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AdamSeen

macrumors 6502
Jun 5, 2013
350
423
My usage for the display coding primarily. I'm picky about display quality and the...
Great review. Similar use cases here. Do you think you’ll keep it? Would you prefer the iMac display if it were bigger?

Very surprising to hear about lower brightness
 
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Beliyaal

macrumors member
Feb 14, 2008
53
19
Great review. Similar use cases here. Do you think you’ll keep it? Would you prefer the iMac display if it were bigger?

Very surprising to hear about lower brightness

I will keep it, but if I had a viable alternative like a bigger iMac/LG display with the same DPI I would prefer that until we can get good quality self emissive pixels (OLED or MicroLED).
 

Eyezestful

macrumors newbie
Jan 4, 2020
9
6
My usage for the display coding primarily. I'm picky about display quality and the primary reason for getting it was to get more screen real estate. I can't abide non-retina screens and no other display has the right DPI combined with size.

The Good
  • I can now fit two code windows side by side with extra space left over compared to 5k displays
The Bad
  • Even though the display has the potential for higher brightness, I can't make use of it outside of HDR content. The iMac Pro display is actually slightly brighter at max brightness.
  • Blooming from FALD is not the same color temperature as display is set as (Night Shift). Not sure if this could be fixed, or if the quantization would be too high.
  • FALD causes dirty screen effect. Especially visible on grey backgrounds.
Pro Display XDR left and iMac Pro right: View attachment 887622
  • Bright text on black background really shows the limitations of the FALD. I had to change my background from 0% to 2% to get it even.
The Ugly
  • The FALD algorithm eats shadow detail. It has some threshold where it just ignores the pixels. Noticeable when decreasing the brightness.
1%, 2%, 4%, 8%, 16%, 32%, 64%, 100% grey text all in different FALD zones on black background, in Pro Display XDR (P3-1600 nits) mode:
100% brightness50% brightnessMin brightness
View attachment 887624 View attachment 887623 View attachment 887625
The same thing with larger text show less aggressive culling:


100% brightness50% brightnessMin brightness
View attachment 887626 View attachment 887627 View attachment 887628
Conclusion

I wish there was a way to disable the FALD, or tweak it's strength. There is a reason TVs with this technology has support for disabling it.

As a reference monitor I worry that the run of badly edited blacks/near blacks in HDR content will continue. As someone who uses an OLED TV in a completely dark room I hope I'm wrong.

Thanks for the great review. Is there really no chance to use higher brightness in day to day use (outside HDR content)?? Changing the Profile? If this is the case, it is really frustrating. I was really looking forward to use higher brightness, as I like to work in a bright environment and the iMac 500nits still struggle to be bright enough!

Hopefully, there will be some kind of work around at some point soon.
 

AdamSeen

macrumors 6502
Jun 5, 2013
350
423
I will keep it, but if I had a viable alternative like a bigger iMac/LG display with the same DPI I would prefer that until we can get good quality self emissive pixels (OLED or MicroLED).
That’s annoying that the XDR display isn’t as good for your use case.

I’ve got one on order but I’m going to start considering non-retina curved monitors or the 5k LG display as well now.
 

macpro2000

macrumors 65816
Feb 23, 2005
1,345
1,126
You have to show the timing in SwitchResX to prove it's running at 5K. The signal being sent to the XDR is probably only 4K since Thunderbolt 2 can only transmit one 4K signal. In SwitchResX, double click the current resolution in the Current Resolutions tab to view the timing. It will show Pixel Clock, Active, Scaled To, Scan Rate for the current resolution.

The MacPro6,1 only support DisplayPort 1.2 but HDR require DisplayPort 1.4. You can get 10 bpc color with DisplayPort 1.2 but it won't be HDR.

The following commands will show the connection information for the display (DisplayPort version, link speed, number of lanes, Display Stream Compression capability/status/enabled, supported timings, etc.
Code:
/System/Library/Extensions/AppleGraphicsControl.kext/Contents/MacOS/AGDCDiagnose -a > AGDCDiagnose.txt 2>&1
/System/Library/Extensions/AppleGraphicsControl.kext/Contents/MacOS/DisplayDiagnose -a > DisplayDiagnose.txt 2>&1

The XDR will only work at 4K with the D500. With one XDR, you can run 5 ACDs. To run the XDR at 5K or 6K, you need to connect a Blackmagic EGPU. Apple doesn't support eGPUs with Thunderbolt 2 Macs (for no good reason) so you'll need to use a workaround (visit eGPU.io website, and look at existing Builds).

Without an eGPU, you might be able to get 5K by connecting your MacPro6,1 to a GC-TITAN RIDGE with two mini DisplayPort cables, then connect the XDR to the GC-TITAN RIDGE. You will be missing some features though.

Thank you for all the great info. You said you can run one XDR and 5 ACDs....are there enough ports for this or what video cards would work best? Thanks again!
 

joevt

macrumors 604
Jun 21, 2012
6,968
4,262
Thank you for all the great info. You said you can run one XDR and 5 ACDs....are there enough ports for this or what video cards would work best? Thanks again!
We were talking about the GPU of the MacPro6,1. If the XDR only uses one DisplayPort 1.2 connection (which means 4K max), then that leaves 5 DisplayPort outputs for 5 more displays. One display per Thunderbolt 2 port, or two 2560x1600 displays per Thunderbolt port and Thunderbolt bus, or one 5K display per Thunderbolt bus using two Thunderbolt ports (dual cable 5K display).
 

macpro2000

macrumors 65816
Feb 23, 2005
1,345
1,126
We were talking about the GPU of the MacPro6,1. If the XDR only uses one DisplayPort 1.2 connection (which means 4K max), then that leaves 5 DisplayPort outputs for 5 more displays. One display per Thunderbolt 2 port, or two 2560x1600 displays per Thunderbolt port and Thunderbolt bus, or one 5K display per Thunderbolt bus using two Thunderbolt ports (dual cable 5K display).

OK, that makes total sense. Which leads me to that last question...if I was to purchase a new Mac Pro, which card/cards would I need to be able to run a XDR and 4 ACDs? My guess is just ones with enough ports to make it happen. Thanks again!!!
 

Beliyaal

macrumors member
Feb 14, 2008
53
19
Very interesting. Thank you for the tests.

How noticeable is that blooming to the naked eye, away from the camera?

It's much less noticeable. The bloom is about the same as black on the iMac Pro display. In video footage it's much less noticeable as well. Really the most annoying is in UI with squares.

Also I think that below 25% it seems that the backlight doesn't go any lower (it seems to do brightness with LCD pixels), so at minimum brightness it's really noticeable. Just confirmed comparing to the iMac display with both at minimum brightness and there the iMac contrast ratio is a lot better while being the same at 25%.
 

deconstruct60

macrumors G5
Mar 10, 2009
12,493
4,053
My usage for the display coding primarily. I'm picky about display quality and the primary reason for getting it was to get more screen real estate. ...

in Pro Display XDR (P3-1600 nits) mode:

A P3 color space is necessary to enhance text characters how? Ditto with the 1600 peak brightness.
Dialed back to SDR ( and 500 nits ) it would be horribly bad somehow? It is just text with some bold and probably some mild color coding of keywords. Need P3 color space to differential the color codes?

Long term reading a screen blasting out at 1600 nits has a decent chance of not being all that good for your eyes either. Lots of white that bright it not very natural.
 

Ph.D.

macrumors 6502a
Jul 8, 2014
553
479
I was worried about this FALD issue showing up, and it seems it has.

I have an LG "HDR" 4k thunderbolt-equipped display with, as far as I can tell, precisely ... three (3) - yeah, THREE - edge-lit zones! Just lovely to see a third of the screen's "blacks" become gray whenever a little bit of white is on it. Needless to say, I immediately turned HDR off, which reduces it to only a nice, but normal, P3 display.

Now, compared to that, the ~500 zones of the XDR display sounds like a lot, but in fact it's still of extremely low density compared to the pixel pitch. And now I hear that HDR can't be turned off!? Surely there must be a way?

I really wish LG or someone would please come out with a smaller, denser OLED display. (Micro-LED's are and will remain vapor for some time, and I'm not worried about burn-in.) Their new 48" OLED's are still too low in pixel pitch for a text display, but a 6-8k version could work well.
 

Adult80HD

macrumors 6502a
Nov 19, 2019
701
837
A P3 color space is necessary to enhance text characters how? Ditto with the 1600 peak brightness.
Dialed back to SDR ( and 500 nits ) it would be horribly bad somehow? It is just text with some bold and probably some mild color coding of keywords. Need P3 color space to differential the color codes?

Long term reading a screen blasting out at 1600 nits has a decent chance of not being all that good for your eyes either. Lots of white that bright it not very natural.

It actually doesn't "blast out" at 1600 nits. It seems like it stays at much closer to 500 nits most of the time and only jacks it way up as needed when displaying HDR media.
 

joevt

macrumors 604
Jun 21, 2012
6,968
4,262
OK, that makes total sense. Which leads me to that last question...if I was to purchase a new Mac Pro, which card/cards would I need to be able to run a XDR and 4 ACDs? My guess is just ones with enough ports to make it happen. Thanks again!!!
Any MPX module should work. The 580X will be problematic because two of the 30" ACDs would require an HDMI 1.4 to DisplayPort 1.2 adapter and a DisplayPort 1.2 to Dual Link DVI adapter which requires two USB ports for power and the double adapters might not function correctly all the time.

For the other MPX modules or the two remaining 30" ACDs, you can use a USB-C to Dual Link DVI adapter. These adapters don't require extra USB power because they can get that from the USB-C port.

Apple tech specs don't have information about mixed displays though. An XDR display uses more bandwidth than two 4K displays (when not using DSC) and to 4K displays uses more bandwidth than a 5K display. The only indication that bandwidth can be a problem is where the specs list fewer XDR displays supported than 5K displays.
 

CrysisDeu

macrumors 6502a
Sep 16, 2018
948
1,380
My usage for the display coding primarily. I'm picky about display quality and the primary reason for getting it was to get more screen real estate. I can't abide non-retina screens and no other display has the right DPI combined with size.

The Good
  • I can now fit two code windows side by side with extra space left over compared to 5k displays
The Bad
  • Even though the display has the potential for higher brightness, I can't make use of it outside of HDR content. The iMac Pro display is actually slightly brighter at max brightness.
  • Blooming from FALD is not the same color temperature as display is set as (Night Shift). Not sure if this could be fixed, or if the quantization would be too high.
  • FALD causes dirty screen effect. Especially visible on grey backgrounds.
Pro Display XDR left and iMac Pro right: View attachment 887622
  • Bright text on black background really shows the limitations of the FALD. I had to change my background from 0% to 2% to get it even.
The Ugly
  • The FALD algorithm eats shadow detail. It has some threshold where it just ignores the pixels. Noticeable when decreasing the brightness.
1%, 2%, 4%, 8%, 16%, 32%, 64%, 100% grey text all in different FALD zones on black background, in Pro Display XDR (P3-1600 nits) mode:
100% brightness50% brightnessMin brightness
View attachment 887624 View attachment 887623 View attachment 887625
The same thing with larger text show less aggressive culling:

100% brightness50% brightnessMin brightness
View attachment 887626 View attachment 887627 View attachment 887628

Conclusion
I wish there was a way to disable the FALD, or tweak it's strength. There is a reason TVs with this technology has support for disabling it.

As a reference monitor I worry that the run of badly edited blacks/near blacks in HDR content will continue. As someone who uses an OLED TV in a completely dark room I hope I'm wrong.
lmao, Apple did a GREAT job this time.
Disgusting.
 

theorist9

macrumors 68040
May 28, 2015
3,882
3,063
I got the glossy one for one simple reason: the cleaning instructions of the matte one are way out there. Only with apple's cloth, only dry, no fluids, not even water. Better keep everybody out of your office from cleaning lady over pointing fingers, to sneezing colleagues. And better not use it if you have a cold.

I actually once damaged a MBP's scree by rubbing it a bit too hard in one spot to remove something sticking to the screen. I managed to damage the coating while the spot I tried to remove was still in the center of it. Lucky for me I was using apple's black cloth that came with one of the MBPs. After explaining all that, Apple Care actually replace the entire screen (no charge) even though I honestly felt it was partly my own fault for rubbing a bit too hard - lesson learned: screens are fragile, even when Apple doesn't mention that.
So that apple mentions the nano is fragile - I'm staying away from it, even if I hate glare with a vengeance.
I was thinking the same thing -- I never clean my screen with a dry cloth -- I always go over it gently with premoistened disposable lens cleaning cloths. I can get the sticky stuff off if I'm patient enough to use gentle pressure until the liquid in the lens cleaners gradually dissolves it. But it doesn't sound like you can use those with the nano surface on the XDR. Don't know how you'd get a bit of sticky stuff off of a nano surface with a dry cloth. Plus does it penetrate into the crevices in the nano surface?
 
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Thesaltydog2020

macrumors newbie
Jan 10, 2020
5
0
Hi question for Beliyall, thanks for posting XDR info , i am seriously considering this panel, currently using Eizo 3237 which has 13000 hours on it. I am very interested regarding white uniformity, your pic does not look that great, would it be possible to post a white screen taken face on ? much appreciated
 

theorist9

macrumors 68040
May 28, 2015
3,882
3,063
Has anyone—especially those who do text-based work, and are thus concerned about sharpness—had a chance to compare the XDR with the 8K 32" Dell? The Dell is about half the cost ($3229 on NewEgg) and, with 275 ppi (vs. 220 for the XDR) might be sharper.

There is, of course, the question of whether Catalina can properly scale 8k (so the menus aren't too small), and whether the new Macs can properly drive it. It seems that's not the case currently, (https://egpu.io/forums/gpu-monitor-...al-displayport-1-4-monitor-on-macos-catalina/), but perhaps that will be addressed in future OS updates.
 

MacBookPro.User

Cancelled
Apr 7, 2011
8
1
I was thinking the same thing -- I never clean my screen with a dry cloth -- I always go over it gently with premoistened disposable lens cleaning cloths. I can get the sticky stuff off if I'm patient enough to use gentle pressure until the liquid in the lens cleaners gradually dissolves it. But it doesn't sound like you can use those with the nano surface on the XDR. Don't know how you'd get a bit of sticky stuff off of a nano surface with a dry cloth. Plus does it penetrate into the crevices in the nano surface?

I was going to get the Nano XDR version but then I saw Apple's cleaning instructions and thought that there would be times that I would need liquid to clean it so I am planning on getting the standard XDR.

I am curious to see if owners of the Nano XDR in the future will report issues with cleaning it or if Apple is being overly cautious with the cleaning instructions.
 
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Beliyaal

macrumors member
Feb 14, 2008
53
19
Hi question for Beliyall, thanks for posting XDR info , i am seriously considering this panel, currently using Eizo 3237 which has 13000 hours on it. I am very interested regarding white uniformity, your pic does not look that great, would it be possible to post a white screen taken face on ? much appreciated

Sure, I think these are fairly accurate with what I see in real life:
100% white50% grey25% grey
100%.jpeg
50%.jpeg
25%.jpeg
 

chfilm

macrumors 68040
Nov 15, 2012
3,427
2,110
Berlin
Ive got my nano order placed, but I’m getting a bit worried about the fragility of this thing.
It there’s anybody here who already got their unit, are you concerned about the cleaning instructions at all?
 

Adult80HD

macrumors 6502a
Nov 19, 2019
701
837
Ive got my nano order placed, but I’m getting a bit worried about the fragility of this thing.
It there’s anybody here who already got their unit, are you concerned about the cleaning instructions at all?

I've had mine since December 29 and no, I have no worries at all. Of course I never touch my screens so I have typically only cleaned them once or twice per year. I got one spot on the XDR and a little hot breath on the screen and gentle rub with the Apple cloth and it came off just fine. My guess is that they are being extra cautious with instructions. If you read their cleaning instructions for things like laptops they're pretty stringent about that, too.
 

chfilm

macrumors 68040
Nov 15, 2012
3,427
2,110
Berlin
I've had mine since December 29 and no, I have no worries at all. Of course I never touch my screens so I have typically only cleaned them once or twice per year. I got one spot on the XDR and a little hot breath on the screen and gentle rub with the Apple cloth and it came off just fine. My guess is that they are being extra cautious with instructions. If you read their cleaning instructions for things like laptops they're pretty stringent about that, too.
Alright- yea I usually also RARELY clean my screens, but you know, the occasional cough or so..
 

straightMacin

macrumors regular
Dec 6, 2019
109
78
Chicago, IL
It seems as though they have released inventory at the retail stores (according to my Apple Business guy). If you are still waiting on yours, maybe check your local Apple store to see if they will sell you one!
 

Adult80HD

macrumors 6502a
Nov 19, 2019
701
837
It seems as though they have released inventory at the retail stores (according to my Apple Business guy). If you are still waiting on yours, maybe check your local Apple store to see if they will sell you one!

All of the stores in a 50+ mile radius of Philadelphia show no stock or availability until February 18, which is also coincidentally the same time my second XDR is sheduled to be delivered.
 
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