MBP retina 15'' with dell ultrasharp u2713hm

Yes you can use the Other TB port for whatever you like. But for those that have a standard MBP, Non retina, they only have ONE (1) TB port.

Shortly there will be other screens with TB pass through as Apple doesn't have exclusive rights to it anymore and some PCs are actually coming equiped with TB ports.

Hello Timeseeker,

Glad the info was useful. My MBP retina runs my Dell U3011 at full resolution using the cable I previously described. I haven't tried dual monitors and the basic DVI adapter offered by Apple is a single link. There is a dual link adapter available but it is about $100.

As far as using TB for disks and so on... if your MBP is like mine, it should have a USB 3.0 port. USB 3.0 runs at "theoretical" 5Gbs, TB runs at 10Gbs. Any storage relying on a mechanical disk will not come close to achieving those speeds.

I currently use a Crucial M4 SSD in an external USB 3.0 enclosure. Both Read and Write speeds are well over 200MB/s. the apple SSD internal memory runs at over 400MB/s. I haven't used mechanicals in a while but the best I ever did was about 125 MB/s with 10000 rpm drives.

My view is you can get a lot of performance for your money by using USB 3.0 and SSDs instead of spending the money on TB peripherals that use mechanical devices.

Shootist007 is right about TB becoming more available on PCs. Intel has released several chipsets with the TB technology and the high end Motherboard makers are releasing motherboards incorporating TB.

One last note, a TB computer like the MBP retina seems to work well with Display Port monitors. However, TB monitors do not seem to work with non TB computers. I know my wife's Older (2009) MacBook Air will not work with the TB display. I tried it.

Patrickfromhuntington - Well said!

In summary I feel I just made a lousy investment into two Dell U2713H monitors ($1,700 with a discount). The hoops you have to jump through to connect a Mac to these monitors is just not worth the effort, if Apple is your primary product stick with Apple monitors, unless you like large cords, special exceptions, the inability to use window drivers etc... In short it is a pain in the butt.

I purchased the two Dell monitors because I wanted to have a dual platform (PC / Mac both with dual monitors, also trying to ride off DP 1.2 technology). In addition, I got sick of waiting for Apple to update their thick TB monitors. I regret the move and wish I would have waited a couple more months. In two years all these capability issues will go away and merger into more seamless plug-and-play. However, in the meantime who wants to utilize their Mac mini DP for an external Dual DVI connection, give me a break.

Really stinks.

My mistake, you are correct, I got the MDP to DP to show full resolution today after rebooting. I feel much better about the purchase now.

OK, so I got me one of these as a setup. 15" Macbook Pro with Retina, Dell 27 Ultrasharp etc.

Screen looks like crap. Can't get it to display native resolution, out of DVI it wont scale up to native, out of DP-mDP it scales to the right res, but it looks like rubbish (high jpeg compression). I plug in a 13" and it looks great (cause the retina on the 13 is the same res as the 27Dell). My friend plugs in his old 17" non retina and it runs at native res. I'm stumped - do I need one of those $99 duel link DVi connectors....? surely not, cause the card in the laptop can output much more than the 27 native res, so what the **** is going on here....?

Bugger, cause that is what I am using. Mini display port out of the MBP 15 and display port into the Dell, using the supplied cable. Ok, sounds like something is faulty. Will try a different MBP15 and see what happens. Are all cables the same......

I have MBP Retina 15" connected to Dell U2713H and at first it did not look good at all, especially, the text was fuzzy. For a second I thought I had done a bad deal.

I first started out with a HDMI cable that I quickly found out only gives 1080 res.

Then the Display Port to Mini display port that came with the screen.

Still no result. Probably, it would work with the settings below but I haven't tried it.

After that I bought a Mini display port to mini display port cable (11€). Still no result.

But I left the cable MDP-MDP and started playing around with the settings and now it looks rather decent:

Sharpness: 0

Preset Mode: Color Space => CAL1

Brightness: 50

Contrast: 50

Input Color Format: YPbPr

Gamma: MAC

And now images, videos and text looks great!

Color Preferences in MAC: Dell U2713H (LCD Color looks ok too but I prefer Dell).

I hope it works for the rest. Good luck!.

I've had the Dell U2713HM for several years now and it has worked great with my MacBook Pro 2010 and MacBook Air 2012 using a displayport to mini dp cable.

I recently got a early 2015 MacBook Pro 13 Retina and can't get it to work. Everytime I plug the cable to Thunderbolt the OS detects the external display but nothing happens on the screen and it goes into power save mode. I've tried both the ports, changed the resolution, rebooting and starting the Mac with the display plugged in. HDMI works great (limited to 1080p though).

Any ideas?

I'm having exactly the same issue. Can anyone help?

Yep, I'm still having this problem. 10.10.4 update didn't fix this.

TimeSeeker,

System Preferences>Displays and verify that your rMBP says "Default for Display" and that the window for the U2713HM says "Default for Display".

To verify that your monitor is sitting at the correct resolution and refresh rate, push one of the side buttons on the monitor and then push the button that has the word "Menu" beside in the On Screen Display (OSD). You should then see a list of various menu items and at the very bottom of the OSD, it will list out the resolution and refresh rate of the display (2560x1440@60hz). If you don't see that resolution there, note what it is and post it to the forum.

Hope that helps.