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.
is there anyway to span 1 desktop across 2 actual screens?
- Thread starter Anarchy99
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Connect one or more external displays with your Mac
You may be able to connect your Mac to one or more external displays, depending on the technical specifications of your device.
support.apple.com
I’d I understand you correct it is just a checkbox to check and restart your machine and it’s done, meaning your two screens are now acting as one and are no longer acting as “two active desktops”.
Not sure exactly where you find the setting but it’s in System preferences and in either Mission control.
I don’t have English as my Mac OS language AP I’m not sure.
The setting is called something like
“Displays have separate workspaces” and a checkbox
Not sure exactly where you find the setting but it’s in System preferences and in either Mission control.
I don’t have English as my Mac OS language AP I’m not sure.
The setting is called something like
“Displays have separate workspaces” and a checkbox
Even though I use it, I didn‘t consider @Anarchy99 meant that function, @Paratriplel
Work in multiple spaces on Mac
On your Mac, if the desktop becomes cluttered with open app windows, use Spaces to organize the windows into additional desktops.
support.apple.com
Not sure it is that function thst was requested but I know I searched for it a long time to be able to have Logic Pro X span over two screens and figured I’d mention it if it was what was requested. 
its a nice feature, its not what I was looking for, I also stumbled on that as well in my quest to see if there was some unofficial way to achieve what I want, cool to know but doesn't help.
basically ive got a 5120x1440p monitor that (im assuming due to DP1.2) on the 2015mbp cannot do the full resolution even when forced to. (stuck with 3840x1080 forcing it makes it look all pixel-y & weird.)
but the monitor itself has a option for dual inputs to act as literal 2 separate 2560x1440 displays sidebyside for either the same or separate devices.
so if I want full resolution I can do that, but the dock and menu bar act like they do on any multimontor setup (not ideal)
but if there was some software/hack mod where I could get the Mac to treat both as a single entity half the dock/menubar on each screen then it would work as its intended to with the only downside being I need to plugin 2 monitor inputs into the Mac.
basically ive got a 5120x1440p monitor that (im assuming due to DP1.2) on the 2015mbp cannot do the full resolution even when forced to. (stuck with 3840x1080 forcing it makes it look all pixel-y & weird.)
but the monitor itself has a option for dual inputs to act as literal 2 separate 2560x1440 displays sidebyside for either the same or separate devices.
so if I want full resolution I can do that, but the dock and menu bar act like they do on any multimontor setup (not ideal)
but if there was some software/hack mod where I could get the Mac to treat both as a single entity half the dock/menubar on each screen then it would work as its intended to with the only downside being I need to plugin 2 monitor inputs into the Mac.
Ah! Okay. So, your problem is with macOS struggling/not supporting UW resolutions.
I suggest you read through these two threads — there are others if you search:
forums.macrumors.com
forums.macrumors.com
If the already mentioned suggestions/tidbits aren’t helpful, perhaps post your Mac and monitor model in one of those discussions to grab attention. Clearly those users are more experienced/put effort into that specific problem.
I suggest you read through these two threads — there are others if you search:
5120x1440 support?
15.4 rolled around, and still no support for 5120x1440 resolution on the super ultrawide monitors. max is 3840x1080, which is obviously blurry. One change happened, is that my Dell 49" is no longer recognized as a TV, but as a monitor and has the scaling options like on a retina screen, but the...
forums.macrumors.com
Ultra wide screen support?
Does Big Sur natively support ultra wide screen resolutions such as 5120x1440?
forums.macrumors.com
If the already mentioned suggestions/tidbits aren’t helpful, perhaps post your Mac and monitor model in one of those discussions to grab attention. Clearly those users are more experienced/put effort into that specific problem.
No. The problem is that the AMD GPU in the higher-end 2015 MBP cannot properly display resolutions wider than 4096 pixels at least on macOS, resulting in a heavily corrupted, unusable output at eg. 5120×1440. If the OP have the lower-end model with Intel Iris Pro graphics, that can't do 5120×1440 on macOS either. I couldn't even get it to do 4096×2304.
DP 1.2 can do 5120×1440 at 60Hz BTW.
Last edited:
Turn off the "Displays have separate Spaces" option under Mission Control. That produces something somewhat more like what the Mac use to work like; single-windows can span across monitors for example. Unfortunately you lose quite a few other functions when you do that; I'm not even sure you can do full screen apps anymore if you untick that option, but ultimately it may be what you want, or at least better than what you currently have.
I have the high end model of the 2015 rMBP with the AMD.
good to know that explains why it wont work via the native mini DP/TB2 ports but does work with the same Mac and a eGPU 1070 on high Sierra for example.
unfortunately it confirms what I already found out, still hoping to find a way to span 1 desktop atop 2 displays just like Nvidia Surround in windows (not even available in high sierra with the Nvidia drivers)