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getheo

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 3, 2011
107
19
Hello,

I am going to buy a 4K monitor and I would like to know which is the setting for minimum blurriness, if any. Some of the hidpi resolutions are

2560x1440 -> 1.5x scaling
2880x1620 -> 1.333x scaling
3008x1692 -> 1.276x scaling
3072x1728 -> 1.25x scaling
3200x1800 -> 1.2x scaling.

Moreover, I tested my macbook pro with my 4K television and I found that 2560x1440 is more stressful(radeon 8W) for the GPU than the 3008x1692(radeon 5.5W). Any reason for this?
 

Amethyst1

macrumors G3
Oct 28, 2015
9,827
12,245
I am going to buy a 4K monitor and I would like to know which is the setting for minimum blurriness, if any
The only setting that won't be blurry on a “4K” monitor is the pixel-perfect “looks like 1920×1080” setting, because the framebuffer resolution matches the monitor's physical resolution.

macOS only offers two sizes for its UI elements: 100% (non-HiDPI) and 200% (HiDPI). Non-integer scaling is handled as follows: any other “looks like …” setting requires downscaling a larger framebuffer (the framebuffer's size is twice the width and twice the height of the specified HiDPI resolution) to the monitor's resolution before outputting, incurring blurriness.

Moreover, I tested my macbook pro with my 4K television and I found that 2560x1440 is more stressful(radeon 8W) for the GPU than the 3008x1692(radeon 5.5W). Any reason for this?
Is the 3008×1692 mode a non-HiDPI (“low resolution”) mode by any chance?
 
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