Why 5120x1440 Doesn't Work with Apple M1

What do you mean you can't scale? Is there no option or is it not working? Did you hold down the Opt key when you clicked on the Scale Resolution radio button to get the expanded list of resolutions to scale to?

I am awaiting delivery of a Mac Mini M1 and plan to connect it to a 5120x1440 ultrawide display as well. I hope I can make it work with a reasonably comfortable scale option. If not, I'll try doing a Picture-by-Picture setup with the HDMI and TB3 ports feeding the monitor and doing a side by side arrangement. It's not perfect but at least I'll be able to use the entire display as two monitors next to each other.

Actually, your picture by picture idea is not bad. I use a samsung g9 monitor with a windows gaming rig and wanted to use the M1 for work (citrix and office 365 web). 2 side by side on the G9 would actually probably be ok.

My 16" MBP works fine with my Samsung 46" UltraWide monitor at 5120x1440.

I do have ScreenResX installed.

This is my connection:

MBP -> 4k 60Hz TB3 cable (40Gbps) -> Caldigit Dock -> Display Port Cable -> Samsung Monitor

With that connection is there any suitable resolution I may be able to obtain with a Mac Mini M1 connected the same way?

As I noted above I am using high-speed Thunderbolt 3 cable which is quite expensive to run a connection from my 16" MBP to my 49" Samsung UltraWidescreen display.

Nobody is talking about results using this Thunderbolt 3 connection with the new M1 mini so I am hoping that when I finally get my Mini in December I will have no display issues.

NJ Ron, I assume you mean you are using a USB-C to DisplayPort 1.4 cable that is plugged into a Thunderbolt 3/USB C port on your MBP 16” because the CRG90/G9 does not have a Thunderbolt 3 input?

If so, I have the same setup and my MBP works fine but my M1 is having tones of issues with DisplayPort (as many in this thread have stated). And HDMI on the M1 only seems to works up to 3840 x 1080 @100hz HDR.

Thanks for the update

I am still 4 weeks away from getting my Mini (though I suspect Apple will move that date up substantially) so you are going to be the pioneer here.

I am interested to see how the adapter you are purchasing works out.

Your results are going to assist the rest of us who don't know yet what to expect.

I did send some Feedback to Apple about this issue. They claim they read all Feedback sent to them so if they get enough inquiries on this subject perhaps they will tweak a future update of Big Sur to support these monitors.

Please, please, please report back when you get your adapter and let us know if it works out. Good luck and thanks!

Report back here and let us know.

Also, be sure you are aware of the extra options available in Mac display settings.

In display settings, click the scaled option while holding the option key on the keyboard. It brings up more options for you.

My Mini M1 was planned for a December 4th to 14th delivery date ... it has shipped from China and will most likely be here (Canada) on November 26th.

From what I gather from reading this thread it clearly does not work out of the box for a 5120x1440. Various suggestions are submitted here but are all too convoluted for my will. I like to keep things simple. Either Apple will support 5120 natively (without a dock or some third party software) (which I doubt is a priority for them) or I will simply double wire the Mini to the monitor (G9) and use it as two 2560x1440 monitors side by side which suits my use case as well and maybe even better. I need to share my screen a lot with Microsoft Teams and sharing a 2560x1440 desktop is way more practical than sharing a ultrawide or sharing individual "applications". (For gaming full screen on the ultrawide I switch to Windows). YMMV.

I will be using 1 HDMI and 1 thunderbolt to DP cable (I only have one TB to DP cable ... and my Windows machine is using the other DP port on my monitor). But yes I will keep everybody posted on the "dual" front.

For everyone who isn't able to get the proper monitor resolution, would you please indicate what cables you are using?

If you are using standard USB-C cables, it isn't going to work.

I did speak with Caldigit who has been working with the M1 devices and Ultrawidescreen monitors and here is their response...

"Thanks for getting back to us. This docking station cannot produce a 5k monitor via DisplayPort on this docking station, but this can be achieved through the Thunderbolt 3 port of this docking station (this is a restriction of the Thunderbolt 3 protocol). Although we haven’t tried this with a 46” Ultra-Wide monitor, we don’t see a clear reason why this wouldn’t work properly."

My thoughts are that any connection to a huge widescreen monitor should include high-speed Thunderbolt 3 -> Display port cable.

It should be able to but I don't have an M1 Mac to test. It seems that they have flaky display handling.

4K 60Hz and 5120x1440 can be done with a Thunderbolt 2 connection (20 Gbps) so even if you had a bad cable it could still work. People in this thread have already shown that 5120x1440 works - adding Thunderbolt devices should not cause a problem.

I can confirm the M1 can display 5120 x 1440 @120hz SDR.

Sometimes it works and the OS lets you pick the resolution (with a Opt + click), sometimes it is only recognized with a constrained resolution or HDR missing or limited to 60hz. In most cases, not sure why, the OS is aware of all capable resolutions even if it doesn't provide them through the OS interface, so if you use a third party tool for setting the resolution it also can work (5120 x 1440).

Does it work? Not perfectly right now, its buggy at best, but the capability is there.

Today my M1 Mini arrived. I unplugged my 2018 Mini and plugged the same cables into the M1. It took me over an hour just to get any picture at all!

I have a Samsung 49” ultrawide. 

To fix the issue I set the DisplayPort settings on the monitor to V1.2 and changed the refresh rate to 60. Now I get 5220x1440 on a M1 Mini with 1 DisplayPort cable.

Pagemakers,

Spoke too soon, still having issues with switching resolution in display

1) yes I am not sure why low res shows up

2) I was suggesting my next step would be to buy screenresx if problems continued (which I just might now)

I am very hopeful that an OS updates makes this all go away, but I am thinking about returning screen and/or MM if this continues. Hopefully someone from apple monitors this monitor discussion ;)