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LG UltraFine 5K Display with a 2013 Mac Pro?

M

msvadi

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 12, 2010
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Would it be possible to use the new 27-in LG UltraFine 5K Display with a 2013 Mac Pro via an adapter? I'm guessing the answer is not as it would be Thunderbolt 2 on the other end of the adapter, but I wanted to make sure.

I've been waiting for 2 years for Apple to release a display that can work with a 2013 Mac Pro, but it looks like it's just not going to happen.

What are the best options among 27-in displays? Thanks
 
I would look into the Dell 5K if you want a 5K display. They're more expensive, though. Or, at least they are in Canada.
 
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Im sitting in the same boat... bought a Mac Pro 13 expecting to see a good display being released soon after but over time come to realize they don't really care...

Anyhow it sure would be great if it somehow worked... Anywhere to find a list of the best displays that actually do work with the Mac Pro 13?
 
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Also would like to know the answer to this. I spoke with an apple support person today and she said "it might work" and "but it may not give you all the features".

We know that TB2 on the mac pro supports a max output of 4K at 60hz, so the likely case is that you can use the LG display with apples new bidirectional TB2/TB3 adapter and get that res, which may or may not look acceptable pending on scaling.

The support page for the adapter says that it allows TB3 displays to be used on TB2 devices, and the spec sheet of the mac pro was recently updated to say that it supports 5K displays, so these are two signs of hope.

Apparently my best bet is to go to an apple store when its released and try it out in person.
 
Get the Apple bidirectional TB3 <-> TB2 adapter and it will work for your 2013 Mac Pro.
 
andy89 said:
I don't think so. The adapter would need to have two TB2 connectors (for MST) which can be done over a single connection with TB3.
Click to expand...

You might be right. It would be asinine for Apple to not be able to make it work though. If an Intel Iris 540 MBP could drive this 5K display, there's no good reason your 2013 Mac Pro with a pair of D700s couldn't do it.
 
theitsage said:
You might be right. It would be asinine for Apple to not be able to make it work though. If an Intel Iris 540 MBP could drive this 5K display, there's no good reason your 2013 Mac Pro with a pair of D700s couldn't do it.
Click to expand...
The nMP can't output more than a single DP1.2 stream per port, so you can't drive a 5K display, there's just not enough bandwidth. Only two-cable displays like UP2715K are possible.
 
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Get the Dell 4k instead of a 5k, much cheaper. The resolution is fine. Even on my 2015 though (13") it struggles to not drop frames.
 
pat500000 said:
I don't think people would need more than 4k....do we? Let alone 1080p. As I'm watching tv with 1080, i'm still wow-ed.
Click to expand...

If you're working with graphics 40 hours a week, can you perhaps see why a sharp high-resolution monitor makes a difference?

I'm in the same boat. This little Mac Pro cost almost as much as half a car. My ACD30 just died today. A lot of people it seems, got the 2013 nMP thinking they can get a 4k monitor soon because it's been so long since they released one.

Being an Apple prosumer is a world of hurt. If macOs wasn't a vastly superior operating system for graphics/video/music work... :(
 
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aleksoctop said:
If macOs wasn't a vastly superior operating system for graphics/video/music work... :(
Click to expand...

How so.... This has nothing to do with the OS but with the applications that you're using.
If you're using Adobe products then they are the same on windows or on mac os x.

You may argue that you prefer FCPX or Logic or Pixelmator, but again those are applications. They could if Apple wanted to, be made to work on windows just like Adobe did with Photoshop and your experience with them would be just as great.

In fact for graphics work OSX is terribly lagging in term of its backends and support for modern API and GPU support. I don't know how you can honestly call OSX a vastly supperior OS for graphics/video and audio work...
 
tuxon86 said:
I don't know how you can honestly call OSX a vastly supperior OS for graphics/video and audio work...
Click to expand...

With macOs I can sit down in the morning and work 8 hours.
With Windows (any version) I can sit down in the morning and get 7 hours done, with an average 1 hour spent on updating drivers, fighting Photoshop crashes and memory exceptions. That one hour of grievances is just not worth it.

I used to work exclusively windows until 2006. I'm not going back. I know there is awesome software for windows there isn't for mac, but for what I need, which is just stable all-day photoshopping and After Effects while listening to music, it's perfect. At least, it was. I use a Wacom Cintiq and the mac software is stable. It's completely unusable and unstable on Windows 10 (which I also have and have set up for working in but it's just not it). Yeah, maybe there's workarounds. Maybe I can install older software, but then how to counter XYZ bugs in Photoshop?
 
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I have a HP Z27q 27" IPS 5K Display connected to my nMP via two mini to DP cables. Works great, wonderful screen, no issues once I figured out which two nMP TB ports to use. These monitor are about $900 now days.
 
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aleksoctop said:
With macOs I can sit down in the morning and work 8 hours.
With Windows (any version) I can sit down in the morning and get 7 hours done, with an average 1 hour spent on updating drivers, fighting Photoshop crashes and memory exceptions. That one hour of grievances is just not worth it.

I used to work exclusively windows until 2006. I'm not going back. I know there is awesome software for windows there isn't for mac, but for what I need, which is just stable all-day photoshopping and After Effects while listening to music, it's perfect. At least, it was. I use a Wacom Cintiq and the mac software is stable. It's completely unusable and unstable on Windows 10 (which I also have and have set up for working in but it's just not it). Yeah, maybe there's workarounds. Maybe I can install older software, but then how to counter XYZ bugs in Photoshop?
Click to expand...

That's total ******** and you know it.

You stopped working with windows in 2006 that mean XP or maybe Vista. Those problem don't exist anymore since win7.
And again you are blaming windows the OS for badly writen 3rd party software, the wacom drivers as if bad drivers never existed on OSX... A quick search on this site could be quite revealing.

People should learn what is an operating system and what it does before commenting on that quality of one versus the other.
 
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ColdCase said:
I have a HP Z27q 27" IPS 5K Display connected to my nMP via two mini to DP cables. Works great, wonderful screen, no issues once I figured out which two nMP TB ports to use. These monitor are about $900 now days.
Click to expand...

Thank you!

Just in case anyone else is looking for this, I found this here:
http://www.iclarified.com/49265/how...r-the-hp-z27q-5k-monitor-in-mac-os-x-yosemite
[doublepost=1478203391][/doublepost]
tuxon86 said:
That's total ******** and you know it.

You stopped working with windows in 2006 that mean XP or maybe Vista. Those problem don't exist anymore since win7.
And again you are blaming windows the OS for badly writen 3rd party software, the wacom drivers as if bad drivers never existed on OSX... A quick search on this site could be quite revealing.

People should learn what is an operating system and what it does before commenting on that quality of one versus the other.
Click to expand...

To clarify, I've used every version of Windows except NT, and always have Windows installed and ready for work as a failsafe in case OSX explodes. I've tried working in every Windows version, and there are invariably more hurdles to dampen my work once I'm good and going. For Wacom, historically, there's always a way to workaround, but who wants to plug/unplug on/off your wacom once every forty minutes or so?
Why are you on this site? To condescend people for using OSX? Get a life.
[doublepost=1478203529][/doublepost]
tuxon86 said:
Why, I'm OS agnostic and intelligent enought to know what an OS is, what it does and how third party software, as in drivers, can affect them.

Are you really trying to say that OSX is exempt of bad drivers problem? Seriously?
Click to expand...
No I'm trying to say OSX is a much more pleasant distraction-free user experience. Which is far more important to me than a slightly-better utilized hardware. But that's just me, it surely means nothing to someone as blessed with intelligence as you. I should just change everything about myself and change all my personal preferences to your preferences, that way I can be JUST LIKE YOU. Intelligent and OS Agnostic™.
 
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aleksoctop said:
Thank you!

Just in case anyone else is looking for this, I found this here:
http://www.iclarified.com/49265/how...r-the-hp-z27q-5k-monitor-in-mac-os-x-yosemite
Click to expand...

My 2013 nMB is running El Capitan and I did not have to do anything except connect up the cables and boot the machine (connecting the cables was a bit of a trial and error thing). I found reversing the cables than those shown on some hint sites worked better for me. There is a thread around here somewhere on the Z27Q subject, if interested I can try to find it.
 
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With the price drop of the monitors they are looking even more appealing now. Too bad there's no word on whether they'd work with the Mac Pro.
 
theitsage said:
You might be right. It would be asinine for Apple to not be able to make it work though. If an Intel Iris 540 MBP could drive this 5K display, there's no good reason your 2013 Mac Pro with a pair of D700s couldn't do it.
Click to expand...

The GPUs have little to do with it. This LG display has one and only one input socket. That means all of the 5K data input has to come in via one and only one socket. You could have a Mega, Ultra , SuperDuper GPU and you are not getting in the single through that one socket through which data must flow in encoded in Thunderbolt packets.

The other 5K displays ( Dell , HP , etc) has multiple input sockets. There are no practical DP 1.4 displays on the market yet so that isn't even an option either if have the Mega, Ultra GPU that is suppose to support it with an firmware upgrade.

These displays do have an Apple design flavor to them. The singular input socket is straight out of the Apple design playbook. Apple is trying to drive TB v3 adoption to promote the single cable solution. Not cover a solution space already addressed.

It isn't asinine at all because the Mac Pro 2013 has 3rd party 5K displays already. LG may do another multiple Display 1.2 input model which the Mac Pro 2013 could use. If Apple sells a Dell 5K display to a Mac Pro 2013 user and a LG 5K display to a MBP 2016 users what is the major difference. Long term the 2nd will outsell the 1st as more TB v3 system proliferate.
 
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interesting topic of discussion in the place where the Apple eGPU 27" retina display claims originated, is whether what the person who claimed to have used the product actually used was the LG display, in an Apple development mule case.

It will be interesting to see when the teardowns come if this 5k LG display is actually eGPU based, but just not advertising the fact, which would be an explanation of how it's able to do 5k on iris graphics. (edit - looks like TB3 does have dual 1.2 stream support, which would cover a single 5k on iris?) note, it's now cheaper than the TB display was (and almost 1/2 the price of the Dell 5k here), which is something I'd expected as a result of the scale of shared iMac panel production.

something said that was sobering, was that if the LG display isn't eGPU, and Apple has shelved the product they had made, one should expect eGPU support in the OS to become un-maintained, and disappear.
 
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deconstruct60 said:
The GPUs have little to do with it. This LG display has one and only one input socket. That means all of the 5K data input has to come in via one and only one socket. You could have a Mega, Ultra , SuperDuper GPU and you are not getting in the single through that one socket through which data must flow in encoded in Thunderbolt packets.

The other 5K displays ( Dell , HP , etc) has multiple input sockets. There are no practical DP 1.4 displays on the market yet so that isn't even an option either if have the Mega, Ultra GPU that is suppose to support it with an firmware upgrade.

These displays do have an Apple design flavor to them. The singular input socket is straight out of the Apple design playbook. Apple is trying to drive TB v3 adoption to promote the single cable solution. Not cover a solution space already addressed.

It isn't asinine at all because the Mac Pro 2013 has 3rd party 5K displays already. LG may do another multiple Display 1.2 input model which the Mac Pro 2013 could use. If Apple sells a Dell 5K display to a Mac Pro 2013 user and a LG 5K display to a MBP 2016 users what is the major difference. Long term the 2nd will outsell the 1st as more TB v3 system proliferate.
Click to expand...

Honestly interested in the technical on this one. So, TB3, according to specs, is only capable of passing DisplayPort 1.2 (same as previous generation TB2). So based on what you're saying, I have to assume TB3 is able to pass dual 1.2 streams for an MST display to reassemble the two halves of picture? I was completely unaware that TB3 was going to do that.

I might have missed something in reading TB3 spec when it first came out and would love to get a better understanding.
 
rawweb said:
... I was completely unaware that TB3 was going to do that.

I might have missed something in reading TB3 spec when it first came out and would love to get a better understanding.
Click to expand...

It has been in the Intel slide deck from the very beginning.

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015...type-c-connector-doubles-bandwidth-to-40gbps/

Slide 2 in that June 2015 dated article.

thunderbolt-3-displays.jpg


Single cable .... two 4K or one 5K . ( it is the 8 lanes of DP v1.2 input data to the TB controller is encoded onto one TB cable ).


This Apple-LG display entirely depends upon that feature of TB v3. No TB v3 present then can't use this monitor. Period.
 
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