Mac Mini + Dell U2711 + HiDPI?

[d3vilsadvocate]

Heya all

I'm interested in purchasing a mac mini in order to move away from windows. I'm curious if anyone got the mini working properly with custom scaled resolutions on a Dell U2711 panel using SwitchResX?

I tried it using OSX under Vmware, but that obviously didn't work properly. I'd like to have the equivalent of a scaled 2x 1920x1080 resolution on a 2560x1440 display so that I won't have to squint anymore...


Thanks for any input in advance!

 

[jwhazel]

Wouldn't HiDPI on this end up being 1280x720?

 

[d3vilsadvocate]

yep that's about the max that I've got. That's why I'm asking if going up to 1920x1080 in HDPI would be possible in a non emulated environment?

 

[d3vilsadvocate]

does anyone know more about this issue with hidpi and external monitors?

 

[Yahooligan]

yep that's about the max that I've got. That's why I'm asking if going up to 1920x1080 in HDPI would be possible in a non emulated environment?

So, you're not understanding the problem then...? How would you do HiDPI 1920x1080 on a display that's not 3840x2160?

 

[ElectronGuru]

yep that's about the max that I've got. That's why I'm asking if going up to 1920x1080 in HDPI would be possible in a non emulated environment?

does anyone know more about this issue with hidpi and external monitors?

Your issue is not externals, but with the OS. Apple doesnt yet have resolution independance. HiDPI only works 4:1. If you want a equivalent HiDPI resolution, youll need a screen with twice the pixel count, in both directions.

An effective size of 1920x1080 would require a screen with 3840x2160. aka, 4k.

 

[Lava Lamp Freak]

does anyone know more about this issue with hidpi and external monitors?

I've used 1080p HiDPI on a 27-inch iMac, but I couldn't get it to work with a MacBook Air and a Dell U2713HM.

Your issue is not externals, but with the OS. Apple doesnt yet have resolution independance. HiDPI only works 4:1. If you want a equivalent HiDPI resolution, youll need a screen with twice the pixel count, in both directions.

An effective size of 1920x1080 would require a screen with 3840x2160. aka, 4k.

You have to use SwitchResX to trick your system into thinking it is actually using a 3840x2160 display. It will then render a 1080p HiDPI screen and scale it down to 1440p. That is actually the same way it works on the MacBook Pro when using scaled resolutions.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1568657/

 

[grandM]

hold on

Hold on
If you hook up an u2711 to a mac mini isn't the entire screen filled then? Is the resolution off? Because if so, I'm going iMac...

 

[d3vilsadvocate]

Hold on
If you hook up an u2711 to a mac mini isn't the entire screen filled then? Is the resolution off? Because if so, I'm going iMac...

yes it is! Your display will show 2560x1440 just fine and the entire screen will be filled.

The problem is that text will look small, just as small as if you were using Windows at the standard 100% DPI setting. IMO it's actually a bit worse under OSX due to the standard font being used by the Apple OS, which makes text appear even smaller than the text shown under windows.

Now, OSX doesn't offer DPI scaling on non-retina displays as Windows does, hence there is no official way of making things bigger without losing sharpness. The same goes for the iMac display as far as I can tell.
SwitchResX works around that by emulating a higher res and showing a scaled lower resolution much like on a retina display, making stuff much easier to read without sacrifying sharpness.

If you buy a mac, could you do me a favor and try out SwitchResX in order to see if you can get a scaled resolution of about 1920x1080 to work on your U2711?

 

[grandM]

hmmm

yes it is! Your display will show 2560x1440 just fine and the entire screen will be filled.

The problem is that text will look small, just as small as if you were using Windows at the standard 100% DPI setting. IMO it's actually a bit worse under OSX due to the standard font being used by the Apple OS, which makes text appear even smaller than the text shown under windows.

Now, OSX doesn't offer DPI scaling on non-retina displays as Windows does, hence there is no official way of making things bigger without losing sharpness. The same goes for the iMac display as far as I can tell.
SwitchResX works around that by emulating a higher res and showing a scaled lower resolution much like on a retina display, making stuff much easier to read without sacrifying sharpness.

If you buy a mac, could you do me a favor and try out SwitchResX in order to see if you can get a scaled resolution of about 1920x1080 to work on your U2711?

What does the software cost?

 

[d3vilsadvocate]

nothing:

http://www.madrau.com/

 

[grandM]

ok

nothing:

http://www.madrau.com/

this I can afford