I’m interested in a Studio. I want to use my 4K 60 Hz monitors while waiting for Apple or another maker to release a 120 Hz/ProMotion monitor. Let’s say Apple releases an updated Studio Display with ProMotion, or another maker releases a 5K 120Hz display, in a year or two. Will the current Studio work with it, or does it require a different video output? Thanks for any info!
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Will the Studio support a 5K 120Hz monitor?
- Thread starter jr5x
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It's possible but no-one can know what Apple will allow.
The Studio should be able to do 8K60. People have tried but I don't think I've seen any successes.
All we know for sure is that M series Macs support HBR3 and DSC.
We don't know if DSC is limited to HBR2 or if it can work with HBR3.
DSC in macOS (at least on Intel Macs) uses a target compression of 12bpp. There is a preference to change that but I haven't seen anyone try it. I don't know if this preference exists on M Series Macs.
We don't know what the max pixel clock is. 6K60 is 1286 MHz which works with HBR2+DSC@12bpp. 5K120 requires 1902 MHz (HBR3+DSC@12bpp or HBR2+DSC@8bpp). 8K60 requires 2069 MHz (HBR3+DSC@12bpp or HBR2+DSC@8bpp). We don't know what the max width and height is (6K is 6016x3384. 8K is 7680x4320).
There's no known method for testing custom timings in macOS for M series Macs.
Maybe the people at asahilinux.org (Linux on M series Macs) will figure out the actual capabilities of the display hardware. I don't think they've gotten that far yet - they're just using the one framebuffer from boot?
But even if the hardware can support those modes, Apple can remove the option from drivers.
The Studio should be able to do 8K60. People have tried but I don't think I've seen any successes.
All we know for sure is that M series Macs support HBR3 and DSC.
We don't know if DSC is limited to HBR2 or if it can work with HBR3.
DSC in macOS (at least on Intel Macs) uses a target compression of 12bpp. There is a preference to change that but I haven't seen anyone try it. I don't know if this preference exists on M Series Macs.
We don't know what the max pixel clock is. 6K60 is 1286 MHz which works with HBR2+DSC@12bpp. 5K120 requires 1902 MHz (HBR3+DSC@12bpp or HBR2+DSC@8bpp). 8K60 requires 2069 MHz (HBR3+DSC@12bpp or HBR2+DSC@8bpp). We don't know what the max width and height is (6K is 6016x3384. 8K is 7680x4320).
There's no known method for testing custom timings in macOS for M series Macs.
Maybe the people at asahilinux.org (Linux on M series Macs) will figure out the actual capabilities of the display hardware. I don't think they've gotten that far yet - they're just using the one framebuffer from boot?
But even if the hardware can support those modes, Apple can remove the option from drivers.
It's possible but no-one can know what Apple will allow.
Thanks for your reply! I might buy a used one M1 Mini and wait for the next round. But it could be two years.