Resolution issues with Mac mini and Dell monitor

Which Dell display did you purchase..? (model number or web link please)

What display cable connection are you using..? (HDMI to HDMI, USB-C to DisplayPort, USB-C to USB-C)

Display resolution choices depend on the display and the cable connection.

To adjust the resolution see > Change your Mac display’s resolution - Apple Support

Also keep in mind that,

1) any and all 1920 x 1080 displays, are a step backwards from a Dell 4K or an iMac 4K display.

2) cheap long factory supplied display cables, should be replaced with short Premium Hi-Speed cable.

tymimeagain wrote:

I'm having a little difficulty following what you're saying, but I will say that with the monitor and cable I'm using, I only have these resolutions to choose from:

…

None of them say "Retina" or "UI looks like", so I'm not at all sure which one would be an equivalent to what you recommend, if any.

All of the resolutions in the list are "UI looks like" resolutions. One of them (3840 x 2160) also happens to be the native resolution of your monitor's LCD panel. The phrase "UI looks like" is one that I picked up from the System Information (Option- > System Information…) application.

If you look at the list, you'll see there's only one entry for 3840 x 2160 – and I think that's because the monitor has told the Mac that this is its native resolution. Many of the others have two entries, e.g.,

• 2560 x 1440
• 2560 x 1440 (low resolution)

or

• 1920 x 1080 (low resolution)
• 1920 x 1080 (Default)

The ones that say "(low resolution)" aren't Retina modes. You select 1920 x 1080 (low resolution) or 2560 x 1440 (low resolution) and the Mac will generate a signal with that lower resolution, and the monitor will scale it up (using the equivalent of digital zoom), and you may not like the results too much.

The other ones that are "lower resolution" than your monitor, but that don't say "(low resolution)" by them, are the Retina modes, where the Mac will draw on a canvas with 2x as many pixels in each direction.

Here's an example. I have a different Dell 4K monitor. In System Settings > Displays, I selected the icon next to Larger Text. It corresponds to Retina "UI looks like 2560 x 1440" mode. If I "Show resolutions as list" and "Show all resolutions", the selection comes up as "2560 x 1440".

In System Information, I see:

The monitor tells me it is receiving a 3840 x 2160 signal.

Unless you are "pixel peeping", the best modes in which to run that 27" 4K monitor are probably

• Retina "UI looks like 2560x1440" mode (which will draw on a 5120x2880 canvas, and downscale to 3840x2160)
• Retina "UI looks like 3008x1692" mode (which will draw on a 6016x3384 canvas, and downscale to 3840x2160)

Neither of these has 1:1 mapping of 1 "virtual" pixel to a 1x1, 2x2, or 3x3 square block of actual pixels, but that's just the way the cookie crumbles.

The modes that will result in integer mappings (given that resolution, and that physical monitor size) will likely result in text that is "too large" (Retina "UI looks like 1920x1080") or "too small" (native 3840x2160).

tymimeagain wrote:

I'm having a little difficulty following what you're saying, but I will say that with the monitor and cable I'm using, I only have these resolutions to choose from:

None of them say "Retina" or "UI looks like", so I'm not at all sure which one would be an equivalent to what you recommend, if any.

One thing you could try just to demonstrate how things work is to move back and forth between

• 1920 x 1080 (low resolution), and
• 1920 x 1080 (Default)

while looking closely at the text in the resolution list.

If you do, you'll see that the text becomes noticeably fuzzier when you switch to "1920 x 1080 (low resolution)" and noticeably sharper when you switch to "1920 x 1080 (Default)".

That's because "1920 x 1080 (low resolution)" is actually 1920 x 1080. When the monitor does the equivalent of "digital zoom" from 1920 x 1080 to 3840 x 2160, it may be able to map each of the 1920 x 1080 "pixels" into four identical 3840 x 2160 ones, but there's still no more than 1920 x 1080 pixels' worth of information in the signal.

In the Retina "1920 x 1080" mode, the Mac is drawing on a (2x1920) x (2x1080), i.e., 3840 x 2160 canvas. When drawing letter shapes, it has 4x as many pixels with which to approximate the mathematically ideal shapes. This results in clearer, sharper text since the signal the monitor receives doesn't "just" have 3840 x 2160 pixels; it has 3840 x 2160 pixels' worth of information.

I believe that monitor takes HDMI input, or USB-C (DisplayPort) input - but not DisplayPort input on a regular DisplayPort connector.

https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-27-4k-uhd-usb-c-monitor-s2722qc/apd/210-bbqt/monitors-monitor-accessories

Then if by that, you mean that you can only live with integer scaling factors, your choices for a UHD 4K monitor (any such monitor) are 3840x2160, and Retina “Ui looks like 1920x1080.” Simple math.

if you got a 27 5K (5120x2880) monitor from Apple, LG, or Samsung, your choices would be 5120x2880, and Retina “Ui looks like 2560x1440.” Again, simple math.

You may want to run your 27” 4K monitor in a non-integer scaling mode for work involving text and in one of the above-mentioned modes when doing pixel peeping.

Re: “Is there some hidden setting (or perhaps a cable) that can fix this?”

No hidden setting. In Retina modes, the Mac will draw on an internal canvas that has 2x as many pixels as the Displays Settings / “UI looks like” resolution. That is then downsampled as necessary to fit onto the actual display.

When I run my 27” 4K monitor in Retina “UI looks like 2560x1440” mode, the internal canvas has a resolution of 5120x2880 pixels and the monitor gets a signal with a resolution of 3840x2160 pixels. This produces better quality than sending a 2560x1440 signal to the monitor and having the monitor effectively do digital zoom would , but the 5K canvas pixels of necessity overlap when rendered on the 4K screen.

if I had a 27” Apple 5K Studio Display, the internal canvas resolution for the “like 2.5K” setting would be 5K, matching the actual 5K panel resolution. Given the price of that display, my bank account would also be many hundreds of dollars lighter.

tymimeagain wrote:

Sounds like I'm pretty much stuck with either one of two resolutions, regardless of what cable I have, if I want square pixels then. I've switched to the larger one, and I'll try to compensate for the overly large text by zooming out on most websites I visit.

Note that there is nothing preventing you from using Retina "like 2560x1440" or Retina "like 3008x1692" mode when you are doing text work, and using Retina "like 1920x1080" mode or native 3840x2160 mode when pixel-peeping.

It might not be quite as convenient as staying at a single Displays setting all of the time on a 5K or 6K monitor – but it is an option.

Replace the cheap factory supplied cable with a short high speed premium certified HDMI to HDMI or… a short high speed USB- C to DisplayPort cable.

Yes. Except that a 1' could come up short. One with that rating in the 1.5' to 3' range is ideal.

for example: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09337P41K/ref=sspa_dk_detail_4?