Q: Huge Display For New Mac Pro

Might be worth taking a look at http://www.macrumors.com/guide/4k-5k-displays-buyers-guide-mac/ which covers 4K display support with Apple Hardware quite well.

One limitation you'll run into is the HDMI output on the current Mac Pro only supports 4K at 30Hz not full 60Hz which we're used to on most displays. You may want to look at some form of Thunderbolt to HDMI connection for the display to work properly at 60Hz.

A  48"-52" class 4K HDTV should not pixelate. However,

- If the TV does not have a displayport or mini displayport input you will need a 4K mini displayport>HDMI adopter since the HDMI port on the 2013 Mac Pro only supports 30Hz and many users find thinks lag like mouse cursor.

http://www.club-3d.com/index.php/products/reader.en/product/mini-displayport-12- to-hdmi-20-uhd-active-adapter.html

http://www.moshi.com/cable-audio-video-adapter-mini-displayport-to-hdmi-4k

http://www.j5create.com/our-products/displayport-adapters/jda158.html

- it is likely that the menu bar and some other items will still be extra small at 4K resolutions since currently on Macs except for the 4K and 5K iMacs those items are fixed pixels. and get small at a screen resolution of 4K. I have a 4K Dell monitor that I use for my 2013 Mac Pro and only use 4K with editing and other thins when I need the screen resolution. Otherwise the menu bar and other thinks are too small to readily read.

Correct. You have to get an adopter that supports 4K/HDMI 2 otherwise you will only get 1080p resolution.

You may be able to make some settings changes with Terminal and get Hi-DPI stuff to work (the way it works for a retina display). I have seen a discussion about doing that. It is not helpful for "ordinary" resolution displays, though.

marmaladesmom wrote:

 

I wouldn't have even considered that possibility.  I wonder why the menus don't scale.  That seems a bit silly to have set it up that way.  So If I plugged a mini-display to HDMI cord between the Mac pro's thunderbolt 2 port and the surround sound's HDMI input I should avoid any lagging etc, ending up with great sound and picture, albeit possibly small menus?

Yes, by the way, the Club3D adapter seems to currently have the best reputation for doing this.

With regards to enabling HiDPI mode to fix the menus etc. see - https://www.tekrevue.com/tip/hidpi-mode-os-x/

On a related topic, my opinion is that if/when Apple finally update the current Mac Pro it will include a HDMI 2.0 interface capable of directly doing 4K at 60fps. However I believe this is still waiting for AMD to ship their next generation R9 400 series video cards.

John Lockwood   the tekrevue recommendations does not do anything for my 4K Dell monitor. No HiDPI options appears for mt 4K monitor. However. they do appear for my 1080p monitor

I tried the tekrevue mods for my 30-in cinema display. It did not show the five "retina" colored boxes, but it did allow me to choose, off the bottom of the resolution list, a resolution half my normal resolution. This made the menus very big, and the rest of the displayed information very big as well.

So it did something. But I did not find it helpful for me, and quickly reverted to "regular".

I forgot to mention you need to logout and back in for the change to take effect.

Apparently the best compromise for a 4K monitor is to select 1920x1080 HiDPI this sizes the text as if it was a 2K i.e. 1920x1080 monitor but still lets higher resolution content like photos and video display at full 4K resolution at the same time.

As you point out this only shows in the scaled choices and you don't get the five icons display which only seems available on 'real' Retina displays.

What do you mean by log out? I rebooted/restored like the article said.

I only see the Hi.... options for my 1080p monitor. They do not appear for my 4K Dell monitor. Thus, it seems the command worked.