Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 57" monitor with Macbook Pro M1 (2021)

PLEASE APPLE address this issue in your OS so proper support at very high resolution so we can scale fonts etc and still keep high resolution

The Samsung G9 57" requires HDMI 2.1 for the full resolution while using a Mac. You will need a mac with an M2 Chip or better. That being said, even if you do have an M2 or better, MacOS currently does not scale well at that resolution and everything will be extremely tiny and hard to read at full resolution until apple fixes it.

cables 'shipped in the box' are notorious for being ":lowest bidder" cables. Just good enough to keep you from returning the product to the store the day you get it.

HDMI resolutions above 4K REQUIRE a certified ULTRA cable. Nothing less will do the job on a Mac.

The Mac checks for errors in transmission, and more recent MacOS checks more aggressively.

Ryan3587 wrote:

The display's resolution is 7680 x 2160 and that is what is showing under the display settings. If I change it to default of 3840 x 1080 (Default), it just increases the size of the text and maybe clears it up just a tad, but then I lose all that glorious space.

What am I missing here?

There is an inherent tradeoff between

• The physical size of a display
• The physical size of text on a display
• The amount of text you can cram onto a display, or workspace (what you call "that glorious space")

The Mac probably does not know the physical size of your display, and assumes that the high resolution implies a high-PPI display that you would want to run in a Retina scaling mode.

• 24" 1920x1080 monitor => 91.8 PPI
• 27" 2560x1440 monitor => 108.8 PPI
• 27" 3840x2160 monitor => 163.1 PPI
• 27" 5120x2880 monitor => 217.6 PPI

There's a reason why commercial book publishers don't print all books in 2- and 3-point fonts – even though they can. Likewise, there's a reason why Retina "UI looks like 2560x1440" mode is a good one to use for a 27" display. Your vision is sensitive to physical size even when your monitor is capable of displaying a huge number of pixels.

In your case, your monitor has a very high pixel count (7680x2160 – as much as two UHD 4K monitors), but is big enough that it only has about 140 PPI. In Retina "like 3840x1080" mode, the Mac and monitor will physically size text "as if" you were running in native mode on a monitor with only 70 PPI. That's probably going to result in text being uncomfortably large.

I would think that given the physical size (57") and resolution (7840x2160) of your monitor, Retina "UI looks like 5120x1440 mode would be a useful setting. That would give you text of about the same size as on a 24" 1080p monitor, with the workspace of two 27" 2560x1440 pixel displays.

I don't know if the system will offer you a Retina 5120x1440 mode – since that would imply an internal drawing canvas with a resolution of 10240x2880 pixels (exceeding the Mac's specified resolution limits). But if you are using two cables to drive two halves of the same display, in such a way that the Mac thinks it is two displays, it might let you use Retina "2560 x 1440" (not "2560 x 1440 (low resolution)") mode for each half.

you can't hit that 7680 x 2160 resolution properly with both cables coming from ONE USB cable on the computer to the Dock. USB does not have enough bandwidth, so one half will drop in resolution or color fidelity.

That high a resolution requires a ThunderBolt port (which the display does not accept) or two cables from two different ports on your MacBook Pro.

FYI I am able to get 7680 x 2160 @ 120 Hz with one certified ultra high speed HDMI 2.1 cable going straight from the monitor to my HDMI port. I was able to get this with the HDMI cable that shipped with monitor as well. The only drawback is not being able to plug in the monitor directly into the hub, but I'm totally cool with that given the benefits far outweigh the trouble. No splitting the monitor into sections or anything like that.

I have a M2 Max.

Sometimes though when returning from sleep, the max res converts to 5120 x 1440 @ 60 Hz. A quick restart fixes this. A bit annoying but it is what it is for now.

Same sleep issues as you on my G7 Neo 32" - only fix I've found was to switch from HDMI to a USB-C->DVI cable rated for 8K - but doesnt come without other issues. I'm not sure if its the monitor driver in MacOS but I get crazy memory leaks in the "windowserver" process.

maurits160 wrote:

NextCspr is it correct that you managed to achieve 7680 x 2160 resolution by the use of the ”Hyper Drive Dual 4K HDMI 10-in-1 USB-C Hub connected to the correct usb-c port?

The key is to use TWO ports out of the Mac, to support what the Mac sees as two displays side-by-side. That Dock can NOT support Two half-displays on a Mac, because it is a USB-C Dock, good for only ONE display up to around 4K resolution best case.

There is NO MAGIC in that particular Dock.

If you used a genuine Thunderbolt port, Cable, and Dock, that might be able to support both half-displays on one genuine ThunderBolt port out of the Mac.

I want to buy the monitor but I am afraid of this probpem as I also have the same Mac. Have you tried connecting two inputs as Picture in Picture (two sides) and merge them in Mac as in this link

For M2 or later Macs, HDMI 2.1 for 8K at 60 Hz is DIRECTLY supported, so an 8K display width can be supported directly over one cable, provided it is a DIRECT connection, No adapters or Docks intervening.

That should include refresh rates up to 60 Hz and nominal 4320 height. Since this display is only half that tall, some higher refresh rates MAY be possible.

Source:

Connect to HDMI from your Mac - Apple Support

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