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4K Display on MacPro 5,1

A

aronadaal

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 30, 2017
3
0
Hey there,
I just bought a 4K display (LG 27UD68-W) and trying to use it on my MacPro 5,1 (with NVIDIA GTX 1050, 2GB). The display runs in 1080p HiDPI/Retina mode. I can run it in 4K 30+60Hz by using switchresx but everything is really tiny. Is there a way to get "bigger" interfaces again? I tried running the display in 4K HiDPI but without success.

Any ideas?
I'm on macOS Sierra 10.12.6

Bye, aronadaal
 
Reminds me of the old days as monitors for PCs increased in resolution, icons became smaller. Icon size was based on pixels, so many wide by so many high. As the screen pixels got denser, they appeared smaller. Any attempt to run in non-native resolution made image quality fall apart, as the monitors tried to compensate.
 
I'm not sure what you're asking...bigger menus and icons, but 4K workspace...? I believe the way most GUIs work is everything is at a given resolution. Also, have you tried something in the middle as a compromise, like 1440p?
 
aronadaal said:
Hey there,
I just bought a 4K display (LG 27UD68-W) and trying to use it on my MacPro 5,1 (with NVIDIA GTX 1050, 2GB). The display runs in 1080p HiDPI/Retina mode. I can run it in 4K 30+60Hz by using switchresx but everything is really tiny. Is there a way to get "bigger" interfaces again? I tried running the display in 4K HiDPI but without success.

Any ideas?
I'm on macOS Sierra 10.12.6
Click to expand...

Open up your display preferences.

Hold down option, while pressing the "Scaled" Radio Button.

check "show low resolution modes"

post a screenshot of the display preferences to the forum (cmd-shift-4 if you don't know the drill)
The preference panel should look like this:

Screen Shot 106.png


In my case:

5280x2880-- everything's really tiny
2880x1440-- everything is scaled correctly, and very very sharp <-- this is what I normally use.
2880x1440 (low resolution)-- everything is scaled correctly, but it is blocky and blurry.

If High DPI was working on your machine, you would choose 1920x1080, and marvel at the sharpness.

Likewise, 3840x2160 would be quite small, and 1920x1080 (low resolution) would be readable but blocky/blurry.
 
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Thanks for your answers. Don't get me wrong: under Windows 10 I can run my display at 4k@60Hz and scale up the user interface separately. This is quite different from the way macOs handles these things. I thought I can have the benefits from two worlds: large resolution and large controls. But the 1440 HiDPI solution could be a good compromise.

https://imgur.com/a/e8BaB
 
a couple of things come to mind:

first, the manual has a long list of timings for various resolutions (it's toward the very end: pp 27-28 if you have an US-english manual). Those might be very useful for defining a custom resolution set for switchresX

second, the monitor might have an information screen that displays the current resolution and frequency of the input signal. If you can find this, it might prove very useful. (as I understand it, you want the monitor to receive a 3840x2160 signal @ either 30 or 60 Hz, regardless of whether the mac is scaling the interface or not.

third, what cable& interface are you using? display port or hdmi?
 
Last edited:
The monitor is connected via Display Port 1.2. I currently use the provided cable.

I don't have to create a custom resolution. 2560x1440 60Hz is provided in normale mode as well as scaled mode. The later is the one I'm currently using.

I can as well run the monitor in 4k 30Hz or 60Hz but therefore I need a magnifying glass ;) see https://imgur.com/a/TF10Q

This is why I'm "complaining" me about 4k in macOS or rather searching for a solution that could work for me. Like I already stated: in Win10 I can run 4k and scale up the user interface --> huge working space & large icons and interfaces (best of two worlds)

macOS monitor settings:
https://imgur.com/a/PMdke
 
aronadaal said:
Hey there,
I just bought a 4K display (LG 27UD68-W) and trying to use it on my MacPro 5,1 (with NVIDIA GTX 1050, 2GB). The display runs in 1080p HiDPI/Retina mode. I can run it in 4K 30+60Hz by using switchresx but everything is really tiny. Is there a way to get "bigger" interfaces again? I tried running the display in 4K HiDPI but without success.

Any ideas?
I'm on macOS Sierra 10.12.6

Bye, aronadaal
Click to expand...

Maybe you need a more powerful GPU?

We have been running a DCI 4K monitor (4096 x 2160) at 3008 x 1586 HiDpi @60Hz with no problem with any GPU above the GTX 1070, included or above the R9 280X, included.

With other lower tier GPUs, SwitchResX didn't give me the option
 
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