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Macbook Pro with external screen - who does this?

S

Shadow Puppets

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 28, 2016
153
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I'm toying with the idea of buying either a new MBP with Touch Bar, or the 2015 retina model, and coupling it with an external display (ideally 27") for use in my home office.

Who is doing this? And what results are you getting? (speed, heat, fan noise etc)
 
I will be doing this. I got my 15" MBP already and I'm waiting for the LG Ultrafine 5k to become available, then I'll order it.

I also wonder how it will behave regarding UI speed and heat. We'll see.
 
I'm using my MBPr 13" early 2015 with a LG external monitor which is 2560:1080 (21:9 ratio)
Everything is smooth, temperature around 41C-38C idle.
 
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I use a 2015 with the vertical henge dock and a 43" 4k display over dp1.2. The setup is great but sometimes the 2gb graphics card freaks out when switching to external display if it is not already in hibernate.
 
2016 MBP with LG 27UD88-W (4K@60) via USB-C purrs like a kitten. No additional power source needed!
 
A lot of people do this, and it's one of the benefits of having TB3/USB-C... especially for people who like the portability of the 13 inch, but want more screen real estate when working at home... Heck A lot of people with the 15 inch do it too... It's a great and easy experience.
 
got a 34" ultra wide on a 15" rMBP. Its always hot and fans are full spin at this config because thats when im doing some video editing. I disconnect the laptop from the screen for everything else that i use it for.
 
Make Apple Great Again said:
A lot of people do this, and it's one of the benefits of having TB3/USB-C... especially for people who like the portability of the 13 inch, but want more screen real estate when working at home... Heck A lot of people with the 15 inch do it too... It's a great and easy experience.
Click to expand...

Would you say the new 13 inch MBP with Touch Bar is powerful enough to run a 5K screen whilst running programs like Final Cut Pro X and Logic Pro with no performance issues?
 
Shadow Puppets said:
Do you run any resource hungry programs in this setup? (Logic or Final Cut)
Click to expand...

I have not as I do not do any video editing, but most intensive tasks I do is use Citrix while having multiple tabs open and streaming video. Temps hit around the 36-39c range.
 
Do you generally get better performance using an external screen with a 15" or 13" macbook? I only ask as I've read reports of the faster processors in the 15" models getting too hot when running external machines and any slightly resource hungry task.
 
I've tried both Touch Bar models, 13" and 15" with external monitors. I originally had the 13" with 2x LG 4K Ultrafine 21.5" but couldn't squeeze it all onto my desk properly. Performance on the external monitor in 3D wasn't amazing either. I'm now running the 15" with a single LG 4K and it runs great.

The LG 4K is set up as the primary display with an external mouse/keyboard. The 15" sits on a Rain mStand to the left as the secondary display.
 
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I will be using my 25" Dell monitor with an HDMI dongle for the time being. Hopefully by next year there will be some better USB-C monitors out. Don't like the current lineup.
 
Shadow Puppets said:
Do you do professional creative work with this setup? (i.e. Logic Pro X or Final Cut stuff)
Click to expand...
I do not professionally. But I run some VM's concurrently, and I really don't notice any lag on my main MacOS and my VM's.
 
I run my tb13 on a Dell 34 wide 3440x1440 @60hz. It runs perfectly. I don't do anything too intensive, productivity mostly. I ran this monitor on my '09 MBP too without issue. I have a usb-c hub in between the monitor and the MBP. One plug convenience for power, external drive, ethernet, mouse, keyboard, headset, flash drives. On another note, I ran my XPS 13 on it and it had all kinds of problems with bandwidth, dropped connections, video scaling (likely the hub). My '09 MBP ran perfect, but that 7 year old technology required 3 plugs: power, usb hub, mDP. I am loving new technology.
 
Shadow Puppets said:
Would you say the new 13 inch MBP with Touch Bar is powerful enough to run a 5K screen whilst running programs like Final Cut Pro X and Logic Pro with no performance issues?
Click to expand...
Yes you should be fine, just remember that only the ports on the left side of the 13 inch are TB3 and work on external monitors. Obviously I always recommend a quad-core over a dual-core CPU especially for video editing etc... and it helps with the longevity of your machine, but you should still have a smooth experience on a 13 TB MBP.
 
So I got my new monitor (LG 27UD88-W) setup with my 13" MBP w/TB and everything is running smoothly. Setting it all up was a breeze, and everything has been working perfectly.
 
littlepud said:
The LG 4K is set up as the primary display with an external mouse/keyboard. The 15" sits on a Rain mStand to the left as the secondary display.
Click to expand...
So you are completely putting aside any input using TouchBar ? Is it because it didn't met any of your needs ?
 
Shadow Puppets said:
Do you generally get better performance using an external screen with a 15" or 13" macbook? I only ask as I've read reports of the faster processors in the 15" models getting too hot when running external machines and any slightly resource hungry task.
Click to expand...

It will be a smoother on the 15. The 13s has always had some UI stuttering even without an external monitor. I went from a 13 to a 15 (both late 2015, performance didnt go up much if at all with the new ones) due to performance and the difference was easily noticeable.
 
I have an Apple Thunderbolt display at home that I sometimes plug in to if I need to spread out my work - if I need to have multiple open windows and such (mostly office stuff). Also have a 27" iMac which is same size as the TBD (though not enough room on my desk to put them side-by-side.

But the retina display on the MBP is so nice that I hate to use a "normal" monitor unless I need to. May look in to a 4K or 5K display at some point, but holding off for now since it would still only get occasional use. Hate being locked away in the home office which is why I like laptops and iPads so much.
 
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