Maybe the M1-2 are base processor with limited video processing on the base chip! Face the fact a base model Mac won't drive HDR displays! The most 1440 display and only ONE display!
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Why do ARM Mac’s suck with external monitors?
- Thread starter Zest28
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Maybe the M1-2 are base processor with limited video processing on the base chip! Face the fact a base model Mac won't drive HDR displays! The most 1440 display and only ONE display!
If you want decent scaling with multiple 4k monitors, then I think that you need at least an M1 Pro. I wish that Apple was more explicit with this.
I believe they did with the Mac Studio! I believe this is what your over looking!
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I believe they did with the Mac Studio! I believe thero your over looking!
The Mac Studio for sure.
I have the M1 Pro MacBook Pro. I have a todo list item to test out monitor scaling with the two supported displays. I suspect that there's better scaled resolution support on both M1 Pro MacBook Pro ports compared to my M1 Mac mini ports.
All M1 chips can drive 5K HDR displays without any problem. Their video processing performance is more than sufficient.
There is certainly a compatibility problem but as I write before it’s not Apples goal to support every display configuration. Any 4K display with reasonable PPI and USB-C should work. There appears to be an annoying bug however where some displays are detected incorrectly when using HDMI which results in suboptimal signal configuration. How much of this is a bug in the monitor itself and how much is Apples fault is unclear. I totally understand that users who have experienced these issues are frustrated by them.
Of course it is Apples obligation to support industry standards 100% and not how they feel about it.
We have the same problems regarding thunderbolt3/4 and USB 3.x support. It is very flaky on macos and apple hardware compared to windows based hardware. It was the other way a decade ago.
Users shouldn't blame others when it is obvious that Apple is tampering standard support on their hardware.
We had so many usb and hdmi cable issues on m1 macs, but none of those cables made any problems on windows/linux based hardware.
We have the same problems regarding thunderbolt3/4 and USB 3.x support. It is very flaky on macos and apple hardware compared to windows based hardware. It was the other way a decade ago.
Users shouldn't blame others when it is obvious that Apple is tampering standard support on their hardware.
We had so many usb and hdmi cable issues on m1 macs, but none of those cables made any problems on windows/linux based hardware.
They can drive one 5k.
The problem I see is more with 4k displays. On the M1 mini, you have two different ports that support 4k monitors differently.
This scaling/smoothing issue with macOS has been around for so long now and Windows seems to be much better at dealing with it. At least those of us on here are aware of it and can do some research before buying a monitor, but I can only imagine how you must feel if you buy a shiny new monitor only to wonder why one of the scaled modes results in blurry text.
I was aware of people having problems with it but only discovered it myself this year. I didn't think much of it and just used a lower scaled resolution but that was only until I went to use a DisplayLink device which resulted in more issues and then I started reading through the threads on monitor scaling issues because it affected me in a way that I couldn't work around easily.
Yes, it would be really nice to have known this when trying to decide on upgrading from a mini to a Studio or going DisplayLink.
Scaled mode always results in blurry text. Then it depends if you can see the blurriness or not, but buying a monitor to use it with a not pixel perfect resolution is not a too good idea.
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Yea but you talk as if the Mini can drive HDR, Dolby vision, RGB and great clarity on text? I call your blowing smoke up confusing people! The HDMI spec is in HDMI cable! hey are using old HDMI cable and not newer HDMI High spec cables it's not funny anymore!
It does seem like most complains about external monitors have to do with HDMI. M1 can run the XDR Pro Display via USB-C. Maybe it’s the HDMI implementation that’s partially broken, not external displays per se? I’ve only used USB-C displays so far…
I 5hink they did a terrible marketing the difference between HDMi 230 to HDMI 2.1 the drive 8K!
The HDMI only supports up to 4k on my M1 mini so it's a problem there. It's possible that it isn't a problem on the M1 Pro - I haven't tested it yet. It's an even bigger problem with DisplayLink but most people expect that the experience won't be perfect as recommendations always come with warnings.
I don’t think that text is blurry on my 4k 32 inch monitor from a base M1 air via USB-C.
Performance when running scaled on 3008x1592 can be teeny bit a bit wonky at times however (mainly when resizing certain windows or switching between apps). Nothing to crazy, but i do think that the windows scaling implementation is a lot better.
Performance when running scaled on 3008x1592 can be teeny bit a bit wonky at times however (mainly when resizing certain windows or switching between apps). Nothing to crazy, but i do think that the windows scaling implementation is a lot better.
The problem started when MacOS stopped supporting text Anti-aliasing few years ago.
If you take a 1440p monitor and compare the text from a Mac and a Windows PC, it's night and day difference in clarity and sharpness (I know some of you don't have Windows PC, but trust me with this one).
Linux has the option to turn on/off text Anti-aliasing.
Windows has ClearType technology, which is more superior and enabled on by default.
On Mac there is no solution to the problem except going for ultra high resolution displays (5K) to overcome the need of text sharping technologies.
If you take a 1440p monitor and compare the text from a Mac and a Windows PC, it's night and day difference in clarity and sharpness (I know some of you don't have Windows PC, but trust me with this one).
Linux has the option to turn on/off text Anti-aliasing.
Windows has ClearType technology, which is more superior and enabled on by default.
Microsoft ClearType - Typography
ClearType is a software technology developed by Microsoft that improves the readability of text on existing LCDs, such as laptop screens, Pocket PC screens, and flat panel monitors.
docs.microsoft.com
On Mac there is no solution to the problem except going for ultra high resolution displays (5K) to overcome the need of text sharping technologies.
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Uktrawide is probably the worst fit for Apple Silicon. It’s both a non-standard resolution and not high-DPI. Wouldn’t recommend it.
Exactly. And Apple dropped support for text AA because it doesn’t care about older lower resolution displays that need it. Modern macOS is designed for high-DPI displays.
If you go by the rule that "USB-C or Displayport is the most likely to work" then you are fine. HDMI is just a turd on Macs because it's limited to HDMI 2.0 speeds no matter what. Until Apple starts providing Macs with HDMI 2.1 support this is where we will most likely be as even USB-C to HDMI 2.1 adapters don't work right.
That's fine if you have a Mac Studio or MacBook Pro M1 Max but it doesn't work well when you're trying to run 3 4k monitors off an M1 mini, something that wasn't a problem on the 2018 mini.
It's a low enough res that using scaling is not a feasible option because everything becomes too big and you get no desktop space.
It will look acceptable, but not as sharp as you might be used to on your Macbook Pro display for example.
Whether you get e.g max refresh rate is anyone's guess.