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LG 31MU97 4k Display

hensavage said:
Hey guys,
I'm super close to picking one of these up for my mid2014 Macbook Pro 15" and just wanted to hear from those of you powering this thing using a rMBP 15"? How does the laptop seem to handle the high res? Does it manage to power the monitor without noticeable strain and overheating? Im just wanted to make sure I could work effectively in photoshop and illustrator without my computer struggling. Thank you, Henry
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Henry, which version of the rMBP do you have - the one with Iris Pro graphics ONLY, or the one with the dedicated GT750M gpu?

The one with the GPU would work better, stay cooler. I have the non-gpu version from late 2013, and I'm driving one 4K monitor and one 3440x1440 monitor, and the fans come on quite often when I'm using or viewing 4K content for a few minutes. At lower resolutions it's fine. But driving a lot of pixels warms up the graphics systems in these monitors and causes the fans to run. Not harmful in the short term, but the warmer a computer runs, the shorter its lifespan will be.
 
hensavage said:
Hey guys,
I'm super close to picking one of these up for my mid2014 Macbook Pro 15" and just wanted to hear from those of you powering this thing using a rMBP 15"?

How does the laptop seem to handle the high res?
Does it manage to power the monitor without noticeable strain and overheating?

Im just wanted to make sure I could work effectively in photoshop and illustrator without my computer struggling.

Thankyou,

Henry
Click to expand...

I have a late 2013 rMBP 15", base model with Intel Iris Pro graphics. I have the LG at home right now, but it's not exposing 4096*2160 using display port or HDMI. I've tried windows 8.1 as well through Boot Camp with the latest intel drivers without luck.

I suspect it's a corrupt EDID and it has nothing to do with the macbook. On hardforum someone posted with a similar problem which was solved with an exchange.

On windows, EDID tells me it's produced in 2014, week 12 (?) which seems impossible - maybe it's the month instead. I'm in contact with LG directly to get an exchange.

Is there anyone here with an rMBP 15" without the discrete graphics using the 31MU97 driving 4096*2160?

To answer your question: At 3840*2160 it gets pretty sloppy at times, especially when using Google Chrome while rendering many images or previewing high-res photography from finder. After boot up things are reasonably fast - but once the buffer fills up it can get problematic. This is both with unscaled and scaled modes. Funny thing is - on Windows the performance is a lot snappier, without any real hiccups so far. Maybe the driver is better optimised? It seems the GPU can handle it.
 
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larrysing1963 said:
Henry, which version of the rMBP do you have - the one with Iris Pro graphics ONLY, or the one with the dedicated GT750M gpu?.
Click to expand...

I have the dedicated GT750M as well. I think I have decided to pick one up. If worst comes to worst I can run it at slightly lower resolution?
 
hensavage said:
I have the dedicated GT750M as well. I think I have decided to pick one up. If worst comes to worst I can run it at slightly lower resolution?
Click to expand...

Not really - the only viable alternative is 3840*2160 with black bars on the sides. Everything else will look pretty crappy. Even if you use a 'scaled' hiDPI resolution in osx (which are rendered in double res to make it look crisp), it will scale it back to native monitor resolution before sending it to the display.
 
slater-k said:
Can anyone else confirm they're getting 4096 @ 60Hz with the nMP ... i'd love to know it's not a one off :eek:
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I have not seen anyone else reporting this. He is also on 10.10.3, which I believe is still fairly rare.
 
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Gonna ask this once more: is anyone here succesfully running this with a rMBP base model with Iris Pro?

I'd like to know before exchanging the monitor. It won't list the 4096*2160 at all..
 
Here is
 

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In the worst case we have to wait for the final release of 10.10.3 to have a wider range of users with this particular setup. This would be officially the only reason for me to upgrade my nMP to Yosemite, cause Mavericks just flies on my machine everyday.
 
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lisagurl said:
Is there anyone else that can verify that the new bata Yosemite 10.10.3 fixes the 60 Hz problem?
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Yes anyone else that has this display and has 10.10.3, it would be really helpful to hear other experiences. More specifically, I'd be curious to know if anyone with that combo and a cMP is able to get 4096x2160 native.
 
shapa said:
And second one
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larrysing1963 said:
Very cool. And it must be something they have updated in 10.10.3, because even on the "official" Apple 4K support page dated 12/1/2014, they did not say this monitor could do that. I wonder if it's limited to the Mac Pro?
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Wow. That's really exciting. I'm not surprised that the Apple info page still says 50Hz (as does the LG web site). Will be watching those pages closely once 10.10.3 is officially released. The lack of 60Hz was my only reason for not getting one of these to replace my 30" ACD. I've been waiting because I had a feeling it would happen at some point, as with 60Hz always being possible with the LG under Windows it had to be a driver issue.

Pleased to see that running at the scaled resolution works just as well and at 60Hz as that's what I would do here.

Any other thoughts on your monitor, especially any backlight bleed, colour uniformity or any other comments would be really interesting to hear.

Thanks!

EDIT: This is going to sound like the stupidest question ever and I may regret asking it, however if someone who has one of these monitors is willing to pander to the ravings of a complete idiot, then I'd be interested to know what dimensions (in mm, preferably) the width and height of the actual screen are (i.e. ignoring the bezel). I have a 30" 16:10 display at the moment so trying to get my head around how a 31" 19:10 display will compare isn't straightforward, at least I don't think it is. And before you say it, I realise that the resolution will make a difference...
 
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Iris Pro does NOT support 4096*2160 @ 50hz

I've finally been able to get a definite answer. Went to my local Apple Store and tested the panel with both a discrete and non-discrete rMBP 15".

The discrete one switched to 4096*2160 immediately. The non-discrete one was stuck at 3840*2160. I've tried to add custom resolutions with quickresx, but they're never loaded/accepted after rebooting. On Windows, I managed to add a custom resolution @43hz so it's sort of workable there.

If you have a rMPB WITHOUT discrete graphics, no matter which model, do not buy this screen. You will not get the 4096*2160 @ 50hz.

Very disappointing, especially since no one from LG or Apple was able to give me any information on this before testing it myself. Both claim that the combination should work on their websites.
 
Braaam said:
I've finally been able to get a definite answer. Went to my local Apple Store and tested the panel with both a discrete and non-discrete rMBP 15".

The discrete one switched to 4096*2160 immediately. The non-discrete one was stuck at 3840*2160. I've tried to add custom resolutions with quickresx, but they're never loaded/accepted after rebooting. On Windows, I managed to add a custom resolution @43hz so it's sort of workable there.

If you have a rMPB WITHOUT discrete graphics, no matter which model, do not buy this screen. You will not get the 4096*2160 @ 50hz.

Very disappointing, especially since no one from LG or Apple was able to give me any information on this before testing it myself. Both claim that the combination should work on their websites.
Click to expand...

This MIGHT work on 10.10.3 on the rMBP. It works on the Late 2013 Mac Pro right now on 10.10.3, but I have not seen anyone test on a 10.10.3 MacBook Pro 15"
 
Cable brand and format are you using?

shapa said:
And second one
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I have ordered one of the LG monitors based on your post to use with my nMP. Wondering if cables used can make a difference? Which ones are you using? Mini display port to mini DP or mini DP to DP? Brand? Thanks
 
larrysing1963 said:
This MIGHT work on 10.10.3 on the rMBP. It works on the Late 2013 Mac Pro right now on 10.10.3, but I have not seen anyone test on a 10.10.3 MacBook Pro 15"
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I tested it with 10.10.3 beta 2. No changes. As shown in the table above, intel doesnt officially support the resolution.
 
Using standard cable, everything is fine, no reason to buy something else (it's really thick cable)

New 10.10.3 beta2 didn't broke anything, still works at 60Hz

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"The lack of 60Hz was my only reason for not getting one of these to replace my 30" ACD"

Yep, my LG was purchased to replace ACD 30'' :)

Image quality is outstanding. ACD was a good product, but 5 years ago :)
 
shapa said:
Using standard cable, everything is fine, no reason to buy something else (it's really thick cable)

New 10.10.3 beta2 didn't broke anything, still works at 60Hz

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"The lack of 60Hz was my only reason for not getting one of these to replace my 30" ACD"

Yep, my LG was purchased to replace ACD 30'' :)

Image quality is outstanding. ACD was a good product, but 5 years ago :)
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I hear you. :)

My nMP only has D300's in it. D700's would always have been overkill for me but kinda wish I'd opted for the D500. Ah well. I wonder how well the D300 would cope with the scaling up/scaling down 50 or 60 times a second with a scaled resolution? I'm wondering if it would make my fan spin much harder to cope with the extra heat! Or is this a walk in the park even for a D300, I wonder?

How do you find the size of the LG? Clearly it's a smaller (relative) vertical resolution but a wider aspect. Is the physical height of the actual screen (ignoring the bezel) similar to the ACD 30" or smaller? Silly question, I know, but I don't know whether to go for the LG or go larger still and look at one of the 32" screens that are out now. Can't help feeling that whatever the resolution of the monitor I end up getting, if it has a noticeable smaller height to my ACD 30" it might feel like a step backwards in some respects.
 
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I really would like this monitor, but it is overpriced in the UK, in my opinion. I can buy two Dell P2715Qs for the same price.
 
AJClayton, 30'' is taller, but LG is wider :)

Overall - LG is much more comfortable size and feels like a breath of fresh air - physically it's a bit harder to constantly move your head up and down than left and right :)


theSeb - I paid £911.99 inc VAT, not a big deal to be honest.

Dell is cheaper but 27'' only. Also some complaints regarding service.

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Public Beta 10.10.3 is available today, anyone can try.
 
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