MP 1,1-5,1 What's your favorite Mac monitor?

[ScreenSavers]

I finally got monitor the setup I've been wanting for years- dual 30" Cinema displays with my 5,1... And they are so hot I can barely use them in my office at 1/4 brightness. It got to 88º F this afternoon, and I can feel heat coming at me from the monitors...

I'd like to keep the same general size- around 30" each, and I'd like to keep the same quality or better. I had two 27" 1080p Acer monitors before and they were awful.

I obviously see the Ultrafine displays, although they seem unnecessarily expensive and don't even look that great. They'd also be hard (impossible?) to connect to my RX580. Anyone have a recommendation for a nice, good quality dual monitor setup?

I do some light video editing and a lot of online sales and other work.

And the XDR is way out of budget

Luke

 

[th0masp]

I'd look at (curved) ultra wide displays in 34 or 38 inch. Ever since getting one I find the bezels of a multi monitor setup unpleasant to deal with. I don't do any editing but I imagine having the timeline span such an entire display uninterrupted must be pretty nice.

These monitors run cool to the touch unlike old TFTs which indeed get quite warm.

 

[h9826790]

I am using a single Samsung CHG90 at this moment.

It works quite well for simple light video editing, and most normal daily use.

However, it only has 1080P vertical resolution. If you want anything HiDPI, it won't work.

 

[ScreenSavers]

Love the ultrawide idea but I’ve always avoided it since it requires using just one “space” in Mission control, limiting true side by side apps. Ha that affected your workflows any?

 

[mikas]

I believe most of those ultra wides do have picture by picture mode. You could use it as two monitors, there signal is coming from two outputs. I canät see any reason you couldn't use one GPU two output two signals to one screen like this.

(And now I can see this was just mentioned here #5 )

I've been lookin at 5120x1440 Dual QHD displays lately. Haven't decided yet though. They are not cheap exactly, and I 've got no experience of QLED picture quality. I need to go and see one first. At the moment I use some of those Dells and HPs 27 WQHD and 4K displays.

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[h9826790]

Love the ultrawide idea but I’ve always avoided it since it requires using just one “space” in Mission control, limiting true side by side apps. Ha that affected your workflows any?

I believe most of those ultra wides do have picture by picture mode. You could use it as two monitors, there signal is coming from two outputs. I canät see any reason you couldn't use one GPU two output two signals to one screen like this.

(And now I can see this was just mentioned here #5 )
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I've been lookin at 5120x1440 Dual QHD displays lately. Haven't decided yet though. They are not cheap exactly, and I 've got no experience of QLED picture quality. I need to go and see one first. At the moment I use some of those Dells and HPs 27 WQHD and 4K displays.
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mikas is correct.

The monitor can accept two inputs and display them side by side. Therefore, it can be used as two separated monitors.

But two monitors cannot work as a single large 32"9 monitor without any gap (or colour / brightness difference).
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Also, we can put 3x 4:3 windows in a single 32"9 monitor. So that I can have the main window right in front of me, no gap in it. And two more windows on the left and right.

This also can't be done perfectly with 2x 16:9 setup.

 

[ScreenSavers]

mikas is correct.

The monitor can accept two inputs and display them side by side. Therefore, it can be used as two separated monitors.

But two monitors cannot work as a single large 32"9 monitor without any gap (or colour / brightness difference).
[automerge]1585370811[/automerge]
Also, we can put 3x 4:3 windows in a single 32"9 monitor. So that I can have the main window right in front of me, no gap in it. And two more windows on the left and right.
View attachment 901858

This also can't be done perfectly with 2x 16:9 setup.

Great set up! I’m gonna need to look at some of those. I just don’t want to end up with some 1080p thing again.

And yes, there is a brightness and color difference in my cinema displays, no matter how much I calibrate them…

 

[MarkC426]

The Dell ultrasharps are nice as they are matte, which I was used to with 23 Cinema Display.

 

[th0masp]

Love the ultrawide idea but I’ve always avoided it since it requires using just one “space” in Mission control, limiting true side by side apps. Ha that affected your workflows any?

I use only one program that insists on starting up in full screen no matter the preferences so that's not too great on an ultra wide. Everything else I was either to save window size as part of the preferences or startup document or simply resize and position the window to my liking and let the OS handle it from there.

So not really a problem for me here. Getting rid of those bezels means you are more flexible overall in window positioning. There may not be a need to have certain apps fullscreen anymore so you can use available space better.

Because of this I don't think you need to look at an Ultrawide with the same pixel count as two separate screens. And you can definitely get them in 1440p on the lower end. 4K might be another story though but I did not look into those when shopping around. No desire to tax my GPU that hard (I use a trashcan MP).

 

[MarkC426]

Because of this I don't think you need to look at an Ultrawide with the same pixel count as two separate screens. And you can definitely get them in 1440p on the lower end. 4K might be another story though but I did not look into those when shopping around. No desire to tax my GPU that hard (I use a trashcan MP).

This is partly why I prefer QHD displays over 4k+.
If your doing any kind of graphics work, you want as much from your gpu as possible, so don’t tax it.
Most people who have a 27” 4k monitor don’t use it at native rez, as text is tiny, and set it to 1440p anyway (it’s just in hidpi).

 

[ScreenSavers]

This is partly why I prefer QHD displays over 4k+.
If your doing any kind of graphics work, you want as much from your gpu as possible, so don’t tax it.
Most people who have a 27” 4k monitor don’t use it at native rez, as text is tiny, and set it to 1440p anyway (it’s just in hidpi).

Very good point. My GPU is pretty capable (Radeon RX 580 8GB) but I’d like to get the best looking screen possible at the end. And I don’t want tiny or big and pixelated (like the 27” 1080p monitors I used.)

 

[smirking]

I finally got monitor the setup I've been wanting for years- dual 30" Cinema displays with my 5,1... And they are so hot I can barely use them in my office at 1/4 brightness.

I had a 30" ACD. It was such a workhorse and I loved that screen to death. It was in amazing shape even after 10 years of heavy use. I was reluctant to sell it, but the pain was eased by someone willing to give me top dollar for it.

The one thing I didn't miss was what you complained about here. The heat coming off of it was brutal. I could barely use it for 4-6 months out of the year because it just turned my office into a sauna. It was especially bad when it was hooked up to a cMP tower. The combo was awesome in the winter though. I was nice and toasty.

I'm setup with an Ultrafine 5K these days. It doesn't have the charm of my 30" ACD, but it's a great display and I'm able to mount it to a monitor arm to get extra desk space.

 

[ScreenSavers]

I had a 30" ACD. It was such a workhorse and I loved that screen to death. It was in amazing shape even after 10 years of heavy use. I was reluctant to sell it, but the pain was eased by someone willing to give me top dollar for it.

The one thing I didn't miss was what you complained about here. The heat coming off of it was brutal. I could barely use it for 4-6 months out of the year because it just turned my office into a sauna. It was especially bad when it was hooked up to a cMP tower. The combo was awesome in the winter though. I was nice and toasty.

And I feel the exact same way. Having two of them and a cMP in a 6x10 office just isn’t working for me...

 

[martyjmclean]

I still have a Thunderbolt Display at home. Every suite at work has two.
Obviously there's much better options now, but there's just something about them...

 

[smirking]

And I feel the exact same way. Having two of them and a cMP in a 6x10 office just isn’t working for me...

You'll need to move to a cooler climate! Go north and then even more north!

 

[ScreenSavers]

I still have a Thunderbolt Display at home. Every suite at work has two.
Obviously there's much better options now, but there's just something about them...

I have avoided considering those, since they even have fans in them… I can’t imagine they are much cooler than the 30 inch. Also there is the minor issue that my Mac Pro lacks Thunderbolt.

 

[flygbuss]

I have avoided considering those, since they even have fans in them… I can’t imagine they are much cooler than the 30 inch. Also there is the minor issue that my Mac Pro lacks Thunderbolt.

Are you sure? I have one in my studio and if so, I never heard it.
It’s connected to a nMP 6,1.
I work with audio, so I’m quite sensitive to any noise disturbing my work.
Heat is also never been an issue for me..

 

[ScreenSavers]

Are you sure? I have one in my studio and if so, I never heard it.
It’s connected to a nMP 6,1.
I work with audio, so I’m quite sensitive to any noise disturbing my work.
Heat is also never been an issue for me..

Interesting to hear. I saw a teardown and there was a small fan inside.