Question About 5K iMac and External Display

[Thunderbird]

Can you pair a 5K iMac (27") with a regular 2560 x 1440p 27" external monitor?

If so, is there any conflict with the two resolutions? Would they look unbalanced or different in any way in a dual monitor setup?

I've never used a 5K monitor before, so I don't know how they look (i.e. size of text, icons, etc) or whether they are scalable.

Thanks.

 

[Ixidor]

Yes. And MacOS handles the scaling very well.

 

[Thunderbird]

So would I just scale the iMac to the external monitor's resolution?

 

[redheeler]

So would I just scale the iMac to the external monitor's resolution?

No each display will be scaled independently, 5K with HiDPI (native is 2560x1440 HiDPI) and the other with standard density 2560x1440; and everything on both screens will look the same size unless you set them otherwise. You can even drag windows between them and have them auto-adjust to each. MacOS handles HiDPI better than any other OS.

You will notice a difference in crispness between the two, but that's just down to the huge difference that HiDPI + 5K resolution makes.

 

[Ixidor]

You can adjust the scale of your external monitor and your iMac separately. When you click on Display settings, you can adjust the resolution for each screen independently so you can choose settings that you feel most comfortable.

Since your external monitor is also 27", if you set both screens to be their native resolutions, then texts and windows will obviously look smaller on the iMac's screen. If you were to move a window across your iMac and your external monitor, the window will adjust its size automatically and seamlessly. The advantage of this is that you can squeeze more windows into your iMac's screen space while using the external monitor for comfortable reading of texts. (I prefer this set up).

If having both at their native resolution bothers you, you can scale the resolution of your iMac's display to match that of your external monitor so that text/window sizes are the same on both screens.

 

[Thunderbird]

Good to know, thanks.