Does the new Macbook Pro 15" (late 2013) supports 4K via Thunderbolt/Displayport?

jdiamond wrote:

Even now, with Intel's integrated graphics being OK, I'd be squeemish to risk a no-GPU system. Even on the laptop I carry around all the time.

What do you exactly mean with "squeamish" and overall? What kind of risk can happen? Do you think 4k 60Hz can burn an Iris or Iris Pro equipped rMBP or something?

Bad news.

MBP retina 13 inch haswell.

Enabled dp 1.2 on dell.

went to native resolution, it's at 30hz.

Like others have said, Iris isn't made to run this resolution. Chrome was laggy in rendering, might be a chrome thing.

Tried the 1920x1080 scaled resolution and that scaled resolution would break the display and the monitor would respond with no input source. Other scaled resolutions worked fine.

I'll probably be returning this.

Ok, I have had more time to play.

Apparently the graphical bugs was just with chrome. I have since disabled beamsync for now, it works really well. All other apps respond very quickly. Only Chrome needed beamsync disabled in order for it to work properly, I'm sure chrome will patch itself.

The only weird thing is still that 1920x1080p in the display settings, if I click it it doesn't work. So I'm forced to use the 2560 retina version, which works also very well. It's unfortunately 30hz, but from typing or moving around I don't really notice it all that much.

Overall, it's not bad. Works great as a monitor where I'm staring at text and coding, which is why I wanted to get this.

4k is definitely the future, wish my mbp was able to handle the screen. Hoping the engineers can figure out a way to make it work before final.

tomengland wrote:

Bad news.

MBP retina 13 inch haswell.

Enabled dp 1.2 on dell.

went to native resolution, it's at 30hz.

1) I believe you are getting 30Hz only at 4k, right?

2) Did you install beta 10.9.3 with the most recent Build 13D1710 before trying it?

3) Is Windows installed on your rMBP and did you try on Windows? Perhaps you may get 4k @ 60Hz on Windows. (If you tried, please let us know your Windows version. If not, please let us know if you are considering trying in the near future) Please note, even the high-end 15-inch owners with the Nvidia 750M could get 4k @ 60Hz only via Windows until 2 weeks ago or so, i.e. the release of the aforementioned beta.

@tomengland: Did you configure the MST? This must be done in the DELL's display settings! DP 1.2 regular 4k through HBR2 is definitely not working yet, although this may change at some point as well.

I still find it hard to believe that Multi-stream Transport is not possible, because 2 individual displays 2560x1600 will work at 60Hz.

What's going on??

johnniecache has asked the following question to tomengland but it is not available in the thread:

"Did you configure the MST? This must be done in the DELL's display settings! DP 1.2 regular 4k through HBR2 is definitely not working yet, but this may change at some point as well.

I really find it hard to believe that Multi-stream Transport is not possible, because 2 individual displays 2560x1600 will work at 60Hz."

1) Correct, 4k at 30hz confirmed via Dell OSD.

2) Correct, ID17 10.9.3

3) I do not have Windows 7 via bootcamp, sorry I can't help here.

4) Yes, I had to enable DisplayPort 1.2. Weird, it worked when I plugged it in but MST wasn't enabled. So I went through the OSD to DisplayPort and enabled it. The screen flickered and turned back on, checking the settings it says enabled. So it must recognize the MST / HBR2 setting because that's what is feeding through display port.

I'm still hoping that it's enabled prior to the final release of 10.9.3.

tomengland wrote:

I do not have Windows 7 via bootcamp, sorry I can't help here.

I wish you could try this because if you can get 4k @60Hz on Windows (definetely 8 but perhaps 7 as well), then this would prove that Iris is capable of 4k @60Hz. In that case we can accordingly conclude that 4k@60Hz capability must also be available on Mavericks, though whether Apple would update its driver or not is another matter.

So the problem is 4k 60Hz capability for Iris has not been proved yet. The straightforward way to test this is running Windows via bootcamp. Once this capability is proved, 13'' owners can rant to Apple (like 15-inch 750M owners) by saying "how come something available on Windows is not available on Mavericks!?". But they cannot do it at this point.

Are you considering obtaining Windows from a friend or something?

Unfortunately, I am not. However I did update to latest beta released today and 1080p does work now on my dell along with fixes to chrome or the beamsync application, it runs without me having to manually turn off beamsync.

1080p retina scaled is very very nice. It definitely feels like a retina screen now. 30hz isn't really noticeable at all, of course if you're planning to play games don't get it. colors are great, etc etc.

Ty Apple!

The last thing we need is 4k 60hz for Iris! You can do it Apple! haha

For those on 4k, the latest Chrome Beta fixes all issues.

http://www.inertramblings.com/2014/03/13/is-google-chrome-running-obscenely-slow -on-your-obscenely-expensive-mac-pro-or-retina-macbook-pro-with-4k-or-uhd-monito r-fear-not/

tomengland: I may ship a Windows 7 copy to you to install. Would you like that?

On a closely related note, I've noticed a growing interest among people with 2012 rMBPs to be able to output 4K@30Hz, but technical details on the Displayport in those models are conflicting. I wondered if anyone had a 650M laptop who could confirm or deny 4K ability?

The 2012 rMBP I had was able to drive the monitor at 3820x2160@30Hz no problem. The lack of 60Hz support is what caused me to sell it. While hard to find all the details, the Intel Thunderbolt controller in it cannot and will never support DisplayPort 1.2.

Very Important Update:

Someone shared the outcomes he got on the late 2013 (Haswell) high-end 15'' rMBP with Nvidia 750M and 13'' rMBP -as well as early 2013 rMBP with Nvidia 650M for those interested-, both on Mavericks (latest 10.9.3 beta Build 13D33) and Windows 8.1.

See the below link:

http://rene.rebe.de/2014-01-27/dell-ultrasharp-24-4k-up2414q-on-mac/

There you will see that while he can get 4k @ 60Hz on both Haswell rMBPs, there are 2 differences: 1) only the high-end late 2013 (Haswell) 15'' rMBP with Nvidia 750M can output 4k @ 60Hz on Mavericks; and 2) while both can output 4k @ 60Hz on bootcamp, for the Iris model he states "Bootcamp - shows the monitor as 2 monitors running in portrait. Other than this, it works @ 60hz".

Quite frankly I could not be sure what this means and whether this affects the final outcome. I posted a question in this regard but it has been awaiting moderation for a while, hence I wanted to get your opinion on his statement. Do you think Windows 8 mistakenly recognize the only monitor as if there are 2 monitors? Do you think, in the end, both Haswell rMBPs render the same thing on the sole monitor? If the answer is positive, then I don't care how many monitors are recognized by Windows.

PS1. You will also see that the original poster/website host Rene states that he could get 4k @ 60Hz on Surface Pro 2, which is equipped with Intel HD 4400, which is inferior both to Iris and Iris Pro. Hence I would assume both cards and therefore all current Haswell rMBPs must be capable of 4k @ 60Hz.

PS2. If Iris and Iris Pro are capable of 4k @ 60Hz and if 10.9.3 becomes final as is, then the only reason why Apple does not include such capability in Mavericks would be, IMO, to intentionally force customers to buy the high-end and most expensive Haswell rMBP.

thanks for posting!

At this point I am almost surprised that the 13" MBP can handle 4k @60Hz, although it made sense to me from the very beginning, since it can also drive two external 2k displays at 60Hz. Which is basically the same thing as MST.

Also i dont understand why apple doesnt put a nice display out there and let as many MBP owners as possible benefit from this?

I own a 13" and really want one of them 4k displays. 30Hz is not an option.

> if 10.9.3 becomes final as is, then the only reason why Apple does not include such capability in Mavericks would be, IMO, to intentionally force customers to buy the high-end and most expensive Haswell rMBP.

We all thought Apple would not support 4k@60Hz on the 2013 rMBP at all, because they wanted to save that as the selling point for the 2014 retina Macbook Pro*, yet they've already managed to enable it for the highest end Mac buyers. As discussed, it'd be pretty bad politics to first enable it on the lowest end Macs.

At this point, I'm willing to give Apple the benefit of the doubt: Creating MST drivers is very hard - it took the GPU companies an average of 2 years to pull it off on their own (i.e. Windows 8) platforms, with Intel taking the longest. First Apple got AMD/ATI drivers working. Now they've got NVIDIA drivers working about 6 months later. Hopefully at some point they'll get Intel HD drivers working. And maybe that's why they haven't released a 4K Apple Monitor yet.

* Or maybe they no longer need to delay this feature because everyone will upgrade just to get USB 3.1 ports. 🙂