Retina Display MacBook Pro eye problem and strain

My recent history with retina displays is very sad, i work mostly on a CAD software i moved from a iMac 27" 2011 to a iMac 2016 27" so instead of doing zooms the resolution is so good you just focus harder on screen or get closer to the screen and the results for me was terrible after 3 months i started to se a filter in de right eye and my diagnostic was Central Serous Retinopathy

my advice is NO filters ON screen because you force your eye to achieve more light just spend less time on computer, try not to use computer at night, or use it with a lamp, and scale monitor to default settings, do a check with your ophthalmologist for using lenses on screens, i think apple missed these advices before and should advice before turning on retina displays.

Mikedave9 wrote:

Done. The specialist conclusion is what we all are taking about here. We have spent thousands of dollars in a computer that needs to get the resolution adjusted to lower, dim the brightness, and use a blue light filter and a anti glare filter..... I've lost close sight, and suffer astigmatism, after 4 months using my new laptop, as video editor....... Before that I used other machines, for years, never had any problem, perfect sight...... I can tell you, this issue is gonna escalate until Apple and other brands will face the consequences....

I like the retina display and it has not affected my eyes. I will be disappointed if Apple changes this display based on some user's who likely have underlying eye issues.

I suggest if your eyes are affected and you are concerned that it is Apple who is causing this that you find a different product to use. It is like the old Saturday Night Live routine where one performer says it hurts every time he pokes himself in the eye. The other performer then advises that the answer to his eye discomfort is to stop poking himself in the eye.

I like hot sauce but every time I use it my stomach gets irritated. So should I sue the hot sauce manufacturer to force him to change his hot sauce formula or should I go to a different product that is less irritating? I think the answer for me would be to find a more compatible sauce.

Most of thr people like Retina display, even I do, but that does not cancel reality. The critic here means to be positive, to find a solution, no to insult Apple. In other hand, based on my research, most of the people who does not have issues with the new displays, are already using glass, or have eyes issues since long ago, so is difficult to make statistics, time to time...... As I said, this will have consequences.

I just started searching for anyone else who might be having eye-burning/redness when working on their 2017 iMac (Retina 5K, AMD Radeon R9 M390 2048 MB). <------I included the 2nd part because of the word "radeon" (who knows).

I started having EXTREME eye problems over a year ago, I'm pathologically myopic & was diagnosed with Degenerative Myopia (which is not the same as Macular Degeneration which comes with age). I have lost vision, dead-center, in my left eye. Good times. Anyway, about 6 months ago my company bought me a new Mac—I'm a graphic designer/artist & have been using Macs since the late 80s. We've been using iMacs, updating every few years, for over a decade.

Note: I have always used desktops, never laps.

Since I set it up, this Mac's been randomly "hissing" for about 20 seconds total—starts low & then builds up to a loud hiss for several seconds before lowering in sound & disappearing. It's random—does not do it for days/weeks at a time & then one day it starts hissing about every 2 hours, randomly again. I've just tilted my head (the **** you doing?) at it & kept working.

Last week it hissed a few times, I cannot remember if I'd restarted or not (it's VERY likely I did because we have serious server issues from time to time). My left eye started burning, burned all day, I used antibiotic drops because now I'm freaky about my eyeballs, went home & it got better. The next day my right eye started burning. What the ****, man.

Saturday/Sunday: perfect. Nor burning or red eyes. I worked on my 2011 iMac & didn't have a problem.

Got to office this morning & within 30 minutes right eye has started burning again.

Ideas?

Sigh...

I was not asking for an eye diagnosis—I am asking if anyone using this 2017 iMac desktop has experienced similar eye burning issues (since this thread has been going on for a few years). If so, then I know that it might be the computer rather than my lovely eyes.

Thank you for the constructive criticism & assumption that I haven't got all the eyeball-related bases covered. Based upon the earlier, recent diagnosis I mentioned, I guess it's highly possible that I didn't see an eye specialist from the age of 5 until 53. Have you mentioned this to the previous 6 pages of (quite a few) similar questions or have you been saving this one just for me?

Hopefully others might have something to say about the display on this particular model, but if not, I'll do a little research elsewhere. Since it's an old thread I seem to be stuck with you. Hmm.

Thanks for your....time. :-)

cutterbump wrote:

Thank you for the constructive criticism & assumption that I haven't got all the eyeball-related bases covered. Based upon the earlier, recent diagnosis I mentioned, I guess it's highly possible that I didn't see an eye specialist from the age of 5 until 53. Have you mentioned this to the previous 6 pages of (quite a few) similar questions or have you been saving this one just for me?

Hopefully others might have something to say about the display on this particular model, but if not, I'll do a little research elsewhere. Since it's an old thread I seem to be stuck with you. Hmm.

Thanks for your....time. :-)

Or don't consult a doctor. The choice is yours. I sometimes suffer from burning eyes after some time on the computer but it is not Apple's fault. My eyes get sore for all the reasons above. I consulted a doctor and now have an eyeglass prescription for computer tasks. My eyes are much better now but still burn if I spend a long time staring at the display or there is smoke/dust in the air, I;m tired, etc.

I can confirm that f.flux helps a lot and the result is visible in minutes. I always had calibrated display (working with Photoshop) but I also use Macbook Pro 2015 Retina for reading and writing. In one year my eyes got worse and I had to get eyeglasses. Today my eyes heart a lot after a long work. I found this thread, installed f.flux and... And felt that I can look to the screen without problems. Eyes are still tired but they do not heart at once when I look to the screen.

So, if you have a problem with your eyes and Retina display, try f.flux.

My 2013 MBP came with the "half scaled" 1400x900 (half of 2800x1800) and I never knew the difference. I just got a 2017 variety and couldn't figure out why my eyes burned if I looked at the screen. I have two external monitors so it wasn't too bad at first, but working without the monitors was terrible.

I then noticed that my wallpaper was weird and started looking into the resolution. The "native/default" resolution of the 2017 MBP is 1680 x 1050 (aka terrible) which means that instead of 1 pixel being represented by exactly 4, there is some sort of messy cludge going on to get a bit more screen real estate. Once I changed back to 1400x900 the eye strain is gone.

TLDR; default resolution is terrible.

If I need more real estate I may look for something to force native 2800x1800 and then increase font sizes all around, but this would be troublesome and generally I just get an external monitor when I need to do much work though.

Same here, I bought a MacBook Pro retina 15'' mid-2015, I found I couldn't easily focus on the screen, and have dry eye, red eye issues. I changed the display settings:

I changed the color to "ColorMatch RGB",

I changed the resolution down to 1280*800,

And reduced the brightness.

These settings helped to reduce the focusing issue a little, however, it couldn't fully solve the problem. I spent more than $2000 to buy this stuff. I regret buying it. I hope Apple could solve this issue by system upgrade to make the display much better for reading/daily using.

I find that I can look at LCD screens longer. This problem probably isn't unique to Retina screens but they most likely accentuate the problem since all Retina screens are LED screens on top of high in pixel density. To conclude my findings so far:

1. Lowering ambient light helps (especially by avoiding light sources directly in front of the screen that contribute to glare).

2. LCD screens help (Samsung Syncmaster S24C750P in my case).

3. Kindle Paperwhite helps. I can look at for four to five hours straight without eye fatigue.

4. Rest every hour for 10 minutes and do some eye exercises can delay the onset of fatigue by an hour or two.

I find that in my case eye strain is especially bad in the morning. This probably has to do with ambient light being too bright. For people with severe cases of eye strain I recommend a dual screen setup and set your external LCD screen as default and only use the Retina on you MBP when absolutely necessary. Try not to look at computer screens the first thing in the morning. Look outside for a good 30 minutes before turning on your computer.

I'm suffering from painful eyes whilst working on my MacBookPro 13" 2015 Retina. I have flux and night mode on but the problem for me is constant. I'm considering buying a monitor but not sure which type (LCD, AMOLED) to look for. I'm fed up of trying to be productive on my computer but failing due to eye pain.

What resolution are you using? If you go to your monitor settings and choose "scaled" you can pick the different sizes, it looks like native resolution is 2560-by-1600, can you choose 1280x800 if you aren't already using that? I found that the in-between resolutions cause heavy strain.

Yeh I’m using the default scaled. No difference. It’s pretty much all light I’m sensitive too but computer work is just too much. Even on my iPad Pro with Truetone I’m having difficulty concentrating.

Hi Ben,

I see lots of comments already, let me add a couple suggestions that I don't see in the responses.

1) Go into System Preferences > Displays and select the Night Shift tab. Create a custom schedule for all day and adjust the Color Temp as needed. Reason for this suggestion is that LED displays produce blue light which has been known to affect the brain and sleep. Maybe the blue light is causing your eye strain.

2) Many responses about needing reading glasses. Alternately you can also go into System Preferences > Displays and select the Display tab. Change Resolution to scaled and adjust for larger text.