Craignos

Q: Mac OS 10.11.1 and Dell 5K monitor with late 2013 Mac Pro

FYI

 

If you update the system to El Capitan (this happened to me at 10.11.1 but could very well happen from 10.10.5 to 10.11), you need to unplug 1 of the 2 display cables from the computer in order to see the second part of the OS update process, otherwise your monitor turns black after the first reboot during the update and doesn't show you the progress bar anymore.

This led me in believing that my update had crashed and I forced shut down the machine in the update process. Ouch!

 

I hope this will help the few in this hardware configuration.

Posted on Oct 26, 2015 4:50 PM

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Q: Mac OS 10.11.1 and Dell 5K monitor with late 2013 Mac Pro

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  • Helpful answers

  • by SdeS,

    SdeS SdeS Apr 19, 2016 1:26 PM in response to Craignos
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Desktops
    Apr 19, 2016 1:26 PM in response to Craignos

    Hi Craignos,

     

    I've just purchased this display, only seems to work at 2560 x 1440 with my 2013 Mac Pro - I've connected two display port cables to two thunderbolt outputs on the Mac Pro.

     

    Help articles at Dell only mention 5k with Yosemite. Does yours give 5k with El Capitain?

     

    Thanks

     

    Stephen

  • by John Lockwood,

    John Lockwood John Lockwood Apr 20, 2016 3:44 AM in response to SdeS
    Level 6 (9,309 points)
    Servers Enterprise
    Apr 20, 2016 3:44 AM in response to SdeS

    People have clearly successfully used the Dell 5K monitor with the 2013 Mac Pro and Apple even officially say it is possible. You do need as you say you have two Mini Displayport to Displayport cables.

     

    I could not find a definitive article right now but I know that in the past some Dell monitors requiring Displayport 1.2 to be specifically enabled on the monitor. To do this - presuming this is still necessary would involve using the buttons on the monitor to access the on-screen display and to find and make that change. If it is currently only running in non-Displayport 1.2 mode then it will not be able to do 5K.

  • by SdeS,

    SdeS SdeS Apr 20, 2016 4:01 AM in response to John Lockwood
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Desktops
    Apr 20, 2016 4:01 AM in response to John Lockwood

    Hi John,

     

    Yes, they provide the two cables required, (5 in total in fact) and yes, I've used the screen menus on the Dell to select between the single cable and the dual inputs, but as I say, it gives a better resolution with the single cable - 4k and jus1 2560x1440 with the dual cables currently.

     

    Thanks for the input.

     

    Stephen

  • by djcopely,

    djcopely djcopely May 14, 2016 1:55 AM in response to John Lockwood
    Level 1 (4 points)
    May 14, 2016 1:55 AM in response to John Lockwood

    I have the MacPro cylinder running El Cap and two Dell UP2715K monitors, got them all this week. Each Dell 5K monitor will work in full 5K when used alone with the MacPro. As soon as both are hooked up using 4 cables only one will be in 5K, the other in 4K.

     

    The Apple description and descriptions elsewhere on the web indicate it is capable of running 3 x 5K monitors at once. What am i doing wrong? Neither Apple Support chat nor Dell support can tell me why this is happening.

     

    thanks for your attention to this matter

     

    djc

  • by Luis Sequeira1,

    Luis Sequeira1 Luis Sequeira1 May 14, 2016 3:24 AM in response to djcopely
    Level 6 (12,122 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 14, 2016 3:24 AM in response to djcopely

    Could you point us to a link that says that

    When the 2013 MP came about, Apple very distinctly said it could drive three 4K displays - I believe 5K were not even in the radar at the time.

  • by djcopely,

    djcopely djcopely May 14, 2016 4:13 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1
    Level 1 (4 points)
    May 14, 2016 4:13 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1
  • by djcopely,

    djcopely djcopely May 14, 2016 4:16 AM in response to djcopely
    Level 1 (4 points)
    May 14, 2016 4:16 AM in response to djcopely

    from MacRumors "However, on June 16, 2015, without updating the graphics cards themselves, Apple quietly increased the official support to as many as three 5K displays (5120x2880) --two using Thunderbolt 2 ports and one using the HDMI port. The support for as many as six 2560x1600 displays using all six Thunderbolt 2 ports remained unchanged."

  • by SdeS,

    SdeS SdeS May 14, 2016 6:14 AM in response to SdeS
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Desktops
    May 14, 2016 6:14 AM in response to SdeS

    Replying to my own post, yes, a bit odd.

     

    However, now working beautifully at 5k resolution, using the top two Thunderbolt sockets on the left hand side, not sure if that makes a difference, but some people seem to think it does.

     

    Works in 5k using the twin display port cables supplied with the DELL.

     

    Works in 5k under bootcamp Windows 10 too.

     

    All good, if only apple would pull their finger out and make a 5k monitor, or even 4k three years after launching the dustbin  Mac Pro that would be great, in the meantime, thank you Dell.

     

    Oh, by the way, Dell tech support were utterly useless and told me it was impossible and just kept referring me to the AMD website, so if you do have this display, don't bother Dell with any problems!

  • by Luis Sequeira1,

    Luis Sequeira1 Luis Sequeira1 May 14, 2016 6:21 AM in response to djcopely
    Level 6 (12,122 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 14, 2016 6:21 AM in response to djcopely

    djcopely wrote:

     

    http://www.apple.com/mac-pro/specs/

     

    I first tried the above link in my iPhone, and it said "three 4K displays"; the version of the same page that I get on my rMBP does say "three 5K displays". It is curious that they seemed to fail to update the mobile version of the page, but indeed I see the mention to 5K.

  • by djcopely,

    djcopely djcopely May 15, 2016 4:23 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1
    Level 1 (4 points)
    May 15, 2016 4:23 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

    Well it took me a while but I now have the two Dell Ultra HD 5K UP2715K 27" monitors at full resolution working side by side using 4 cables originating from 4 Thunderbolt slots to the DP1 and 2 sockets on the monitors.


    At that res the fonts are too small for me to read so i have a third, low res monitor hooked to the HDMI port on the Pro (which I used soley because those were the cables/connectors I had on hand) to use as the main control screen. I used the odd # ports for one Dell and the even # ports for the other. Pretty sure that assigns one monitor to each AMD FirePro D300 processor bus after reading this: Use multiple displays with your Mac Pro (Late 2013) - Apple Support

     

    I'm sure it was a series of minor though repetitive novice-level errors that caused the delay in getting this to work but I managed to Google my way through it. The final attempt started with a factory reset of each monitor and hooking them up and testing them one monitor / one cable at a time et voila.

     

    In the course of events I was in touch with a number of very sympathetic techs via Apple Chat, one completely incomprehensible tech at the Dell 800 # (who accidentally disconnected me mid-way through my explanation) @DellHelp on Twitter and Dell's Facebook page (Dell's chat is not 24/7 like Apple's).

     

    Dell's social media people insisted on proof of purchase before attempting to help, one in the form of an invoice from Amazon.com which I could not produce. They settled for the serial numbers which I had registered earlier in the day. Thereafter they asked more questions of me than I did of them. No solutions were reached.

     

    Although the Apple Chat techs were immediately available at the click of a mouse which is comforting, not all of them thought what I was trying to accomplish was even possible. They quoted conflicting articles re: using multiple 4K vs. 5K monitors with the Pro which I had already Googled. They finally connected me with a Senior Advisor who made me promise that if I got it to work, I would get back in touch and tell them how I did it. You're welcome.

     

    On another topic that MacPro weighs a ton.

     

    Cheers

  • by djcopely,

    djcopely djcopely May 15, 2016 4:28 AM in response to SdeS
    Level 1 (4 points)
    May 15, 2016 4:28 AM in response to SdeS

    Agree with your assessment of Dell's tech support. See my entry below.

  • by RicPCC,

    RicPCC RicPCC Aug 16, 2016 9:29 AM in response to SdeS
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Aug 16, 2016 9:29 AM in response to SdeS

    It's my understanding that you need to run this monitor on two separate TB ports to get 5K from this display. The two top left ports are one bus, two top right another and two bottom are a third (shared with the HDMI). I have ours plugged into two different busses. We also have three Dell 32" 4K displays here that only require one connector.

     

    To get the monitor to actually work at the different resolutions, I need to go into the "Scaled" display settings and choose what works best for a given pair of eyeballs. Going full 5K produces text that is virtually unreadable. 4K is a good compromise (that's the second box from the right).

     

    I have a Retina iMac at home and Apple seems to handle text scaling in a much smarter way. The display is running at 5K according to the System Profile, but the text is a reasonable size.

     

    Ric