M1 Macbook Pro - External Monitor Blurry Text

If you are using a Dell Monitor, make sure you follow these instructions here: https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/ro-ro/000131273/using-a-dell-ultrasharp-usb-c-monitor-with-a-mac#Monitors_With_USB-C

Mac just don't work well with external displays.

maybe they want you to purchase apple display?

P.S I am having the same problem now.

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.

You need a 4K monitor and that’s it. No solution offred in this thread works it’s not RGB vs YPBPR, dongles or cables.

I myself tried everything suggested here.

Unless apple fix this ( or not ) the only fix is a 4K Monitor.

[Edited by Moderator]

What are the resolutions of both your monitors. It seems that in order to get a great picture on a Mac the output resolution needs to use HiDPI. Unfortunately MacOS only allows you to to do this on 4K and up resolutions. On Intel based Macs there is a hack to force HiDPI from tools like SwitchResX but currently do not work with M1 Mac machines due to config files that Apple has now made read only. Other OS's like Windows and Ubuntu will allow you to do this no matter the screen resolution. Above is a link to a command on the terminal that will at least make your text a little less blurry by disabling font smoothing but will not fix any scaling problems.

Grant Bennet-Alder Why did Apple do this?

I just purchased a MacBook Pro 13" to replace my 2013 MacBook Pro 15" and I also experienced blurry/jagged text when connecting my existing external monitor. My monitor control panel has a setting for sharpness and I reduced that to zero. I now have BEAUTIFUL text on my external display with no negative side effects.

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.

I'm having the same problem also :(

MacBook Pro with M1 Chip and using external Dell S3220DGF

I'm using a Satechi USB-C to HDMI cable.

I did yes, didn’t fix it :(

I'm getting the same resolution on both 2560 x 1440.

The text feels like a I just plugged in my TV and not my monitor. Windows laptop works fine with this monitor ...

Don't waste your money buying expensive cables it has nothing to do with the type of cable you are using. THe problem is how MacOS does scaling on non-retina or 4K displays.