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Is MacMini (2012) capable of viewing 4K?

Hi,

If I connect my MacMini (2.6 Ghz, Intel Core i7) to a 4K monitor with thunderbolt/mdp... will I be able to play full screen video?
And whatabout to a 1.4 HDMI 4K TV Monitor? Not through the HDMI port but through the Thunderbolt/MDP with a good MDP--> HDMI converter?
I am asking this because you can start to find some "cheap" 4K monitors around but most of them (if not all) have only 1.4 HDMI.. but no MDP.

Mac mini (Late 2012), OS X Mavericks (10.9.1)

Posted on Dec 19, 2013 1:26 PM

29 replies

Jan 7, 2014 5:50 AM in response to DCGoD

Ok.. I understand... But when SwitchResX tells me 3840x2160, 60Hz and I actually see a 3840x2160 space in my monitor (as I said a standard 1080p monitor) what is it happening then.. At what resolution is my Mac working.. ?

Jan 7, 2014 11:43 AM in response to MarcelloM1973

Press the info button on the remote for your tv to see the input signal. It sounds like it's just creating a scaled desktop space. If you see anything on the screen then its exported at 1080p or less. The problem is a bus limitation so you will never see 3840x2160@60 on a mac mini regardless of an any adapters that may come out. With thunderbolt 2 and/or HDMI 2.0 that limitation wont be there so you'll see a lot more products that run 60hz @ 4k soon.

http://9to5mac.com/2013/12/23/new-retina-macbook-pros-can-drive-4k-displays-at-6 0hz-when-running-windows-mac-os-needs-new-drivers/

Jan 7, 2014 11:51 AM in response to MarcelloM1973

No such INFO button.. Monitor LG W2261V comes with single 1920 resolution output... so whatever I put is interpolated that res... as far as I understand... but what am I ouputting !? Is all very confusing...

Jan 7, 2014 1:57 PM in response to MarcelloM1973

Could this help in any way?
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1616
I downloaded it but although mine is a late 2012 Mac Mini it says this update is not for me.

Jan 7, 2014 2:05 PM in response to MarcelloM1973

Here http://forums.macrumors.com/archive/index.php/t-1644192.html user

Gillietalls on post 4 from the top says that he got it to work 4K with Seiki monitor (4k 30hz) OUT OF THE BOX just with the Accell B086B-008B-2.. what about this?

Jan 7, 2014 2:10 PM in response to MarcelloM1973

Post Date: Dec 10, 2012

I'm pretty sure everyone is already on 1.7

Jan 7, 2014 2:13 PM in response to MarcelloM1973

Read it again. It doesn't say he got a Mac Mini 2012 working out of the box @ 30hz. It states what I have been saying. You are limited to 17hz@3840x2160 in 10.9 with the Accel adapter due to the pixel clock limitation he also mentions in that same post.

The MacBook Pro does however work out of the box on 10.9 @ 30hz. (verified by me as well)

Feb 1, 2014 12:07 PM in response to MarcelloM1973

I am trying to make sense of all this.

Could it be that the ACCELL adaptor works fine but once it "transforms" the MDP to an 1.4 HDMI this is "seen" from the Apple MacMini as the native HDMI and so the apple drivers come into play limiting the Hz output in Mavericks?

If so... shouldn't we look for a PHISICAL MDP-->HDMI conversion.. some sort of box .. so the Apple will continuee to see a MDP port while actually we will be getting HDMI 1.4 ?!?!

Rudy-1

Level 1

0 points

Feb 16, 2014 11:57 AM in response to MarcelloM1973

I am running Mavericks on a late 2012 Mini (2.3 GHz Intel Core i7, 16 GB RAM, Intel HD Graphics 4000 1024 MB), so I was not expecting the pixel clock patch to work. I booted from an external drive running Mountain Lion 10.8.5, applied the pixel clock patch, and connected to the Seiki via the Accell Mini DisplayPort to HDMI active adapter. I can confirm that 3840 x 2160 @ 30Hz comes up as the default resolution, without using SwitchResX. Everything looks fine, with the exception of the menubar which is far too small (all other elements of the GUI can be altered as far as size is concerned). To get around that problem, I enabled 1920 x 1080 HiDPI mode; "About This Mac" reports the VRAM allocation as 768 MB under Mountain Lion.

I also tried running Windows 7 via Boot Camp, and had no problems and didn't need the adapter...the connection was solid with no artifacts via just the HDMI connector. Perhaps the HDMI firmware for the Minis is set for v1.0? 4K capability has been standard since v1.3, so Mavericks should theoreticaly allow 3840 x 2160 @ 30Hz output via HDMI on the latest Mac Mini.

Feb 22, 2014 2:40 AM in response to MMcCorkleRX30

This is why maveric was free 🙂

Nov 26, 2014 1:27 AM in response to Rudy-1

Think it would work on mine? It's a late-model 2011 with Core I5, 8GB RAM, and Yosemite. How did you apply the patch?

Nov 26, 2014 1:29 AM in response to Sergey Romanov

Anyone with Yosemite?

Dec 6, 2014 11:50 PM in response to MarcelloM1973

Im running Yosemite in my late 2012 mac mini (i7) and the max resolution I can get is 2560x1440 @60Hz on my Dell P2815q. Looks great though. Movies look nice and editing photos in Lightroom 5 is just awesome!

Al404

Level 1

8 points

Feb 17, 2015 2:45 PM in response to Ralph Quinones

do you mean that it is set as retina resolution?

Is MacMini (2012) capable of viewing 4K?