M5 MacBook Pro and LG Ultrawide (40WP95C-W) Resolution Issue

<< I can only choose that for the internal display. >>

be sure that you have Turned OFF "Mirror displays".

Click on the Icon for the display and choose "Extended Desktop"

When "Mirror Displays" is ON, BOTH displays are set to a computed compromise resolution, that it appears both can attain. Different settings are limited, by design.

It never needed more bandwidth.

Thunderbolt-5 cables alone do not provide any more bandwidth than ThunderBolt-3 or -4 cables, UNLESS every device is Thunderbolt-5 capable.

What is required is to select SCALED resolutions.

In Scaled resolutions, the display is run at its natural, maximum resolution. graphics and photos are shown that that resolution.

Apple has gone back and forth with what these SCALED TEXT resolutions are called. In the current implementation, they seem to be to report the "TEXT looks like" as THE resolution.

Personally, I find this deceptive and unhelpful.

that 40WP95C-W display appears to be a 5K display with the bottom half missing.

Your Thunderbolt cables must be 0.5 meters max, or the display is unlikely to light up.

best resolution is still likely to be Native resolution, then adjust using this pane or equivalent to get Scaled text size you prefer:

<< it is just to small to read anything, that technically should require more bandwidth. >>

No, it does not need more bandwidth to be readable. You need to select SCALED Resolutions.

If you use SCALED resolutions, text is drawn into an offscreen buffer at larger sizes, then scaled into the screen buffer at a more readable size, with beautifully-smoothed edges. Graphics are rendered at Native resolutions. The feature works very well.

I would love to use the scaled settings but that option is not displayed in the external screen as you can see in the screenshot and with the maximum resolution it’s impossible to read anything. I can only choose that for the internal display. This is new for the M5, I have used this display with the Macbook M1 Pro and that was not a problem. The display is capable for HIDPI 3840x1620, that was the Standard option under Scaled, but according to the new M5 Pro it’s now only Lowres.

Very disappointing, i’m thinking about returning this device. Newer should be better but this is just setting me back in time.

I’m going to test what the result Will be with an USB-C (thunderbolt) to displayport cable, hopefully that works better.

Besides that, when changing the Scaled settings on the internal display it shows also the resolution. Standard size seems to be 1512x982 so the it seems that not only the text is scaled.

Hi Scoobydoosen, how did it work out with the TB4 cable? I received my new M5 Pro macbook yesterday and have the same LG Screen with the same issue. Highres settings are only 3008x1269 or 5120x2160. With the M1 Pro it was not a problem on 3840x1620 in highres.

The way Apple expected you to use that large display was to set the screen for its 'natural', Maximum resolution and use the SCALED settings to re-scale only the text. When you do this, Text is drawn at very large size into an off- screen buffer, then re-scaled into the screen at a more readable size of your choosing.

Manually choosing lower revolutions THROWS AWAY the extra resolution you paid dearly for. Don't do that!