*** The official 2023 and 2024 Mac mini thread (it has the M2 chip, the M4 chip and everything!) ***

manic111 said:
Any suggestions for a monitor to use with these which doesn't cost the earth? More like £200-300? Preferably 27-32 inches. On my Windows machine, I'm happy enough with 1440p, although I understand that it looks fuzzy on Macs?
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How fuzzy would you expect the picture to be?
We hook up MBP's (2015) to an external monitor with no "fuzzy" issue
 
Littlenose said:
How fuzzy would you expect the picture to be?
We hook up MBP's (2015) to an external monitor with no "fuzzy" issue
Click to expand...
No idea! I was reading higher up in this thread that for some reason Macs are fuzzier (particularly how they display fonts) than Windows machines on 1440p and 4k screens.
 
that's interesting.... I not noticed a difference at my end from my MBP.
But I am going to test it out back to back this evening.
 
manic111 said:
No idea! I was reading higher up in this thread that for some reason Macs are fuzzier (particularly how they display fonts) than Windows machines on 1440p and 4k screens.
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Text definitely looks sharper at 1440p on Windows. You'd get use to it if just using mac but if you switch between mac and windows often on the same monitor it's very noticeable. Pictures and video etc is fine.

I'd still with 1440p at 27" though and save having to mess with image scaling at 4k or paying over the odds for a 5k screen.
 
Dazzy said:
Text definitely looks sharper at 1440p on Windows. You'd get use to it if just using mac but if you switch between mac and windows often on the same monitor it's very noticeable. Pictures and video etc is fine.

I'd still with 1440p at 27" though and save having to mess with image scaling at 4k or paying over the odds for a 5k screen.
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Cheers! Yeah ideally I'd stick to 1440p, unless it's going to look rubbish!
 
manic111 said:
No idea! I was reading higher up in this thread that for some reason Macs are fuzzier (particularly how they display fonts) than Windows machines on 1440p and 4k screens.
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They're fine if you run at native resolution or at a properly scaled resolution (4:1 pixels). It's just that running a 27" 1440p screen looks a bit naff next to the Retina displays of MacBooks.

4K = 1080p sizing
5K = 1440p sizing
 
squerble said:
They're fine if you run at native resolution or at a properly scaled resolution (4:1 pixels). It's just that running a 27" 1440p screen looks a bit naff next to the Retina displays of MacBooks.

4K = 1080p sizing
5K = 1440p sizing
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Thanks for this, it's really useful to know. I've a 1440 here, but I'll have to check what my wife's is.
 
Littlenose said:
How fuzzy would you expect the picture to be?
We hook up MBP's (2015) to an external monitor with no "fuzzy" issue
Click to expand...

Qgksk1C.png


218 and 109PPI = sharp

Everything else....needs GPU processing (more workload) and not perfect alignment.

That said, I have used my Huawei Mateview 4K+ monitor which has a PPI of 163 and it looks fine.
 
How would the mini work with multiple monitors. I have an Alenware screen, another 32" wide screen and a OLED LG TV screen, would this be to much for it?
 
Should be fine with one off the HDMI port. The other 2 will be off the TB4 ports so will need adaptors to DP or HDMI unless your monitor supports TB directly.
 
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I kinda wish they had gone for a halfway house with the size. Extra USB C on the back over the two on the M1 doesn't do much for me with no USB A ports. I wish they had gone slightly bigger kept the USB A ports and put an SD card slot in the front. Then I guess that's what the mac studio is for.
 
I feel like I will still need a dock for the SD card slot and add more ports too since at least 1 port at the back will be taken up by external storage (likely 3), I also need to plug in my mechanical keyboard, external speakers, WiFi dongle for controllers.
 
Raymond Lin said:
Qgksk1C.png


218 and 109PPI = sharp

Everything else....needs GPU processing (more workload) and not perfect alignment.

That said, I have used my Huawei Mateview 4K+ monitor which has a PPI of 163 and it looks fine.
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I'd take this with a pinch of salt. As mentioned, run 4K on a 27" monitor at 200% scaling, and it's not "fuzzy" by any stretch of the imagination; quite the opposite. It still absolutely "feels" retina, it just looks the tiniest bit "jumbo" as it's effectively 1080p at 27".

That said, now that I've looked it up, I really want dual 5K 27" displays but that's gonna cost me £3k :( guess I'll just get a second 4K 27" for now and wait for 5K to get more affordable.
 
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squerble said:
wait for 5K to get more affordable.
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Not sure that is going to happen honestly. I had a 5K monitor back in 2019 and there are still very few of them. That was even a collaboration of sorts with Apple. There are a lot of pixels to push on a 5K so they aren't consumer popular due to their system requirements.
 
I think 5k will remain a niche product for a long time yet, and potentially get jumped past in the future because the bulk platform of media injest by your average user ( TV etc ) is the 4k platform. I'd argue that 8k will be the main consumer platform sometime down the line after that.
 
Donnie Fisher said:
I think 5k will remain a niche product for a long time yet, and potentially get jumped past in the future because the bulk platform of media injest by your average user ( TV etc ) is the 4k platform. I'd argue that 8k will be the main consumer platform sometime down the line after that.
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Yah, people won’t see a 4k > 5k as much of a jump.

AFAIK we are starting to reach a peak with regards to what we can physically see on screens.
 
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