M1 Macbook Pro - External Monitor Blurry Text

It turns out the problem is that M1 is incorrectly using YPbPR mode instead of RGB mode, making the monitors text blurred and colours off. There is no known solution, other than to go through a DVI or dual link DVI cable if your monitor has DVI. IF your monitor has HDMI or display port there is no fix for this issue, and workarounds which functioned on the intel macs dont work on M1 macs. See https://gist.github.com/adaugherity/7435890

I strongly recommend using the apple feedback app on your machine with the monitor attached. The more people who report this bug the more likely Apple are to fix it. Unless its a deliberate move to sell more apple displays of course.

Did you find a solution to this problem?

I'm having the same issue as well. I purchased a new M1 Macbook Air last a few days ago along with an ASUS VG27AQ external monitor. Even when set to 1440p resolution, the text is extremely blurry. I've fiddled around with the all of the settings on the monitor including sharpness and the improvements are very limited.

When connected to my windows laptop, the text looks fine.

I tried the steps in the link that jdo_apple posted to no avail.

Any other suggestions?

Disable Apple font smoothing https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/disable-font-smoothing-in-macos-big-sur/

• Result: much better text clarity.

Try a 27 inch, 2K monitor

• Result: OK, but the text is very small at 2K resolution. I needed to bring the resolution down to 2048 x 1152 or even Full HD 1920 x 1080 if I want to look at the screen from a bigger distance, but this blurs the text a little.

On the Monitor settings, choose Color Settings to RGB

(or sRGB) color instead of YPbPr or any other setting.

• Result: OK, I can see an improvement.

Use the USB-C to USB-C cable that came with the monitor.

• Result: OK, I can see an improvement.

Set the Color Profile on the Mac as RGB

• Result: OK, much better fonts. Fonts appear more full, bold like and the Colors look more vivid.

Reduce the Sharpness level on your Monitor settings.

• Result: OK, much better now.

Disable any Smart Features or Sensors on your

Monitor.

• Result: OK, much better now.

Use CMD + right Shift and + to increase text size

on apps.

• Result: better clarity of text.

Try a USB-C to HDMI adapter

• Result: not much improvement

Try a USB-C to Display Port adapter

• Result: not much improvement

I had the same problem with my DellTM UltraSharp U2713HM (2560 x 1440). I had a MacBook Pro 2012 that was plugged with a DP to miniDP cable and was perfect. When I bought the Mac Mini, I didn't have a Thunderbolt/USB-C cable, so I used a HDMI cable and it was HORRIBLE. The way I solved it was buying a miniDP-Thunderbolt adapter. I guess all the trick is using Display Port to Thunderbolt cables (of course nobody tells you that). I hope this will help you.

Hi Jusched,

We understand you're having issues with the image quality on an external monitor. We're happy to help.

If the image quality is not clear, here's some steps you can try to adjust it: Get help with video issues on external displays connected to your Mac

If you continue to have issues with the external monitor, you'd want to contact Apple Support directly for assistance: Get Support

We hope this helps. Take care!

I have the same problem. I have 2x £1200 Dell 32" monitors with 2560x1600. One has HDMI and displayport, the other only has displayport.

I have both connected to my old MP pro 2017 (at the same time), and both have razor sharp text and worth every penny.

I have tried them both (separately, as the M1 is crippled to a single external monitor) on my new M1 MP pro 2021, and neither is usable. The text is spidery, blurred, pixilated and malformed. Like using a Cheap VGA display from 1990. May be worse.

I have a very expensive HDMI cable which works perfectly with the monitor and my intel MP pro and also my windows laptop.

I have 4 ways to connect the monitors:

1. premium DP to USB-C,
2. premium HDMI to USB-C,
3. A very expensive dual DP to Thunderbolt 3
4. Anker 13 in 1 elite TB 3 doc with HDMI.

I have tried all combinations of cables and connectors, with and without the dock, and all are unusable on the M1, and all work perfectly on the MP Pro 2017 and PC. Some combinations (e.g. DP to Thunderbolt) work perfectly on intel mac, but only give only 2080p on M1. Other combinations give the correct resolution (With no scaling), but unusable text.

There is something seriously wrong with the M1. Its unusable with an external monitor.

Switching off true tone had no effect on text, only on the colour.

Hi Grant,

In my case the *exact* same cable is connected to the 4k monitor when on the I7 Nvidia 1060 Windows PC. I just swung over the computer end from the PC to the Mac-Mini. The text is unusable for sustained periods and yet picture and video is fine. So why could that be explained by a dodgy cable? Yes I can read the text, sure, (just about), but it is slightly fuzzy, blurred and sends my eyes tired.

That said, I am willing to try anything, I so want to keep the MacMini. I get what Apple are wanting to do with M1 and it's such a great idea. It's a pocket speed demon and has grest potential. But, none of that is any good if I ca';t read the monitor and code on it and type my documents.

Please suggest to me an example of such a cable ??

Working on my iMac now - aaaahh, so nice.....

Best, Stephen

If your display is capable of using DisplayPort family connection, that always produces better results than HDMI. (But you cannot convert back from HDMI computer-port TO DisplayPort family on the display.)

 Menu > about this Mac > (System Report) > Graphics & Displays

shows TWO values for screen resolution.

the first is the actual resolution in use for graphics.

the second, labeled User Interface (UI) Looks like shows the effective resolution after scaling is applied to text items.

Check that both of these are as you expected, especially that the actual resolution is the maximum resolution for the display.

I have the same issue. Mac Mini 16G connected to a 4k monitor. In windows the text is crisp and clear. I move the monitor and cable over to the Mac Mini HDMI port and the text is fuzzy and gives me a lasting headache.

I have tried all suggested workarounds and solutions, including dropping the resolution (why should I though on an expensive Iiyama 4k monitor?!) and still the text is fuzzy.

I have Macbooks, iMacs, iPhones, Homepods, EarPods and 3 Apple TV's. I subscribe to Apple One. I so want to like this Mac Mini. However, this is the first purchase from Apple that I am disappointed in. Very disappointed. I am on the verge of returning it inside the 14 day window as unfit for purpose and, if fact, an health and safety hazard. I'm typing on it now and it is making my head spin.....

It probably is a software glitch. However a few important questions are:

1. Does your monitor support HDMI 2 or 2.1? If not then it's a problem.
2. Is your HDMI cable 2.1 or 2? If not we have a problem there as well.
3. Does your monitor input port can take and handle HDMI 2.1 or 2 to display 4k @ 60 or 30 Hz? if not then this is the issue.
4. Are you using USB C hub connected to your Macbook pro? That could be a problem as most hubs unfortunately do not support 4k resolution and those that do, do not support 60 Hz (though 60 Hz is not essential.
5. Does your monitor has Thunderbolt 3 input support? If yes: Try connecting through it.

If you check all the above and still it is not resolved then you can safely say that it might be a software glitch in the monitor and not in M1 2020 MBP 13.3.

In that case unplug and plug in the TB3 port from MBP and use a compatible HDMI dongle thingy with the TB3.

Also check the links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVvYmrK0p5Q

and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OifE32e8Tq8

In any case all these issues will be resolved hopefully with mac software updates as Apple id aware of these issues already as discussed in above videos.

Hope that helps.

Cheers

thanks for the reply, but what you are stating isn’t where the problem is.

it’s about HiDpi.

MacOS doesn’t not support HiDpi with most of external displays.

that’s why on the same external display,

things look good in Windows but blurry in MacOS.

However it does for its own internal screen. That’s why things still look good even if you use scaled display for better viewing on internal display.

I just found out the solution.

I think it will help the original poster too.

1. turn off SIP
2. Use a script to force Hidpi working on external display.

everything looks whole lot better after this. And it only takes 5 mins.

I will post the instruction link I found but it’s in traditional mandarin and its too much work for me to translate it. Maybe whoever needs it can use google translate.

https://make9.tw/3c-software/mac-osx-2k-display-fix-setting/

by the way I just received my 24” 2k external display today and have a 2019 16” MPB.

beware this does not work on M1 Macs as stating in the article I posted.

Macs work great with most external displays, and the M1 Macs work especially well. There is no need to use an Apple brand display.

• Use DisplayPort if possible.

• Most issues are in adapters and use of HDMI for higher resolutions than standard HD 1920 by 1080p. Higher resolutions require CERTIFIED cables and may still not work with HDMI.

• [√] Mirror displays ... uses a compromise resolution that is likely to be sub-optimal:

note that the two Blue display icons are shown as overlapping when Mirrored.

The cables you want for HDMI-only Monitors (higher resolutions than 720p TV sets) are marked as Certified with an anti-counterfeiting tag and are labeled:

"Premium High Speed HDMI cable" or that + "with Ethernet"  --OR--

"Ultra High Speed HDMI cable" or that + "48G"

Cables with No Certification tags are good for your standard TV set, and not much more.

Maybe something like this?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cable-Etseinri-Certified-6-6FT-48Gbps/dp/B08SLR3HW9/ref=sr_1_5?crid=CF2HFXMICYD5&dchild=1&keywords=certified+ultra+high+speed+hdmi+cable&qid=1613423307&sprefix=certified+%2Caps%2C166&sr=8-5

Anyway, I will try a certified Ultra speed 2.1 HDMI/48Gbps cable. I just ordered one and if it doesn't work - and I am not expecting it to - I can redeploy it on an Apple TV. If, as I suspect, the cable still does not fix the blurry text I will return the MacMini M1 as unusable within the 14 day time period. One should not have to be throwing away three year old, 4k, $800 monitors and buy a brand new one just to get decent text to display. I was going to buy a Caldigit dock and a second monitor too for this setup but have cancelled all future spend on this project I can get a proven text quality on-screen.