Q: Why can't my Retina Macbook Pro (late 2013) run displayport 4K at 60hz?
I'm using a 4K TV as my main monitor now. It works great (4K@60hz) on my Windows 7 desktop with a Radeon R9 290 + Club3D displayport to HDMI 2.0 adapter. I can connect my Macbook (late 2013 15" retina, nVidia 750M) to it via a similar Club3D mini displayport adapter but it is only able to run 4k@30hz. The HDMI port direct also is only able to do 4k@30hz (as expected). Here's the weird part thought - if I switch the Macbook over to Bootcamp Windows 10 it is able to run the TV at 4K@60hz just fine via HDMI. If I plug Win10 in via displayport everything goes black and the display adapter crashes.
The post "Use 4K displays and Ultra HD TVs with your Mac - Apple Support" suggests that the Macbook can do 4k@60hz via multi-stream transport but not single-stream... but why is that? If Windows 10 on the same machine can do it why can't OSX? There's no way to forcefully install a kext or 3rd party driver or something, right? Is there a way to override it via terminal? "Thunderbolt ports and displays: Frequently asked questions (FAQ) - Apple Support" verifies that the Macbook has Thunderbolt 2.0 ports... and it's unable to do any firmware updates (they're from 2011ish). Based on the difference of behaviors this seems like it could be a driver issue, rather than a hardware one. Hoping someone might have some insight - thanks!
MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X El Capitan (10.11.4), Windows 10 uses the latest nVidia
Posted on Apr 19, 2016 10:13 PM