Macs and dpi issues

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pioneer2000 said:
We’ve just bought two Dell U4025QW’s, panel wise they’re great and the MacBook Pros (M2 Pro and M4 Pro) can drive them over thunderbolt at 3840x1620 hi-dpi 120hz. Downside is that both monitors have coil whine when on standby and the dell logos on both are stuck on wrong, which is mildly irritating considering the price!

Annoyingly I’d hoped to run my older Samsung J791 34” as a daisy chained monitor but connected this way the M4 Pro Mac can’t do the combination of 3840x1620 120hz and 3440x1440 100hz on the Samsung. Only options even with 3rd party tools like displaymate seem to be stuck on 60hz on the Dell and either 5k resolution or one lower than 3840x1620, which is odd and not hi-dpi.
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I take it you have it daisy chained? and they both run at 120hz?
 
eldergeek said:
I take it you have it daisy chained? and they both run at 120hz?
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No, the Dell will only do 120hz on its own via thunderbolt 4 to the Mac. With the Samsung daisy chained the Dell will do 5k but only at 60hz, whilst the Samsung will do 100hz. Bit odd but nothing I change gives me any other options.
 
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pioneer2000 said:
No, the Dell will only do 120hz on its own via thunderbolt 4 to the Mac. With the Samsung daisy chained the Dell will do 5k but only at 60hz, whilst the Samsung will do 100hz. Bit odd but nothing I change gives me any other options.
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Just out of curiosity what does your System Report say your resolution and UI is?

Here's mine...

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Gangster said:
So just to be clear here, it is better to go for a 27'' 4K with the scaling than a 27'' 1440p monitor for clarity?
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Correct. 27” 4K set to display like 1440p in macOS is the sweet spot. I have mine like this over USB-C port and runs nicely at 144hz on my Gigabyte M27U. Added bonus with this monitor is the inbuilt KVM switch, so I also have my gaming Windows desktop connected via DisplayPort.
 
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If you get a 32" 4K monitor then you can set the display to UI looks like: 3008 x 1692 and that looks even better. I think 27" is a bit to small for this setting. Depends what the difference in price is between 27" and 32".
 
LiE said:
Correct. 27” 4K set to display like 1440p in macOS is the sweet spot. I have mine like this over USB-C port and runs nicely at 144hz on my Gigabyte M27U. Added bonus with this monitor is the inbuilt KVM switch, so I also have my gaming Windows desktop connected via DisplayPort.
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That's a good combination. Really tempted by a studio display but so expensive and trying to find a compromise. Don't game currently but it'd be nice to have the option to. I've seen there is a release of a 27'' 4k glossy monitor... I wonder how that compares with deep blacks and a studio display. Obviously not as crisp (5k vs 4k) but wondering how close it could be. Out of curiosity do you game at 4K or 1440p and is there a massive difference between the two? Would assume you'd game at 1440p just curious if you can see it and are you ever sat wishing you'd game at 4K on a 4K screen or does it manage itself well playing 1440p on 4k screen?
 
Gangster said:
Don't game currently but it'd be nice to have the option to.
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My monitor the 32" Dell Alienware AW3225QF which was released in February of this year does 4K at 240 Hz, perfect for gaming. It'll also run 3008 x 1692 at 120 Hz when connected to a Mac. Its also an OLED monitor which are highly regarded. Price is £989 so a lot cheaper than an ASD which only runs at 60 Hz which is fine for non gamers.
 
nlel1975 said:
My monitor the 32" Dell Alienware AW3225QF which was released in February of this year does 4K at 240 Hz, perfect for gaming. It'll also run 3008 x 1692 at 120 Hz when connected to a Mac. Its also an OLED monitor which are highly regarded. Price is £989 so a lot cheaper than an ASD which only runs at 60 Hz which is fine for non gamers.
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Agreed, great monitor, especially for the price compared to the ASD and other 32" UHD OLED monitors on the market.
 
Gangster said:
So just to be clear here, it is better to go for a 27'' 4K with the scaling than a 27'' 1440p monitor for clarity?
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It's odd because you see loads of Youtubers/etc with 1440p 16:9 and 1440p super/ultrawide displays hooked up to Macs. However, the reality seems to be that MacOS at 1440p looks like garbage even at native resolution without scaling?

Go figure!
 
silvagti said:
It's odd because you see loads of Youtubers/etc with 1440p 16:9 and 1440p super/ultrawide displays hooked up to Macs. However, the reality seems to be that MacOS at 1440p looks like garbage even at native resolution without scaling?

Go figure!
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I’d be surprised if these YouTubers ever have time to actually use said monitor since they’re changing phones every 10 seconds.
 
So I thought I wanted to free up one of the Thunderbolt port by moving to HDMI for the monitor...then I run into a few problems.

1 - I don't get the same number of options for screen resolution as using Thunderbolt. I don't get the 3008 wide option.
2 - The screen can only do 50hz in HDMI
3 - I don't think HDMI carry data either so the USB ports on the monitor won't carry data back to the computer.

I don't think it's the cable, it is a HDMI 2.1 cable.
 
Raymond Lin said:
1 - I don't get the same number of options for screen resolution as using Thunderbolt. I don't get the 3008 wide option.
2 - The screen can only do 50hz in HDMI

I don't think it's the cable, it is a HDMI 2.1 cable.
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I get the 3008 x 1692 option over HDMI and I can run it at 120 Hz, I am also using a HDMI 2.1 cable. I think you’re probably going to have to use Thunderbolt.
 
nlel1975 said:
I get the 3008 x 1692 option over HDMI and I can run it at 120 Hz, I am also using a HDMI 2.1 cable. I think you’re probably going to have to use Thunderbolt.
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That's weird, I plugged it straight from the back of the Mac Mini too, not from the back of the CalDigit. Might have to try a different cable.
 
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