M4 Mac users report problems using ultrawide 5K monitors

An unknown variety of customers say that their M4 Macs are failing to indicate the right decision for his or her 5K ultrawide screens, leaving shows both blurry or too small to learn.

The issue is much less dramatic than how the M4 iPad Pro was being bricked for some customers after they up to date to iPadOS 18. On this case, it is one other M4 drawback however the subject is over what decision the show is proven at.

In line with a number of customers on Apple’s support forums, the difficulty is particularly with screens which have a decision of 5,120 pixels by 2,160 pixels. With high-resolution screens, Apple scales macOS utilizing a characteristic it calls high-pixel density mode (HiDPI), which prevents interface parts like home windows and menus turning into so small as to be unreadable.

As spotted by 9to5mac, customers are predominantly reporting that HiDPI just isn’t engaged on the M4 Mac mini. It is usually seemingly affecting at the least some M4 MacBook Pro customers.

In every case, customers join their shows and discover that the Mac’s record of potential resolutions is totally different.

“I’ve a MacBook Professional M1, and a 5k LG monitor with 5120 x 2160 res,” writes one user on Apple’s boards. “Once I use it I can use the ‘default’ setting which is 3840 x 1620 and it’s excellent for me — however there is just one excessive res choice at 5120 x 2160 which is method too small to see issues.”

“In my case, it is an LG 34[inch] 34BK95U-W UltraFine (flat panel), however I see the identical subject,” writes one other. “As one who used the 3840×1620 setting routinely and now finds it unavailable on my new 16.”

How Macs acknowledge shows

Macs decide the record of potential resolutions on a display screen by querying the monitor’s DisplayID (beforehand EDID or Prolonged Show Identification Information). With the older EDID, there was a restrict to what number of resolutions may very well be reported to the Mac, however DisplayID extends this.

So the record of potential resolutions which can be displayed within the Mac’s System Settings are taken straight from the show itself. Customers switching between Macs say that their earlier machines had been accurately reporting all of the out there resolutions, however that the M4 Mac is lacking at the least some.

It isn’t clear how that may be taking place for the reason that supply of the info stays the identical. Nonetheless, it is potential that it’s a macOS subject quite than an M4 {hardware} one.

Some customers are reporting that the usage of the third-party utility BetterDisplay has fastened the difficulty. Others, although, say that textual content on display screen stays blurry.

Apple has not commented on the difficulty, however customers are saying they perceive that the corporate is engaged on a repair. Within the meantime, it isn’t clear how widespread the issue is.

Nonetheless, this isn’t the primary time that Apple’s M-series Macs have had this show drawback. Back in 2021 with the M1, customers reported that the Mac was not enabling its Retina-based HiDPI with sure screens.

That subject didn’t look like confined to specific resolutions, however quite to sure producers.

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