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

johnniecache wrote:

the "scaled resolution" is not a solution to this problem! It would be insane to buy a 4k display and run it in 1080p scaled mode.

The only possibility would be to force the "Retina Display Setting", which has a larger (not scaled!) GUI. Maybe this is possible through an EDID hack.

i did mean HiDPi Modes, these are also (kind of) scaled. Example:

HiDPi on 2560x1440@3860x2160 means:

rendering on 5180x2880 (@2x) and downscaling to 3860x2160

jksdfjk wrote:

Everything i found was about an nvidia equipped 15" macbook.

According to Intels Reference Guide linked above, 4k@60 Hz is only available on the Iris Pro 5200, that is only available in i7 quad-core models. Macbook Pro 13" hast Intel Iris 5100 Graphics.

Fair enough. But another forumite, johnniecache, says he is "pretty sure that somebody already had a 13" Iris Standard Retina MBP running 4k@60Hz", hence this might be true despite the specs sheet.

I would still see this as a driver optimization issue and not a lack of GPU horsepower: if a laptop can drive two external 2,560 x 1,440 monitors at 60Hz, then it has the horsepower to drive a single external 4,096 x 2,160 monitor at 60 Hz.

Khaos Tian has confirmed that "rMBP feels much smoother on 13D17 than 13D12. However, it seems there are some rendering issues https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/o33ixa78k7hdhzd/screen-shot-2014-03-14-at-11 -04-53-am-2-.png"

So it seems it is getting better and will be totally usable when the final build of 10.9.3 is released, at least for high-end 15'' Haswell rMBP owners with 750M gpu. Still no news regarding or feedback from Iris and Iris Pro owners on 4k @ 60 Hz capability.

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: 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.

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?

Hey Kogir, if it's possible please try 10.9.2 beta 🙂 Thanks!

Kogir: Try out the 10.9.2 beta. It is reported to include some graphics drivers.

Hi Folks

This is me using a 4K TV (Hisense 50") connected to a clamshelled rMBP (late2013) with a 2560*1440 Resolution. Works like a charm, but the 30 Hz bug me. A lot. The mouse-lag is (even when using smoothmouse) not funny.

I'm wondering if Apple will change anything about that when the Mac Pro comes out. At least smoothers mouse-movement would be essential...

The resolution was achieved with the tool RDM (http://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/vi9yf/set_your_retina_macbook_pros_resolu tion_to).

Cheers and enjoy :-)

If the GPU is already supporting 4K output, albeit at 30fps, then it seems like the only thing that could hold it back from 60fps output is whatever the physical max output signal rate it implements. So if it can do 2,560x1,600 @ 120 Hz, then there's no reason it can't do 3,840 x 2,400 @ 60 Hz.

But that's an excellent point, as that's the biggest unknown. I have no doubt people will come out with Thunderbolt to HDMI 2.0 adapters. And it seems like most 4K television makers in 2014 are coming out with TVs that also have Displayport in, so no adapter would be needed.

So it seems like what we really need is a list of GPUs capable of outputting 4K@60Hz.

I can't say for sure, but I think the Nvidia driver detects the two virtual monitors presented by the PQ321Q and presents them as a single display to Windows. So it shouldn't require any special support from the OS. As long as you can install the latest Nvidia driver, I'd expect it to work.

If Intel and Nvidia did not make necessary drivers available for Windows, they could easily claim that their cards do not support 4k @60Hz at all. But since they made them available for Windows, IMO they have proved that this is also "doable/feasible" for Mavericks. Hence they do not have any excuse.

As a matter of fact I cannot help but wonder why one earth they do not release the drivers for Mac OS?

NiqueXyZ: Perhaps you may elobarate on your statement "in the case of the GTX 680, I know for sure it's because NVidia doesn't want to enable MST on OS X"? It seems you know the details and perhaps the reason(s) beyond why NVidia doesn't want it?

as far as I can tell, the Dell P2815Q acts the same when connected by hdmi or mini displayport. 30Hz.

The Dell has list price of $699, but can be found on the web for less. I got my at little bit before Feb 1.

It's a shame that Apple still does not support 60hz on 4k with the macbook pro 15 late 2013... I planning to buy the high end 15 inch, but this is a killer criteria.

I did a "feature request" on the Apple page and I would suggest you do this also.