How to get 1920x1080 Resolution on early 2011 Macbook Pro, with Viewsonic 24inch...

I have the exact same problem. Using the Viewsonic as a peripheral monitor on a new iMac. I had been using the monitor on a PC and it's a decent screen but when I connect it to the iMac there's a huge drop in quality. Fonts look blurry and overall image quality is poor.

Would be greatful if someone knows a fix for this problem.

Did you ever get this figured out? I am considering purchasing this monitor. From what I can tell, it may work better if you do not use the HDMI cable, but instead go with the VGA input.

Thanks,

Boris

What speed is your MBP?

When I was configuring my Oct'11 MBP, I ended choosing the 2.4GHz model cause it came with the AMD Radeon HD 6770M GPU and 1GB VRAM, whereas the smaller 2.2GHz option only had 512MB VRAM. This may impose a limit on how large the screen resolution can get.

Early 2011, with the 2.2 processor. I never planned on needing extra graphics capability.

Thanks,

Boris

See

http://mac.bigresource.com/Hardware-Mini-Display-Port-NOT-working-at-resolutions -over-1600X1200--G5rVJl3Wm.html#Ae8cBkplo

Apple doesn't "do" 1920x1080 with non-Apple Studio monitors. It's bait & switch, a fraud, immoral, unacceptable. A Mac lover & evangilist for 20 years, I'm now likely to never buy another. I bought a new Asus monitor today, just to discover my MacBook Pro won't talk to it because Apple made their computer compatible with only overpriced Apple Studio monitors, not the leading brands.

MacSupport101: Your post is completely incorrect. There are countless MBP users enjoying 1920 x 1080 resolution on a wide variety of third-party monitors and TV sets.

I have the same problem as well. I bought a new Viewsonic 24" monitor to connect to my MacBook Pro 2.53ghz

and Viewsonic suggests to select 1920 x 1080 res but that choice is not avaiable in system preferences. I sure would like to find the solution to this problem. Help!

Prizer, a solution is SwitchResX 4.2.7, $18-23. I'm using it now. It works better if your monitor connection is DVI. I use VGA through a KVM (don't ask), which I got to work after a series of playing with detailed settings (and rebooting for each change). If you use VGA and want settings suggestions, just ask.

Eww, I got my i5 MacBook Pro to do 1920x1080 on non-Apple-Studio monitors only by adding SwitchResX software. How are other MBP users getting 1920x1080 when OSX doesn't display it as an option, and Apple says it's not supported?

The problem (or discovery) seems common -- it's on a lot of blogs / discussion lists, including this one, so the answer could help a lot of us. This isn't limited to MBPs -- it applies to at least some other Macs, too, such as my G4 Mini.

Thank you so much for your help and expertise.

Where does Apple say it's not supported? Please provide a link.

Eww, I gather by your reply that perhaps posts like these aren't completely incorrect. The on-line Apple info I've found isn't definite -- it makes claims about resolution regarding each Mac, and Intel makes claims about resolution about their video hardware in Macs, but it's hard to find Apple claim a resolution works on monitors other than its own Studio series.

Here's a blog/thread is similar to this one, with alternate information: http://forums.appleinsider.com/showthread.php?t=97347

After buying the Asus monitor from MicroCenter, their tech support folks dug into the issue and concluded that OSX on a MacBook Pro i5 won't push more than 1600x1200 externally to other than an Apple Studio monitor. I asked Apple techs in an Apple store, who told me the same thing. They offered to sell me a 27" display for $999. That's too big for my purposes, and geeze, that was the price of the MBP. At $190, I paid a bit extra to get an Asus LED instead of a cheaper brand or a fluorescent backlight.

Then I found SwitchResX 4, which isn't exactly plug-and-play, but it's a lot better than the cost and hassle involved in returning the monitor. And I'd hate to go back to a 4x3 monitor -- I love the wide screen.

Perhaps some non-Apple Studio monitors will allow 1920x1080 natively from a MacBook Pro, but apparently many do not. At least there's an inexpensive software option for those that don't.

MBPs have supported 1920 x 1080 on a huge variety of third-party monitors and TVs since the first MBP was introduced in 2006, and before then many Powerbook G4 models did too. I have one from September 2003 that supports 1920 x 1080 on my Samsung LED TV. So does my late-2008 MBP. Do you think it's likely that Apple dropped that support in 2011? Can you think of any plausible reason for Apple to do that?

Maybe it has something to do with the Thunderbolt-to-VGA or -DVI adapters. I was miffed at first, but since there's a cheap aftermarket fix, I'm going to let it go. I'm not about to switch to Windows over that :-).

To support a particular resolution easily, a display device does not have to be Apple Brand. It has to be communicating with the Mac on the Industry-standard display side-channel, the DDC, that allows the Mac to know the display's NAME and the resolutions of which it is capable. If you are successfully communicating with a display that supports DDC, you will see the display's name appear in:

About This Mac > ( More Info ) > Graphics/Displays ...

... below the info for the display card itself. Displays that do not provide their Make & Model, such as "VGA Display", or just "Display" are not likely to be providing their proper resolutions either. Without the Mac knowing the acceptable resolutions, the screen stays dark to avoid damaging your display.

But this is NOT a deficiency in the Mac OS or the Mac Hardware. You are trying to hook up a display that is inadequate, and the only way you can do this requires a Hack. This is when a third party utility like SwitchResX can be used to specify the resolution desired.

Another issue is that hooking up DVI displays wider than 1920 wide requires the very expensive Dual Link adapter. There is simply not enough bandwidth in single-link DVI to support wider displays.

Hooking up displays is complex, and many users fail at it. Just like you, they blame Apple for their failures.

I solved the issue using the following steps

1) Open the monitor settings pressing the button 1 on the lower right bar of the monitor

2) Go to "input select" menu

3) In input select, by default HDMI AV would be set, set it to PC by using the up and down arrow

4) Now set the resolution to 1080 dpi

5) Restart the system

Mac Pro (Early 2009), Mac OS X (10.7) Mozilla Firefox Canon DSLR gear and lenses.

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Nandish