Studio Display XDR freezes/blackouts editing HDR and presets

Be sure that your display refresh rate is set (manually) to 60 Hz, NOT variable refresh rate.

ah, that's better.

The Thunderbolt-4 ports on your windows laptop have a top speed of around 40 G bits/sec. DisplayPort over Thunderbolt-4 is limited to the next lowest step, which is UHBR10 at 38.69 G bits/sec.

Standard tables suggest a 5K display using 10 bits/color (HDR=ON) can run at 60 Hz without using Display Stream Compression. (Low-level calculations suggest it would likely make 80 Hz without Compression, but not faster.)

On ThunderBolt-3/4 Macs, the display system sometimes switches to TWO display-generator operation, (Left half and Right half) each at HBR-3 speeds of 25.92 G bits/sec to try to get slightly higher throughput. I don't know whether your Dell tries to do that.

The Mac tries to send a "pure" signal to this display, and NOT use Display Stream Compression, which can become non-lossless at higher compression rates.

Even after the display firmware update, there are still some issues on Macs trying to get higher refresh rates and using too many display-generators or failing to connect at times.

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Thunderbolt speeds:

The fundamental signaling rate is the same on all ThunderBolt-3, -4, and -5.

Thunderbolt-5 gets its faster data rates by using a modulated signal with multiple bits per signaling interval. You can only benefit from ThunderBolt-5 faster data rates when EVERY device is a genuine Thunderbolt-5 device, and ALL switch up to faster data rates.

Cables:

"Brand-X" Thunderbolt cables at these speeds are limited to 0.5 meters maximum length. Apple used to ship an over-Engineered cable of length 0.8 meters in the box with the previous model. Today, they appear to be including 1 meter cable they call a PRO cable, which is likely code for an ACTIVE cable.

ACTIVE cables can be longer because they have signal re-generators in the cable, but their prices started at around US$125.

At this writing, the least expensive longer ACTIVE cable today is from Cable Matters, selling a 2 meter ACTIVE ThunderBolt-5 cable for around US$80.

My MBP M2-Max worked pre-FW update for the Display. The Dell 5960 worked pre-FW update as well.

MBP M2-Max worked post FW update. The Dell 5960 has not worked post FW update. The additional odd thing was the cabling, not all T5 cables worked. Only the Apple TB cable worked.

Have you updated to the latest macOS, at least 26.4?

Have you then applied the firmware update for the display that becomes available?

I am having this problem as well. It only happens for me when playing World of Warcraft. Using a new MBPM5pro with the game running on SDXDR at some random time the right half of the screen will become a pink pixelated mess, the left half goes black and whole system reboots. If I put the game on an original Studio Display daisy chained from the SDXDR it works fine, never happens.

Currently on: Display Firmware Version: Version 26.3 (Build 23D8128)

I have no issues running my (new) Studio Display XDR with my MacBookPro M2 Max.

I am having major issues connecting to a work issued Dell 5960 Laptop. I was able to get it to show content at 1920x1080 only one time (I had it connected for a week plus, no issue). When I disconnected and reconnected a little bit later...nothing will show up on the screen. I continually get the handshake/lose handshake tone.

I also noticed than my (new) Studio Display XDR will only work with an Apple Thunderbolt cable. I have tried and OWC T5, and an Anker T5, and neither of those cables will work with the display.

At $3200......this wasn't a great buy, sadly. I hope some fixes come about....

Having the same issue here, Studio Display XDR (variable refresh rate) + Mac mini m2 pro. Updating to the latest software available today Tahoe 26.3.1 and let's see if it gets fixed.

So sorry, I spoke too quickly.

The Pro model of the Mac mini M4 has Thunderbolt-5 ports, and should support that display very nicely with the short ThunderBolt-5 cable Apple ships with the display.

Studio Display XDR is compatible with the following Mac models with Apple silicon and macOS Tahoe 26.3.1 or later:

from:

https://www.apple.com/studio-display-xdr/specs/

I'm having exactly the same issue. Brand-new MBPM5Max connected to a brand-new XDR display, and I'm sitting here with it idle, watching it blackout and randomly go black for a second or so, then come back. It's really beyond annoying. I hope Apple has a quick fix for this.

I see some users on YouTube having similar issues. Looks like the display may need a firmware update in the future.

I installed the Firmware update for the XDR monitor, still having the problem.

<< a work issued Dell 5960 Laptop. >>

I could not find any descriptions of that model. Can you provide a searchable model-name or a link to tech specs?

Precision 5690 Workstation

Dell Precision 5690 Workstation with Windows 11 | Dell USA

(Apologies, I said 5960....it is 5690)