz SST with supplied cable.
  • Beautiful display and very solid build quality. One of the best 4K monitors available.
  • Reasonably stable with Yosemite - no screen glitches, tearing. Wake from sleep problem occurs periodically, turning monitor on and off fixes.
  • Resolution is true 4K (4096x2160) which is somewhat unusual for monitors. Late 2013 Mac Pro in Yosemite doesn't support this resolution even when using SwitchResX or QuickRes. Defaults to 3840x2160 with black bars on left and right side of screen.
  • Display is dark until boot is complete and login screen appears (this is apparently common to all 60Hz SST monitors with nMP).
  • Under Bootcamp, AMD FirePro control panel allowed a custom resolution of 4096x2160@30Hz to be set. 4096x2160@60Hz did not work.

Although monitor is near perfect, would not recommend for nMP users until Apple supports full 4096x2160 resolution or someone figures out a workaround. Classic Mac Pro users and Hackintoshes might have more options for tweaking resolution.
 
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edanuff said:
LG 31MU97 4K Monitor with Yosemite and supplied cables
  • Ran at 3840 x 2160 @ 60Hz SST with supplied cable.
  • Beautiful display and very solid build quality. One of the best 4K monitors available.
  • Reasonably stable with Yosemite - no screen glitches, tearing. Wake from sleep problem occurs periodically, turning monitor on and off fixes.
  • Resolution is true 4K (4096x2160) which is somewhat unusual for monitors. Late 2013 Mac Pro in Yosemite doesn't support this resolution even when using SwitchResX or QuickRes. Defaults to 3840x2160 with black bars on left and right side of screen.
  • Display is dark until boot is complete and login screen appears (this is apparently common to all 60Hz SST monitors with nMP).

Although monitor is near perfect, would not recommend for nMP users until Apple supports full 4096x2160 resolution or someone figures out a workaround. Classic Mac Pro users and Hackintoshes might have more options for tweaking resolution.
Click to expand...

Have you tested the Sharp display that Apple offers?
 
edanuff said:
LG 31MU97 4K Monitor with Yosemite and supplied cables
  • Ran at 3840 x 2160 @ 60Hz SST with supplied cable.
  • Beautiful display and very solid build quality. One of the best 4K monitors available.
  • Reasonably stable with Yosemite - no screen glitches, tearing. Wake from sleep problem occurs periodically, turning monitor on and off fixes.
  • Resolution is true 4K (4096x2160) which is somewhat unusual for monitors. Late 2013 Mac Pro in Yosemite doesn't support this resolution even when using SwitchResX or QuickRes. Defaults to 3840x2160 with black bars on left and right side of screen.
  • Display is dark until boot is complete and login screen appears (this is apparently common to all 60Hz SST monitors with nMP).
  • Under Bootcamp, AMD FirePro control panel allowed a custom resolution of 4096x2160@30Hz to be set. 4096x2160@60Hz did not work.

Although monitor is near perfect, would not recommend for nMP users until Apple supports full 4096x2160 resolution or someone figures out a workaround. Classic Mac Pro users and Hackintoshes might have more options for tweaking resolution.
Click to expand...

It is very hard for me to understand why, almost one year after its release, the nMP-- touted to be 4K capable --- is NOT 4K capable. Or am I mis-understanding something ?
 
mintakax said:
It is very hard for me to understand why, almost one year after its release, the nMP-- touted to be 4K capable --- is NOT 4K capable. Or am I mis-understanding something ?
Click to expand...

The technology is pretty bleeding edge. Most of the 4K options out there require driver support to work properly and so far, Apple has only embraced a hand-full of 4K displays... https://support.apple.com/en-ca/ht6008

Unless you buy one of the monitors listed in that KBA, you're running at your own risk.

The Dell UP2414Q is one of the supported monitors, but it seems early revs of that display had issues with wake from sleep (like Edanuff's). More current versions (rev A02?) seem to have corrected this problem.

The LG 31MU97 is particularly disappointing since LG's marketing states it's "Mac compatible" yet they offer a driver for Windows and not the Mac to enable the full resolution. I suspect in time, either LG or Apple will offer a driver to support this display, but it literally just hit the market a week ago.

I suspect things to settle down over the next 6 months with more and more panels standardizing on SST so that Apple can offer a generic driver that works with most 4K displays.
 
edanuff said:
Dual 1920x1080 DVI monitors using mini-DP to DVI connectors, tried with 10.9.4, 10.9.5, and Yosemite

  • HP 2310m DVI monitors, worked fine with Mac Mini. With nMP, had wake-from-sleep and dual-monitor-freeze-on-boot with 10.9.4. Also lots of screen glitches. 10.9.5 fixed the dual-monitor-freeze-on-boot issue, wake-from-sleep became a lot worse. Yosemite had the return of both plus lots of screen glitches and random reboots.
  • Genius Bar found no hardware issues with nMP, reformatted drive to 10.9.4.
  • No problems under Bootcamp to Windows. All games work fine.
  • Computer was essentially unusable with these issues, would have returned if I hadn't missed the return window. Switching to single monitor use made computer reliable enough, but not enough display area.
Click to expand...

I wonder if using Active MiniDP - DVI connectors would have solved the issue. That's how we solve similar multiple display problems on the cMP (I've got an ATI 5770 and run three monitors - 2 23" ACD and a Wacom Cintiq - two of these three use Active connectors and everything works fine.
 
Active adapters fixed my nMP display issues

I have a Dell and a Samsung monitors. They had various wake up and freeze while booting up issues. I struggled with them for 5 months until someone from this forum suggested I should try active adapters.

The Dell monitor was connected to the nMP via a DP-to-mDP cable. The Samsung monitor was connected to the nMP via a DVI-to-mDP connector. The Samsung is the one that had wake up issues. So I got one active adapter for the Samsung monitor. Then, the Dell monitor became the one that had wake up issues. So I got another one for the Dell monitor.

They have worked reliably for the last 5 weeks. GBA!
 
vett93 said:
I struggled with them for 5 months until someone from this forum suggested I should try active adapters.
Click to expand...

Yes, I was using the Apple mini-displayport to DVI adapter, which is a passive adapter, and in hindsight I'm sure I should have used an active adapter for my DVI monitors. To the best of my knowledge, there's no such thing as an active mini-displayport to displayport cable, though.
 
You are right. On the Dell monitor, I switched to DVI port and used a DVI-to-mDP active adapter to connect to the nMP. After that, the nMP has been reliable.

AppleCare has been no help for this matter completely.
 
I'm tired of waiting ! If was to be either the ASUS PQ321Q or the LG 31MU97 which would you guys pick ? Or talk me into waiting ? I have 4K footage to edit and view.
 
2013 nMP Display Issues Thread

mintakax said:
I'm tired of waiting ! If was to be either the ASUS PQ321Q or the LG 31MU97 which would you guys pick ? Or talk me into waiting ? I have 4K footage to edit and view.
Click to expand...


The new Dell P2415Q and P2715Q should be out this month with 4K IPS SST displays with 99% sRGB at sub $1000 USD price points.

I would wait for one of those, or buy the LG 31MU97 if you can't wait. The likelihood of driver support for that display coming is likely, it's just a matter of time I suspect. If you can live with the workarounds and shortcomings for a month or two it might pay off.
 
VirtualRain said:
The new Dell P2415Q and P2715Q should be out this month with 4K IPS SST displays with 99% sRGB at sub $1000 USD price points.

I would wait for one of those, or buy the LG 31MU97 if you can't wait. The likelihood of driver support for that display coming is likely, it's just a matter of time I suspect. If you can live with the workarounds and shortcomings for a month or two it might pay off.
Click to expand...

Thanks VR
 
VirtualRain said:
The new Dell P2415Q and P2715Q should be out this month with 4K IPS SST displays with 99% sRGB at sub $1000 USD price points.

I would wait for one of those, or buy the LG 31MU97 if you can't wait. The likelihood of driver support for that display coming is likely, it's just a matter of time I suspect. If you can live with the workarounds and shortcomings for a month or two it might pay off.
Click to expand...

If the information are true, today P2415Q is available in Hong-Kong for 4599$.

I dont know the conversion of Taxes there, but if this is true the price for 23.8 inch IPS 4K monitor with SST should be between 499 and 599 American Dollars.

Which would be pretty amazing.
 
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