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MST Support for MacBook Pro Retina Late 2013 - DisplayPort 1.2 - Will it ever happen? (with sources)

So back in October, I purchased a brand new Macbook Pro Retina (MBPr), fully loaded with top of the line specs. I was soooo excited to have Thunderbolt 2 tech which Intel AND Apple describes as having DisplayPort 1.2a compatibility - which up to this point is unfortunately NOT the case. The point of the information/questions and requests in this article is to engage a conversation about the issues of not having MST support after Apple falsely mislead their consumers to think otherwise - especially when it is clear the MBPr is capable. Please read on...


Apple advertises that the Thunderbolt 2 ports on BOTH the MBPr and the new Mac Pro (NMP) will have 4K Display support with the famed 20gb/sec Ports (DisplayPort 1.2 only requires a little above 17gb/sec). Now that the 10.9.1 update has been released, we have failed to see MST or Multi-Stream Transport enabled on the MBPr Late 2013. Now, as for the New Mac Pro- it DOES have MST enabled in 10.9.1 with the AMD GPUs. For all of you out there that's questioning what this means, short answer is basically the Mac Pro will be able to power a 4K Monitor at 60Hz through the Thunderbolt 2 Port but the New MBPr is stuck with only HDMI 1.4 support which tops out at 4K 30Hz. 30Hz is unacceptable for anything but movies or a photo slideshow. At 30Hz the cursor will jump across the screen, eliminating any of the benefits of 4K.


BUT it gets worse...


Apple can be seen advertising that the new MBPr 15" model can power a 4K monitor THROUGH the Thunderbolt 2 Port here: http://www.apple.com/thunderbolt - This article quotes the following:


"Now with Thunderbolt 2 built into the new Mac Pro and MacBook Pro with Retina display, you can connect the latest 4K desktop displays and get double the bandwidth for your peripherals. And the two generations of Thunderbolt technology are compatible with each other."


Does this not let the consumer assume that the newest MBPr will be able to drive a 4K display through the Thunderbolt 2 Port? I would say yes it does, but at the time I wrote this, the TB2 Ports can't power a 4K display because, as previously stated, MST is disabled in Mavericks for the 15" MBPr Late 2013.


NOW, later on Apple posted the following article on 4K support here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT6008


4K support on the MacBook Pro (Retina, Late 2013)

MacBook Pro supports 4K displays and Ultra HD TVs at the following resolutions and refresh rates with the built-in HDMI port:

  • 3840 x 2160 at 30 Hz refresh rate
  • 4096 x 2160 at 24 Hz refresh rate (mirroring is not supported at this resolution)


In the article above the New Mac Pro is listed as having support for a 4K Display with the Thunderbolt 2 Port (or MST DisplayPort 1.2a Technology) at 60Hz with no problem. This leads myself and many others to believe that MST will NEVER be enabled on the newest MacBook Pro Retina with Nvidia GPUs. Yes, 4K IS supported but ONLY through the HDMI 1.4 port, which has the limitation of only 30hz. This two-faced advertising is extremely upsetting to a LOT of people, including myself.


Interestingly enough, THIS IS NOT a hardware issue. If one ventures into Windows 8.1 via Bootcamp and connects a 4K Display via the Thunderbolt 2 (or through DP1.2) Port, the Display registers at 60Hz, thus proving that the Thundberbolt 2 Hub Controller is completely capable of MST DisplayPort functionality. Clearly this a driver issue with Apple, Nvidia or Intel or any combination. What Apple has done here is forcing any professional that desires stable and clear 4K technology through their MacBook Pro Retina to do so only using Windows 8.1 on their own machines! Definitely an oxymoron if you ask me...


Later on when the Mac Pro was ready for ordering, Apple placed the Sharp PN-K321 as a compatible option for a 4K Display. On the Store page featuring the (over three thousand dollar) Sharp 4K display, located here http://store.apple.com/us/product/HD971LL/A/sharp-32-pn-k321-4k-ultra-hd-led-mon itor?fnode=53 Apple states the following:


"Note that 4K DisplayPort operation is only compatible with the new Mac Pro (Late 2013)."


All of that being said, and I'm terribly sorry for my wordy ranting...


This brings me to a final two requests to ANYONE reading this post:


a) Has anyone working with the new 10.9.2 Beta Update seen evidence that DisplayPort 1.2 capabilities will be enabled for the new MacBook Pro Retina (Nvidia 750M) with the promised "Graphics Driver Updates" within the next Mavericks update?


and


b) To others that purchased or were/are thinking of purchasing a new MacBook Pro Retina with TB2 Ports: If you are just as upset as me about this crushing blow to consumers that just purchased a $3,000 laptop that were promised something that wasn't delivered - I urge you please, write to Apple and let them know they are making a mistake. You can do this though the support page or through http://www.apple.com/feedback



Thank you for your precious time, and if anyone has anything to contribute to this issue, please jump in....

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013), OS X Mavericks (10.9.1), Maxed Out - 2.6Ghz Quad Intel

Posted on Jan 22, 2014 3:24 PM

Reply
15 replies

Sep 14, 2017 11:42 AM in response to DannyWoods

So I have a MacBook Pro 15" retina late 2013 and I've attached my new Dell P2715Q monitor. I've updated the setting on the monitor to be "Primary" for MST but I'm still getting 30Hz.User uploaded file

I'm just using the supplied cable. I also have a second monitor attached to the other thunderbolt plug, would that be causing the issues?


The monitor is nearly unusable in this state. Does the cable matter? Do I need to do another step to get this to work?

May 8, 2014 2:32 AM in response to CRGxxx

I fired up my Macbook pro in bootcamp (Windows 7) and sure enough the MST works a treat. Plus another output from the second thunderbolt port.


Anyone tried 2 MST hubs yet?? I need 5 1080p outputs....


Come on Apple sort it out enable MST real soon to avoid a proper hammering from the VJ fraternity.

May 17, 2014 11:54 PM in response to DannyWoods

GOOD NEWS!


The Mavericks 10.9.3 update adds official support for Thunderbolt 2, 4K!


I'm not sure if you will be able to daisy chain anything to the 4K display. I've read that the design of Thunderbolt 2 includes support for DisplayPort 1.2 multi-stream (MST), which allows this type of daisy chaining with 4K, but we don't know if Apple has this supported on it's machines. Apparently it's been buggy in development because the graphics driver needs to work correctly with the Thunderbolt 2 host controller. I'm sure they will work it out if they haven't already.


The above is all via found information on this topic, but you can follow some more discussion here:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1713876


One more note on Thunderbolt worth sharing: always keep your fastest peripherals closer to the computer in the chain. If you have a TB1 device directly connected to the computer, anything further down the chain will be limited to TB1 speed/capability regardless of it's native speed. Always connect TB2 devices first, and save anything TB1 for the end of the chain.

May 21, 2014 7:12 PM in response to DavidErickson

Chaining displays together? You mean computer-display-display, and not using two separate video ports on the computer if available?


Not a good idea. Why aren't you connecting the displays via the two separate thunderbolt ports of the computer? That's how it is designed to work.


If you need Thunderbolt for some other purpose, you may find it works better to get a Thunderbolt hub of some sort, or using one of the series of adapters from this page that is right for your machine (ask them): http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/products/gxm/th2go/displayport/

May 21, 2014 7:20 PM in response to a brody

It pays to read the port specs of the displays:


http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&cs=19&sku=225-41 48

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku= 225-4015&baynote_bnrank=0&baynote_irrank=0&~ck=baynoteSearch#&~srd=true&sk=u2713 hm&scat=prod&ref=ac


The dual-link Displayport supports the higher resolutions using a dual-link displayport adapter cable, and the other peripheral connectors on the machine. If the displayport on back of the monitor that is output is not dual-link, it will not support the video out to another dual-link display, or any of the peripherals on back of the second display.


Hence my idea to run it via the Mac's built-in Thunderbolt ports for each display is probably best. And get a compatible dual-link displayport connector for both thunderbolt ports.

Jul 28, 2015 7:04 PM in response to a brody

I ran into the same problem with my new U2715H monitors. Yes, I could connect both of them to the separate ports, but using a single cable would also make it much easier to share the two monitors between two different machines without a KVM that supports the high resolution. My Dell Optiplex with a crappy video card supports MST perfectly, it makes the wire routing a bit easier as well.


I am surprised that the Macbook Pro 15" doesn't support this, especially given that the video card itself has been proven to support MST.


-Britain

MST Support for MacBook Pro Retina Late 2013 - DisplayPort 1.2 - Will it ever happen? (with sources)

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