32K video resolution support on Mac

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32K video resolution support on Mac

I know it might sound silly at first glance but my team is creating content at higher than 16K resolution today for massive LED displays such as Cosm (or the MSG Sphere).

PCs are limited to 32K video resolution and Mac are limited to 16K in video resolution. So we have to use only PCs for this.

I wanted to ask that Apple consider leveling their game here especially if they won't allow using external GPUs in their Mac Pro then they should make sure they are upping their game in GPU and graphics for creators. 8k resolution is now more and more common. This means the 16K barrier becomes an issue for creators pushing the enveloppe on new media & cutting edge tech. Vision Pro for instance could require 16K for VR360 for max quality meaning you'd be creating at the max resolution that Mac supports with no room to grow/innovate.

Posted on Oct 3, 2023 10:33 AM

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Answer 1

Oct 4, 2023 7:08 AM in response to Soloren

Are we using multiple HDMI cables for of this setup?

HDMI has more than one 'knee in the curve' when it comes to adapters and cables that are required to attain particular resolutions.

Direct HDMI support for 8K at 60Hz comes in HDMI 2.0, created directly on one direct port by Macs issued in 2023, but NOT in older. Macs

Macs with ThunderBolt-3 or -4 ports can support those raw data rates, but you would need to select adapters very carefully to get ones that support 8K at 60 Hz, AND use 'Premium' or 'Ultra' certified cables.

So I guess what you are describing is fairly accurate, you can get 2 over 2 '8K' virtual displays on a Mac if you work at it, which using this branch of Math seems to add up to 16K wide by 8K tall.

The Mac Studio with Ultra processor and the Mac Pro M2 Ultra can support up to six displays at 6K resolution at 60 Hz, so stitching together 3 over 3 (if that is possible) would give you 18K wide by about 6K tall

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Answer 2

Oct 3, 2023 1:28 PM in response to Soloren

How did you decide Macs are limited to 16K resolution?

It is common (if your display device supports it) to use Picture by Picture in the device to re-assemble multiple Virtual displays from multiple display interface cables, to get around cable bandwidth limitations.

I think the Mac can Create an Extended Desktop quite a bit larger than 16K, and put it out on multiple cables without issue. I think the real limit might be the bandwidth on each display-cable.

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Answer 3

Soloren Author

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Oct 3, 2023 9:30 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

To achieve such resolutions stitching is often used and one such tool for this is Mistika VR

We are hitting a limit on Mac which Mistika VR support mentions:

****

Mistika does not enforce any resolution limits by itself, but each platform establish its own limits (typically due to openGL limitations). At the date of this document:

macOS: 16k x 8k

Windows: 32k x 16k

I would need to also check with other software such as Nuke, AfterEffects and more.

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Answer 4

Soloren Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 4, 2023 8:50 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

I am not speaking about resolution to be outputted to a display connected to a Mac but resolution limits for content creation. These extremely high resolution piece of content get displayed on custom LED walls that can manage extremely large resolutions.

When creating a piece of content you can manage previewing at lower resolutions and check final pieces on the actually display to be used or portions if the work to spot check quality at 'native' resolution of part of the content.

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32K video resolution support on Mac

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