Blurry Text On Dell UltraSharp U3014

Boy howdy you are the man! I just got a couple of Ultrasharp 27I13H monitors (as opposed to HM) and I was horrified at the terrible quality of the text. Turns out they had the text sharpening cranked up to 50 percent. Switched that to zero and now I have two absolutely gorgeous monitors to work on for the next several years! (On my new Mac Pro, these make my work life better!)

Just wanted to follow up on this post. I have a Dell U3014 arriving today for my Mac Pro (early 2009) running 10.9.2. Has this issues been resolved now we're in April 2014?

No - this is still a problem with all of our new Macbooks and Dell U3014 and U2713 monitors. Use the force-RGB EDID script to get everything correct.

The older Dell 3011 and U2711 are fine.

I'm having the same problems with my Macbook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Early 2013) and a DELL U3014.

The Ruby script with the EDID patch worked for a while under Mac OS X 10.9.1 and 10.9.2, but when I updated to 10.9.3, the blurry text problems returned.

I also find that I can only plug the cable into the Thunderbolt port closest to the power connector to get the proper resolution (with blurry text), the Thunderbolt port next to the USB cable switches the display to a very low resolution TV mode (with extremely blurry text that looks interlaced and stretched badly).

Sometimes if I bump the DisplayPort cable, it switches to a low resolution with stretching and causes me to unplug and replug several times before it fixes itself again.

It's a very frustrating experience... I never have this problem with my 27" Apple Cinema Display with MiniDisplayPort (non-Thunderbolt version) with this same Macbook Pro.

It feels like Apple is purposely sabbotaging competitors' displays — I can't believe after 3 iterations of Mavericks, this problem still exists.

Actually, what happened is Apple fixed the problem. This happened at work where we have a bunch of Dell Ultrasharps. Things were overshapened badly when we attached them at first. But by turning off any sharpening at all with the monitor, the monitor was perfect. But when Apple issued 10.9.3, they got rid of the bug that was oversharpening the display. So when the monitor was set to compensate for oversharpening up to and including 10.9.2, now it will appear fuzzy with 10.9.3. Go into the monitor's settings and set the sharpening level to 50 percent and see how that looks. Then tweak it until it's perfect. I couldn't be happier with my Dells now. But it was a repeatable thing with everyone upgrading to 10.9.3 in my office.

What happened was Apple improved support for higher resolution displays. And with the fix, any compensation you did before is now making it fuzzy. Just set it back to the factory setting for sharpening and you'll be good. (At least that's my best guess!) 😉

Message was edited by: Eric Welch1

Thanks Eric.

It looks better with Display Settings > Sharpness changed back to 50 (instead of 0 used previously); however, my DELL U3014 is still being recognized as a TV.

Did you try clicking "Best For Display? For some reason it's not seeing the correct resolution it seems. How is it connected to your Mac?

The Mac sets many Driver Parameters based on the capabilities reported by the display. This has worked for decades, and continues to work.

This display reports it is a TV set, so Apple sends a signal for a TV set. The ruby script convinces the Mac to send an RGB signal instead, which is NOT what this particular Dell Display says it is capable of.

I do not see this as Apple's fault, and in particular, Apple is NOT trying to rope you into using their displays -- they are supporting all reasonable displays that accurately report their capabilities.

Users are reporting that Apple has even made changes to their latest software to work-around models like this Dell that tell lies about their capabilities.

The conspiracy theory is more enticing, but it is not accurate.

SO guys is this problem is solved already?! i am lokking for this monitor, because Apple does not want to make 30inch monitors and with mate screen?!!!

I have received a replay in other thread that this problem is solved by Apple.

I'm also having the same problem (running the latest version of Yosemite).

Ran the script and things seem a BIT better but still not perfect. Does seem to be running in RGB mode (it says it is at least) and when I change the resolution from "best for displayed" it's showing actual resolutions, rather than 1080p like it did before. Still though, it's not perfect. It's especially noticeable in Final Cut Pro X where text is insanely blurry.

I'm using the DP to MiniDP cable that shipped with the monitor.

Apple sets that color space based on what capabilities the display says it can provide.

The problem is caused by the display telling lies, that Apple does not fix automatically.

Don't blame Apple for this one!

Oh, I'm not blaming Apple, I'm just hoping there's an actual working solution out there...

Posts later in this large thread claim that Apple HAS fixed this problem in a later version of Mac OS X (10.9.3). If you are using that and set the default sharpening back to the default (50), it should look OK, according to a post below.