MBP Retina bad display on external Dell display

I am not sure what you mean by trying to force the external display to recalibrate. I did calibrate using Display Preferences in OSX. Yes, I have a 1 month old retina 15'. It has two thunderbold ports, I am using HDMI to connect to my external monitor.

Main problem is that the fonts don't look as sharp as on Windows.

Every external monitor has a menu that is seperate from the computer running the display. On this menu is an auto-calibration option, which starts a process where the monitor itself will look for the clearest possible solution. This could fix things in some cases.

In other cases, I have heard several scenarios where the display was blurry when using the thunderbolt port next to the charging outlet, but then when plugged into the thunderbolt port on the opposite side of the laptop, the picture was clear (or atleast more clear than before)

Finally, there have been trouble with using two displays that are not the exact same resolution. For example, using using an external monitor with a resolution of 1920×1080,and plugging that monitor into a MBPr with a native resolution of 2880x1800. This would also cause many problems, as one display or the other will always be blurry.

ComputerFixer wrote:

Finally, there have been trouble with using two displays that are not the exact same resolution. For example, using using an external monitor with a resolution of1920×1080,and plugging that monitor into a MBPr with a native resolution of 2880x1800. This would also cause many problems, as one display or the other will always be blurry.

That would be relevant in mirroring mode. The original poster said "I am using extended display mode, with the external display set to 'best for Display'."

tradinghumble, are you using extended desktop mode or mirroring?

I am using an external monitor Dell U2312HM ( IPS, 2000000:1, DVI ) in clamshell mode, resolution set to 1920x1080 (in Displays).

What's really strange is that I get a crispy image even when I run Windows on VMWare Fusion VM see below.

I have tried mirroring, extended, they are all the same.

, see attache

Surprised to hear that mirroring and extended are the same, but I see what you mean in the attachment. Is that a photo by another device or a screen shot by the Mac?

THis is a screenshot from the Mac.

tradinghumble wrote:

THis is a screenshot from the Mac.

That pretty much removes the external screen's own settings from the equation. Interesting.

I have the same problem with a rMBP and an HPZR24w. The monitor is fine with the rMBP in Windows 7 in bootcamp, which strongly suggests it is an OSX graphics driver problem, for me at least.

Yes, same here -- APPLE, IS ANYONE LISTENING?????

It's a shame, my monitor works beautifully with WIndows but has a miserable image with a brand new Retina Laptop which costs 3x more my crappy Windows computer ...

Took it to two different Geniuses and no answer... shame.

I have the same problem. I have a new 15" retina MacBook Pro and 2 great HP w2207 monitors. I have used these as external displays with my old 13" MacBook and they are fantastic. Sharp fonts and great color.

With the newest retina MacBook Pro, the colors are washed out and the fonts are fuzzy, blurry. The display is unacceptable.

It appears that Mountain Lion was released before Apple could include the latest driver files for third party monitors. As a result, I have a rMBP that is useless to me.

I have wasted countless hours over nearly 2 weeks trying to fix this problem. Apple's suggestions have included buying SwitchResX ($20). No thank you. It's Apple's problem. Apple needs to fix it. They also suggested I use another external display. What?!?! I should buy another monitor?! I don't think so.

I chose the third option. I returned the rMBP. I may look at it again after they fix the problem. If I haven't bought a different laptop in the meantime.

Has anyone here tried SwitchRes X to see if that fixed anything? it seems to always fix my external display problems.

Download: http://www.madrau.com/download/latest/latest.html

Computerfixer, I have not tried this but I am pretty sure OSX is recognizing my monitor's resolution (it suggests it) when I click on Scaled Resolution while clicking Option... no sure it's the problem here.

I downloaded the trial version of SwitchResX. It didn't fix the problem. The external displays were still a mess. It's possible that I didn't have the settings right in SwitchResX. The app is not very intuitive and the manual reads like a poor translation.

Either way, I wasn't going to rely on some third-party application to remedy a deficiency in Apple's OS.

It still might work as it provides MANY different variables to edit. Ive had a problem in the past where the external display was properly detected, but had a yellow stripe down the left side of the screen. SwitchRes X still solved the problem. its worth a shot.

I just tried it for my HP ZR24w and it didn't help. Like tradingrumble, my rMBP is properly detecting and displaying the monitor's native resolution and, while I tinkered with it, I can't see any settings in SwitchResX that will help with the font problem.