LG UltraFine 4K and 5K: Yes you can connect it to Windows computers via DP!!!

[joevt]

1. Yeah, I believe T480s Thunderbolt 3 supports one DP connection. You cannot even connect 1 display to USB-C port and the other to Thunderbolt 3 port, only one will work. The only way to connect 2 display port monitors is to use Lenovo Thunderbolt 3 Dock which I think does it through MST... which as far as I understand doesn't work with Ultrafine's tiling.

I was able to get 5K 60Hz 8bpc on a Dell UP2715K using an Nvidia GTX 1070 using DisplayPort 1.4 MST Hub. Maybe 5K 60 Hz 10bpc could be supported if the MST Hub supported DSC - I haven't tried that yet (my only DSC capable GPU is the W5700 - I just need to install Windows to test MST).

The Lenova Dock might use Alpine Ridge or might use a DisplayPort 1.2 MST Hub, so you would need to use a different MST Hub. The T480 doesn't support DisplayPort 1.4 so you would need a eGPU. If you had an eGPU then you wouldn't need an MST Hub. You would need an eGPU that has Thunderbolt output such as the Blackmagic or new Sonnet 5500XT/5700 eGPUs. Otherwise you would need a Thunderbolt 3 add-in card to convert the DisplayPort outputs to Thunderbolt.

2. That said, it's connected via TB3 cable to TB3 port and it is recognized as TB3 device. Only one EDID in CRU and there's no tiling information in it! In fact, there's nothing in Extensions Blocks (I've added 4096x2304 it).
I guess there's a third EDID then after all. Manufacturing date for this one is 2020/3.

It may be that the graphics drivers are not returning the extension block to CRU? The first block should have a count of extension blocks at byte 7E - if it's 01 or greater, then it means that extension blocks were hidden. byte 7F has a checksum that should be correct unless something modified the EDID without adjusting the checksum.

Have you tried a different app like moninfo.exe (Monitor Asset Manager)?

 

[blaraka]

I was able to get 5K 60Hz 8bpc on a Dell UP2715K using an Nvidia GTX 1070 using DisplayPort 1.4 MST Hub. Maybe 5K 60 Hz 10bpc could be supported if the MST Hub supported DSC - I haven't tried that yet (my only DSC capable GPU is the W5700 - I just need to install Windows to test MST).

The Lenova Dock might use Alpine Ridge or might use a DisplayPort 1.2 MST Hub, so you would need to use a different MST Hub. The T480 doesn't support DisplayPort 1.4 so you would need a eGPU. If you had an eGPU then you wouldn't need an MST Hub. You would need an eGPU that has Thunderbolt output such as the Blackmagic or new Sonnet 5500XT/5700 eGPUs. Otherwise you would need a Thunderbolt 3 add-in card to convert the DisplayPort outputs to Thunderbolt.


It may be that the graphics drivers are not returning the extension block to CRU? The first block should have a count of extension blocks at byte 7E - if it's 01 or greater, then it means that extension blocks were hidden. byte 7F has a checksum that should be correct unless something modified the EDID without adjusting the checksum.

Have you tried a different app like moninfo.exe (Monitor Asset Manager)?

I'm attaching everything that you can see in Monitor Asset Manager and CRU (after I've reset-all with CRU and disable internal laptop display). Monitor Asset Manager lists indeed additional entries, does it make sense to you now?
CRU just show one and empty "Default Extensions Blocks".

I had 5 minutes of hope because the dock I have actually has in its supported video resolutions specification 5K available in TBT downstream with laptop LCD off with the only condition being "Thunderbolt 3 host thinkpad system 2 (support DP1.2)"... but then again, now I see that:

The T480s only features one x4-interface according to the diagnostics tool HWiNFO, but it is occupied by the PCIe-SSD. The Thunderbolt 3 port is therefore attached via x2 interface with a maximum transfer rate of 20 Gb/s.

There's just no bandwidth available for that.

 

[blaraka]

Guys, success, 5K@30Hz is possible on Thinkpad T480s!

Lenovo Thunderbolt 3 Dock that I've mentioned before is not needed. It works with the display directly connected to laptop's Thunderbolt port.

Yes, I got 5K on that bloody Thinkpad with crappy Intel integrated graphics!

A bit of blind luck I guess. I've looked into needed bandwidth calculation and figured 5K@30Hz should work on that 20Gbps port. I've tried first with CVT-RB and it worked but something was slightly off. My scaled resolution (set at 200%) scaling was being reported as 2560x1441 and I've seen some slight artefacts in fonts.

So I've tried to simply replicate the same set up as for 4096 x 2304 (back porch, front porch, sync width) but with 5120 x 2880 and 29.999Hz. Amazingly enough, it works and looks super crisp.
And 30hz is good enough for job I'm doing on that laptop

I'm attaching the screenshot of joy


EDIT: I've managed to get up to 39Hz, anything above that is simply not recognized.

 

[cjt782]

Hi, and thanks for gathering all this information. I have a setup that's been driving me mad for a few weeks now, figured it's time to write in and see if there's something obvious that I'm missing.

I have a pair of new LG 4k Ultrafine monitors (24MD4kL). My hope was that I'd be able to use the Wacom Link Plus to drive one of these monitors from my older MacBook Pro (Mid 2015), which has only HDMI and Thunderbolt 2 outputs. This is less crucial than simply getting my newer MacBook Pro (2020, M1) to work with dual external displays. I purchased a USB hub with DisplayLink (WAVLINK USB C Dual 4K HDMI&DP Universal Docking Station)
to make this possible, because there are no similar devices with DisplayLink and USB-C or Thunderbolt 3 output, so I figured that the Wacom Link Plus could solve this issue too.


So here's the primary setup:

M1 MacBook -> Thunderbolt 3 cable -> WavLink -> DisplayPort to MiniDisplayPort cable -> Wacom Link Plus -> USB-C cable -> LG Monitor

• The Thunderbolt 3 cable came with the LG monitor and everything works fine if plugged directly to the monitor
• With the USB-C cable going to the monitor, I've tried Thunderbolt 3 cables and USB-C cables, both seem to yield the same result.
• The other Thunderbolt port on the laptop is plugged directly to the other monitor. This works fine, and also my results with the Wacom-driven monitor do not change regardless of whether the directly plugged monitor is plugged in or unplugged.

I also attempted an alternative solution without the Wacom before finding this forum, which was:

M1 MacBook -> Thunderbolt 3 cable -> WavLink -> USB-C to DisplayPort 1.4 bidirectional Club3D -> LG Monitor


The secondary setup (which I'm including only to show that the WavLink probably isn't the culprit, I ultimately don't NEED this to work) is:

2015 MacBook -> HDMI cable -> Wacom Link Plus -> USB-C cable -> LG Monitor


With all of these scenarios, I have the same result - the laptop shows the monitor as a display, but the display remains completely black.

Any ideas? Sorry if I missed any important details (or gave too many!)

Given that this monitor will be my secondary display, it doesn't need to be running at the highest quality (although of course it would be nice), and I don't need the brightness or the USB-C ports on the back to work (I have enough between the other monitor and the WavLink USB hub). I really just need it to, you know, display stuff...

Thanks in advance!!

 

[joevt]

I'm attaching everything that you can see in Monitor Asset Manager and CRU (after I've reset-all with CRU and disable internal laptop display). Monitor Asset Manager lists indeed additional entries, does it make sense to you now?
CRU just show one and empty "Default Extensions Blocks".

MAM is only showing the first 128 byte block (see all the hex after 0x80 is all zeros) even though it says "Extension blocks ...... 2" (the value of the byte at 0x7E. CRU sees there's supposed to be 2 extension bocks but they are defaulted to zeros?

I would get the EDID for the left tile of the LG UltraFine 5K from a Mac using the AGDCDiagnose command - save it as hex or binary and import to CRU, then make modifications.

I had 5 minutes of hope because the dock I have actually has in its supported video resolutions specification 5K available in TBT downstream with laptop LCD off with the only condition being "Thunderbolt 3 host thinkpad system 2 (support DP1.2)"...

You mean "ThinkPad Thunderbolt 3 Dock Gen 2 (40AN)"? The downstream of a dock depends on the laptop - a dock cannot add additional DisplayPort connections to a downstream Thunderbolt port unless it's using DisplayLink (I'm not aware of any dock that puts DisplayLink on Thunderbolt) or it's a Blackmagic or Sonnet 5500 XT/5700 GPU.

but then again, now I see that:

The T480s only features one x4-interface according to the diagnostics tool HWiNFO, but it is occupied by the PCIe-SSD. The Thunderbolt 3 port is therefore attached via x2 interface with a maximum transfer rate of 20 Gb/s.

There's just no bandwidth available for that.

That is referring to the PCIe connection of the host Thunderbolt controller in the laptop. It has nothing to do with the number of DisplayPort connections to the Thunderbolt controller. The Thunderbolt 3 port of the laptop still does 40 Gbps for PCIe and DisplayPort and whatever (Thunderbolt networking) but only 20 Gb/s can be PCIe (actually, they should have said 15.75 Gbps which allows for ≈1600 MB/s of data instead of the usual ≈2800 MB/s)
40 Gbps is enough for two DisplayPort 1.2 connections but your laptop only provides one DisplayPort 1.2 connection to the Thunderbolt controller (you've tried with laptop lid closed, etc, right?)

Guys, success, 5K@30Hz is possible on Thinkpad T480s!

Yes, I got 5K on that bloody Thinkpad with crappy Intel integrated graphics!

A bit of blind luck I guess. I've looked into needed bandwidth calculation and figured 5K@30Hz should work on that 20Gbps port.

It's a 40 Gbps port, with 15.75 Gbps of PCIe and 17.28 Gbps of DisplayPort 1.2.

I though the LG UltraFine 5K didn't have a single tile 5K capability. I wonder if both the old and new LG UltraFine 5K displays can do single tile 5K? I suppose the reason this was not discovered on Mac was because Macs always have Thunderbolt ports with two DisplayPort connections. Also, many Macs that don't have Thunderbolt 3 had older GPUs that did not support width > 4096. It was only recently in Big Sur that Apple added > 4096 capability to Intel Kaby Lake and Coffee Lake CPUs - they didn't add the capability to Skylake though.

I've tried first with CVT-RB and it worked but something was slightly off. My scaled resolution (set at 200%) scaling was being reported as 2560x1441 and I've seen some slight artefacts in fonts.

So I've tried to simply replicate the same set up as for 4096 x 2304 (back porch, front porch, sync width) but with 5120 x 2880 and 29.999Hz. Amazingly enough, it works and looks super crisp.
And 30hz is good enough for job I'm doing on that laptop

I'm attaching the screenshot of joy

EDIT: I've managed to get up to 39Hz, anything above that is simply not recognized.

What pixel clock did you end up with? With 8 bpc, you should be able to get up to 720 MHz (minus some overhead). You can enable 6 bpc which would allow 5K 60Hz except there might be a pixel clock limit that you ran into at 39Hz. Also, DisplayPort 1.2 supports 4:2:2, so you could try enabling that, but it might not be supported by the display. Does Intel graphics control panel or whatever allow selecting chroma subsampling or bpc like the Nvidia control panel?

 

[joevt]

Hi, and thanks for gathering all this information. I have a setup that's been driving me mad for a few weeks now, figured it's time to write in and see if there's something obvious that I'm missing.

I have a pair of new LG 4k Ultrafine monitors (24MD4kL). My hope was that I'd be able to use the Wacom Link Plus to drive one of these monitors from my older MacBook Pro (Mid 2015), which has only HDMI and Thunderbolt 2 outputs. This is less crucial than simply getting my newer MacBook Pro (2020, M1) to work with dual external displays. I purchased a USB hub with DisplayLink (WAVLINK USB C Dual 4K HDMI&DP Universal Docking Station)
to make this possible, because there are no similar devices with DisplayLink and USB-C or Thunderbolt 3 output, so I figured that the Wacom Link Plus could solve this issue too.

For the MacBook Pro (Mid 2015):

Every Thunderbolt 3 device with two or more Thunderbolt ports has USB-C or Thunderbolt 3 output. Use one of those with an Apple Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter.

But wait, the new LG UltraFine 4K display is a Thunderbolt 3 display, so you just need the Apple Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter. You only need the USB-C output of a Thunderbolt 3 device for USB-C displays like the old LG UltraFine 4K that do not support Thunderbolt.

The secondary setup (which I'm including only to show that the WavLink probably isn't the culprit, I ultimately don't NEED this to work) is:

2015 MacBook -> HDMI cable -> Wacom Link Plus -> USB-C cable -> LG Monitor

Avoid HDMI. You can only get 4K 30Hz from the MacBook Pro's HDMI port.
If you want to connect two 4K displays to the MacBook Pro (Mid 2015), then you need to connect each to a different Thunderbolt 2 port.

So here's the primary setup:

M1 MacBook -> Thunderbolt 3 cable -> WavLink -> DisplayPort to MiniDisplayPort cable -> Wacom Link Plus -> USB-C cable -> LG Monitor

The Thunderbolt 3 cable came with the LG monitor and everything works fine if plugged directly to the monitor

With the USB-C cable going to the monitor, I've tried Thunderbolt 3 cables and USB-C cables, both seem to yield the same result.

You lost me here. You tried Thunderbolt 3 cables and USB-C cables where? What result?

my results with the Wacom-driven monitor do not change regardless of whether the directly plugged monitor is plugged in or unplugged.

I don't think you've explained the result yet.

I also attempted an alternative solution without the Wacom before finding this forum, which was:

M1 MacBook -> Thunderbolt 3 cable -> WavLink -> USB-C to DisplayPort 1.4 bidirectional Club3D -> LG Monitor

What was the result of that?

With all of these scenarios, I have the same result - the laptop shows the monitor as a display, but the display remains completely black.

Ok, now I get it. Seems like DisplayLink output doesn't work with Wacom Link Plus.

Given that this monitor will be my secondary display, it doesn't need to be running at the highest quality (although of course it would be nice), and I don't need the brightness or the USB-C ports on the back to work (I have enough between the other monitor and the WavLink USB hub). I really just need it to, you know, display stuff...

Instead of Wacom Link Plus, try Belkin Charge and Sync Cable for HUAWEI VR Glass? It will give brightness control and USB-C ports. Maybe it will fail like the Wacom Link Plus. In that case, maybe a different DisplayLink adapter might work but probably will have same problem as Wavlink dock.

 

[blaraka]

MAM is only showing the first 128 byte block (see all the hex after 0x80 is all zeros) even though it says "Extension blocks ...... 2" (the value of the byte at 0x7E. CRU sees there's supposed to be 2 extension bocks but they are defaulted to zeros?

I would get the EDID for the left tile of the LG UltraFine 5K from a Mac using the AGDCDiagnose command - save it as hex or binary and import to CRU, then make modifications.

I don’t have non-M1 Mac at hand right now unfortunately.

You mean "ThinkPad Thunderbolt 3 Dock Gen 2 (40AN)"? The downstream of a dock depends on the laptop - a dock cannot add additional DisplayPort connections to a downstream Thunderbolt port unless it's using DisplayLink (I'm not aware of any dock that puts DisplayLink on Thunderbolt) or it's a Blackmagic or Sonnet 5500 XT/5700 GPU.


That is referring to the PCIe connection of the host Thunderbolt controller in the laptop. It has nothing to do with the number of DisplayPort connections to the Thunderbolt controller. The Thunderbolt 3 port of the laptop still does 40 Gbps for PCIe and DisplayPort and whatever (Thunderbolt networking) but only 20 Gb/s can be PCIe (actually, they should have said 15.75 Gbps which allows for ≈1600 MB/s of data instead of the usual ≈2800 MB/s)
40 Gbps is enough for two DisplayPort 1.2 connections but your laptop only provides one DisplayPort 1.2 connection to the Thunderbolt controller (you've tried with laptop lid closed, etc, right?)


It's a 40 Gbps port, with 15.75 Gbps of PCIe and 17.28 Gbps of DisplayPort 1.2.

thanks for explanation!

What pixel clock did you end up with? With 8 bpc, you should be able to get up to 720 MHz (minus some overhead). You can enable 6 bpc which would allow 5K 60Hz except there might be a pixel clock limit that you ran into at 39Hz. Also, DisplayPort 1.2 supports 4:2:2, so you could try enabling that, but it might not be supported by the display. Does Intel graphics control panel or whatever allow selecting chroma subsampling or bpc like the Nvidia control panel?

1. I’ve ended up with pixel clock slightly below 600 which is, I believe, a hard limit for that display. In some range (I don’t remember now exactly, might be up to 48Hz?) of frequencies the timing is still recognised by the laptop but the LG remains blank when trying to enable it.
Also yes, I’ve tried closing the lid and all, doesn’t have any effect on EDIDs available. I guess it really has just one DP1.2 on that TB3 connection available in all cases
2. Intel Graphics Command Centre supposedly has that functionality as of last year but it doesn’t show up for me even after adding YCbCr to EDID override. It might be display's limitation or maybe it's just an HDMI only feature? All examples on the web refer to HDMI as far as I see.

But in my case it doesn’t matter, right? If there is hard limit of 600 for pixel clock enabling 4:2:2 would not allow me to get 60Hz, am I right?

To be honest, I'm extremely happy with that unexpected 5k@39Hz. I'm coding (and some of it has to be done on Windows) and due to getting used to Retina on Macs sort of obsessed with it. Getting used to 39Hz (it's not that bad) is a price I'm happy to pay for 2560x1440 real estate at native 5120x2880 with 200% scaling. After seeing how my windows IDEs look at that 5k@200% there's no going back to 4096x2304, even 200% scaling looks meaningfully worse at that non-native setting.

 

[joevt]

But in my case it doesn’t matter, right? If there is hard limit of 600 for pixel clock enabling 4:2:2 would not allow me to get 60Hz, am I right?

Most likely but it would be interesting to know if the display could support 4:2:2 or 6 bpc. For example, the XDR supports a 5K 60Hz 6bpc HBR2 signal but doesn't support chroma sub sampling (which can be added to DisplayPort with the proper EDID edits).

It wouldn't be useful unless you are in a situation where your DisplayPort 1.2 connection is limited to two lanes instead of four - as in the case of a USB-C (not Thunderbolt) dock that supports USB 3.x.

 

[blaraka]

Most likely but it would be interesting to know if the display could support 4:2:2 or 6 bpc. For example, the XDR supports a 5K 60Hz 6bpc HBR2 signal but doesn't support chroma sub sampling (which can be added to DisplayPort with the proper EDID edits).

It wouldn't be useful unless you are in a situation where your DisplayPort 1.2 connection is limited to two lanes instead of four - as in the case of a USB-C (not Thunderbolt) dock that supports USB 3.x.

I've actually managed to get 6bit RGB colour by setting it as "Maximum Color Depth" via CRU-generated EDID override.
It didn't make it possible to get any higher with refresh rate so I dropped it.

 

[cjt782]

For the MacBook Pro (Mid 2015):

Every Thunderbolt 3 device with two or more Thunderbolt ports has USB-C or Thunderbolt 3 output. Use one of those with an Apple Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter.

But wait, the new LG UltraFine 4K display is a Thunderbolt 3 display, so you just need the Apple Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter. You only need the USB-C output of a Thunderbolt 3 device for USB-C displays like the old LG UltraFine 4K that do not support Thunderbolt.

Yeah, the Thunderbolt 2 to Thunderbolt 3 should do the trick here, but I was really just trying to show that the issue is probably not the WavLink/DisplayLink output (since this setup went directly from the MacBook to the Wacom)

Avoid HDMI. You can only get 4K 30Hz from the MacBook Pro's HDMI port.
If you want to connect two 4K displays to the MacBook Pro (Mid 2015), then you need to connect each to a different Thunderbolt 2 port.

Point taken. However, I'd actually be delighted with 30Hz, since this is my secondary monitor and my main monitor would still be driven natively.

You lost me here. You tried Thunderbolt 3 cables and USB-C cables where? What result?

Sorry, I just saw on this thread that people had differing results between the Wacom and their Monitor depending on whether they used a USB-C cable or a Thunderbolt 3 cable, so I was just trying to indicate that I've tried both.

Instead of Wacom Link Plus, try Belkin Charge and Sync Cable for HUAWEI VR Glass? It will give brightness control and USB-C ports. Maybe it will fail like the Wacom Link Plus. In that case, maybe a different DisplayLink adapter might work but probably will have same problem as Wavlink dock.

Went ahead and purchased this, so I'll hopefully have it in a week or two. I don't think it's a WavLink issue, because it doesn't work when I go straight from my old laptop to the Wacom either, it seems more likely that the monitor simply isn't responding to the USB-C output from the Wacom?

 

[joevt]

Yeah, the Thunderbolt 2 to Thunderbolt 3 should do the trick here, but I was really just trying to show that the issue is probably not the WavLink/DisplayLink output (since this setup went directly from the MacBook to the Wacom)

I don't think it's a WavLink issue, because it doesn't work when I go straight from my old laptop to the Wacom either, it seems more likely that the monitor simply isn't responding to the USB-C output from the Wacom?

Well, no. With the MacBook Pro 2015, you used the HDMI of the Wacom which may be a different problem than using DisplayLink with DisplayPort of Wacom.
What you didn't try is MacBook Pro 2015 to DisplayPort of Wacom to show that the Wacom can work.

 

[cjt782]

Well, no. With the MacBook Pro 2015, you used the HDMI of the Wacom which may be a different problem than using DisplayLink with DisplayPort of Wacom.
What you didn't try is MacBook Pro 2015 to DisplayPort of Wacom to show that the Wacom can work.

True. I very foolishly forgot that Thunderbolt 2 and Mini DisplayPort are closely related and that the Wacom came with a Mini DisplayPort cable. I plugged the MacBook Pro 2015 into the DisplayPort of the Wacom, and my monitor is working.

So after this revelation, I grabbed another monitor in the house (not one I can use full-time, unfortunately) and tested a bunch more things. The other monitor has DisplayPort and Mini DisplayPort inputs, and I was able to get everything working with every combination I could imagine. Point being - none of the cables are damaged, and I'm able to get output from my M1 MacBook through the WavLink, then the Wacom, then to the monitor.

This naturally made me curious if I was just insane, so I went back to my regular monitor and tried to get it going again. After a bunch of fiddling, I was able to get it to light up with my desired setup, and I even had the dual monitors working! The specific solve - I had to modify the display resolution on the "secondary" monitor down to 1920x1080@30Hz. Obviously, this isn't an ideal solution, but I would take it in a heartbeat if it was stable. Unfortunately, I tweaked something and now I'm back to square one (secondary monitor is not registered at all). It seems VERY likely to me that the issue lies in the power delivery somewhere, either the power going from the WavLink (which is making a strange whistling noise) to the laptop or the separate power going to the Wacom, or some combination of those. I don't remember seeing anything on this thread about that specific type of thing, does anyone have any ideas about why this might happen or options for solving it? I've reaching out to WavLink as well, hopefully they have some helpful support available.

On the plus side, I now know that this is theoretically possible with the hardware in front of me, I just need to figure out where it is going wrong!

And I still have the Belkin charge & sync cable on the way, which could potentially solve the issue too!

 

[joevt]

True. I very foolishly forgot that Thunderbolt 2 and Mini DisplayPort are closely related and that the Wacom came with a Mini DisplayPort cable. I plugged the MacBook Pro 2015 into the DisplayPort of the Wacom, and my monitor is working.

So after this revelation, I grabbed another monitor in the house (not one I can use full-time, unfortunately) and tested a bunch more things. The other monitor has DisplayPort and Mini DisplayPort inputs, and I was able to get everything working with every combination I could imagine. Point being - none of the cables are damaged, and I'm able to get output from my M1 MacBook through the WavLink, then the Wacom, then to the monitor.

This naturally made me curious if I was just insane, so I went back to my regular monitor and tried to get it going again. After a bunch of fiddling, I was able to get it to light up with my desired setup, and I even had the dual monitors working! The specific solve - I had to modify the display resolution on the "secondary" monitor down to 1920x1080@30Hz. Obviously, this isn't an ideal solution, but I would take it in a heartbeat if it was stable. Unfortunately, I tweaked something and now I'm back to square one (secondary monitor is not registered at all). It seems VERY likely to me that the issue lies in the power delivery somewhere, either the power going from the WavLink (which is making a strange whistling noise) to the laptop or the separate power going to the Wacom, or some combination of those. I don't remember seeing anything on this thread about that specific type of thing, does anyone have any ideas about why this might happen or options for solving it? I've reaching out to WavLink as well, hopefully they have some helpful support available.

On the plus side, I now know that this is theoretically possible with the hardware in front of me, I just need to figure out where it is going wrong!

And I still have the Belkin charge & sync cable on the way, which could potentially solve the issue too!

I guess this is another confirmation that the Wacom Link Plus has flaky HDMI input support. Doesn't matter since the HDMI input only support HDMI 1.4 - there are new HDMI 2.0 to USB-C adapters that better serve this function (e.g. CAC-1332)

About the power issues, maybe you could isolate the Wavlink from the M1 using a USB or Thunderbolt hub or dock. Make sure the Wacom Link Plus is getting power from a USB port that is not the M1 Mac.

 

[cjt782]

I guess this is another confirmation that the Wacom Link Plus has flaky HDMI input support. Doesn't matter since the HDMI input only support HDMI 1.4 - there are new HDMI 2.0 to USB-C adapters that better serve this function (e.g. CAC-1332)

About the power issues, maybe you could isolate the Wavlink from the M1 using a USB or Thunderbolt hub or dock. Make sure the Wacom Link Plus is getting power from a USB port that is not the M1 Mac.

I'm a bit confused, because the WavLink is a USB dock. Are you suggesting putting another USB dock in between them?

I have the Wacom plugged in to a wall charger directly, but even that doesn't seem to be enough.

I wonder if I could use the CAC-1332 to go directly from the WavLink to a USB-C cable to the monitor... Might give it a try

 

[joevt]

I'm a bit confused, because the WavLink is a USB dock. Are you suggesting putting another USB dock in between them?

Yes.

I wonder if I could use the CAC-1332 to go directly from the WavLink to a USB-C cable to the monitor... Might give it a try

The WavLink has DisplayPort which is better for a DisplayPort or USB-C display (and necessary for 4K60 10bpc RGB) but I guess it might be interesting to see if the HDMI port with CAC-1332 has different behavior if you're having problems with the DisplayPort outputs.

 

[Riviera122]

I've just received the SIIG HDMI to USB-C converter and I'm pretty happy with it. Here are the outcomes of testing the adapter with different devices. I have the LG UltraFine 24", latest version.

A word of warning - this adapter doesn't work with the Thunderbolt 3 cable that comes with the montior, only the USB-C cable that comes with it. I tried the adapter with different USB-C cables and they didn't work... Not sure why this is.

PS3 I had laying around - works fine, but no sound out of the box. A workaround here is use Sony's Multi AV RCA cable into a headphone amplifier with RCA sockets. Alternatively, Multi AV cable out > RCA to headphone jack adapter > headphone volume control adapter (if needed) > AUX input.

Dell Latitude laptop - Works fine at limited resolutions. Some scaling/pixellation issues which may have been fixable, but I didn't check as thankfully it has a USB-C port, so I use it via that normally (full 4K support).

Windows 10 tower - Works fine. Full 4K at 60HZ. Brightness can be controlled via a third party app I found on GitHub, which I've set up to be opened when I press the F11 key.

11" 2013 MacBook Air, via third party Thunderbolt to HDMI adapter - Could only get 720p unfortunately. It doesn't work with a Thunderbolt 2 cable either. This could be because it's running Mavericks, so the monitor is technically not supported software-wise.

2017 MBP via Anker PowerExpand+ USB-C to HDMI adapter and Apple USB-C to USB-A adapter on Catalina - Full 4K at 60HZ, no Retina scaling support (only Retina resolution is 1080. Native resolution is an option, but the res menu says it's "low resolution").

3rd gen Apple TV (from 2012) works with SIIG adapter and latest LG Ultrafine 4K (24") at max resolution (1080p 60hz).

 

[joevt]

2017 MBP via Anker PowerExpand+ USB-C to HDMI adapter and Apple USB-C to USB-A adapter on Catalina - Full 4K at 60HZ, no sound or Retina scaling support (only Retina resolutions are 1080 and native). LG UltraFine sound option via DisplayPort shows in Sound preferences, but doesn't work. Again this could be a software/hardware issue.

I think LG UltraFine displays only support audio from USB. Is the Micro USB Power cable connected to the MacBook Pro? Do the USB functions of the display work? (brightness control, camera, audio, USB ports).

Use SwitchResX to add scaled modes which will add HiDPI (retina) modes. For example, add a 5120x2880 scaled mode to add a 2560x1440 HiDPI mode.

PS3 I had laying around - works fine, but no sound.

Does PS3 support USB audio?

 

[Riviera122]

I think LG UltraFine displays only support audio from USB. Is the Micro USB Power cable connected to the MacBook Pro? Do the USB functions of the display work? (brightness control, camera, audio, USB ports).

Use SwitchResX to add scaled modes which will add HiDPI (retina) modes. For example, add a 5120x2880 scaled mode to add a 2560x1440 HiDPI mode.


Does PS3 support USB audio?

I just tried plugging it in again, and now the USB audio option shows up. So can confirm sound works (but volume slider graphic doesn't come up, and there's an occasional popping sound). USB ports work as well. Brightness control doesn't (third party workarounds available), and there's no webcam on the 24".

Thanks for the tip on SwitchRes, I tried this with EasyRes but the picture was distorted.

The PS3 doesn't support USB audio, unfortunately. Only Multi AV, there's also an Optical Out socket (on my unit, anyway). However I tried using a headphone amp that I use for my record player setup and it worked great (Schiit brand) - Multi AV to RCA-in on the Schiit, aux out to headphones.

There are workarounds necessary to make this monitor fully compatible, but it's a fantastic display so it's worth it, IMO.

 

[joevt]

Brightness control doesn't (third party workarounds available), and there's no webcam on the 24".

Third party work arounds use DDC/CI over DisplayPort to control brightness. For Windows, you can manually install the Apple Boot Camp driver which adds the USB brightness control method.

 

[etc]

Just want to share my experience.

Got my shiny LG UltraFine 5K (B version) recently. I managed it to work in full 5K res 10bpc in Windows 10 without any problems. I use ASUS Z490 motherboard with ThunderboltEX 3-TR AIC and two DisplayPort cables connected to 2080 Ti FE (it also works with RX580 in the same way). With one DisplayPort cable I get 4K only, with two - full 5K. No problems so far with it.

But in Catalina with RX580 I get 5K rendered to 4K framebuffer, so the picture looks blurry, but the system shows 5120x2880 res everywhere and it makes 5K screenshots too. TB Bus is not enabled on my system. Does anybody know if I enable it, would I get 5K or not? Or it's better to try installing Big Sur?

 

[Cowboy beebop]

Hi there,

I hope you can help me..

I try to know if the Wacom link plus can connect LG display first gen ( 27md5ka ) to Xbox series X ?

Thanks a lot

 

[joevt]

Got my shiny LG UltraFine 5K (B version) recently. I managed it to work in full 5K res 10bpc in Windows 10 without any problems. I use ASUS Z490 motherboard with ThunderboltEX 3-TR AIC and two DisplayPort cables connected to 2080 Ti FE (it also works with RX580 in the same way). With one DisplayPort cable I get 4K only, with two - full 5K. No problems so far with it.

But in Catalina with RX580 I get 5K rendered to 4K framebuffer, so the picture looks blurry, but the system shows 5120x2880 res everywhere and it makes 5K screenshots too. TB Bus is not enabled on my system. Does anybody know if I enable it, would I get 5K or not? Or it's better to try installing Big Sur?

In Catalina, the RX580 is connected to the ThunderboltEX 3-TR AIC with two DisplayPort cables? In that case it should give 5K. Use the AGDCDiagnose command to see the connection type and output resolution and pixel depth.

I try to know if the Wacom link plus can connect LG display first gen ( 27md5ka ) to Xbox series X ?

27md5ka is Thunderbolt only. You need a Thunderbolt 3 add-in card to get 4K or 5K.
Only the 27md5kl supports both Thunderbolt and USB-C input.

 

[etc]

In Catalina, the RX580 is connected to the ThunderboltEX 3-TR AIC with two DisplayPort cables? In that case it should give 5K. Use the AGDCDiagnose command to see the connection type and output resolution and pixel depth.

Well, that RX580 was not mine, so I cannot check it for now or until I get my own (it's difficult nowadays). Yes, both cables were connected and I got 5K, but in Windows only.

 

[blaraka]

@joevt
I've seen you discussing those setups over the Internet so I'd like to ask you if you know anything about the probability of following setup working:

- PCIe Riser with 4-pin power input [https://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/B01N42OWYP/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A1HHFK55UJVMH4&psc=1]
- Molex 5V power supply [https://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/B00X5WZU0K/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?smid=A24VGMIX7ES3DX&psc=1]
- GC-Titan-Ridge 2

This would NOT be connected to any actual PC directly. I'd like to feed it with two DP streams out of ThinkPad (it's able to output 4k60Hz DP alt mode out of Thunderbolt 3 ports and 4k60Hz DP alt mode out of USB-C so I'd try to connect it to Titan Ridge with USB-C -> mDP adapters).

 

[etc]

@joevt
I've seen you discussing those setups over the Internet so I'd like to ask you if you know anything about the probability of following setup working:

- PCIe Riser with 4-pin power input [https://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/B01N42OWYP/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A1HHFK55UJVMH4&psc=1]
- Molex 5V power supply [https://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/B00X5WZU0K/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?smid=A24VGMIX7ES3DX&psc=1]
- GC-Titan-Ridge 2

This would NOT be connected to any actual PC directly. I'd like to feed it with two DP streams out of ThinkPad (it's able to output 4k60Hz DP alt mode out of Thunderbolt 3 ports and 4k60Hz DP alt mode out of USB-C so I'd try to connect it to Titan Ridge with USB-C -> mDP adapters).

Well, that could be possible in theory if GC-TITAN RIDGE sends both DP streams directly to TB port. But technically 1x PCI-E speed won't be enough for Thunderbolt 3 itself. A am as well not sure about USB connection that it would be recognized by the system.