How to get external 5k monitor to work on a Retina iMac?

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How to get external 5k monitor to work on a Retina iMac?

I am looking for advice getting an external 5k monitor to work on the 2014 retina iMac. I am using the HP 27" 5k monitor two mindisplayport cables and following everything correctly using the directions on the iClarified site, which explains that the method should work for the HP monitor.

I am running the latest OS version (10.10.3). All I can get is the monitor either running in 4k mode or 2560x1400, which is nice but not the beautiful 5k of the main monitor.

Thanks for your help!

Posted on Jun 2, 2015 3:31 PM

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Answer 1

den.thed

Level 9

77,038 points

Jun 2, 2015 4:56 PM in response to josh5k

First take a look at > How to Choose a DisplayPort Cable and Not Get a Bad One!

and then > iclarified How to Enable Support for the HP z27q5k monitor in Mac OS X Yosemite

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Answer 2

josh5k Author

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Jun 4, 2015 4:31 AM in response to den.thed

I still couldn't get it to work even though I am pretty sure that my cables are correct and although I followed those instructions as closely as possible.

Has anyone actually demonstrated successfully that the iMac will drive the HP monitor at 5k?

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Answer 3

SeaPapp

Level 7

26,486 points

Jun 4, 2015 5:00 AM in response to josh5k

You cannt drive an external display at 5k.

Display

27-inch (diagonal) Retina display with IPS technology;
5120‑by‑2880 resolution with support for millions of colors
Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display and up to 3840 by 2160 pixels on an external display

iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2014) - Technical Specifications

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Answer 4

josh5k Author

Level 1

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Jun 4, 2015 5:04 AM in response to SeaPapp

Thanks for posting that, but this page (Using 4K displays and Ultra HD TVs with your Mac - Apple Support), which was updated much more recently, suggests that the iMac works with the Dell 5k monitor.

Dual-Cable Displays

Some displays with resolutions higher than 4K require two DisplayPort cables to connect the display at full resolution. With OS X Yosemite v10.10.3 or later, the Dell UP2715K 27-inch 5K display is supported on the following Mac computers:

Mac Pro (Late 2013)
iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2014 and later)
MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015) with AMD Radeon R9 M370X

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Answer 5

SeaPapp

Level 7

26,486 points

Jun 4, 2015 5:11 AM in response to josh5k

They'll work but nowhere do I see that they'll work at full 5k resolution. The video card is only capable of 3840x2160 on an external display.

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