Dell U4919DW / MacBook pro 5k issue

According to apple support, the super ultrawide resolution is currently not working because of some operating system issue. While the "more sqare" resolution of 5120x2880px is supported by the newer Mac Air, Mac Pro etc., a subset of that cannot be chosen.

This is contrary to what is proclaimed by apple in the tech specifications!!!

The option to use SwitchResX does not lead to true 5120x1440: It just scales the next smaller resolution (3840x1080), resulting in a pixelated picture.

This holds true for all super ultrawide monitors such as Phillips 499P9H, Samsung C49RG94SSU, DELL UltraSharp U4919DW, LG 49WL95C-W, and similar.

Hi,

I am thinking about buying a LG 49BL95C-W 49" to use with my MacBooks.  I have a 2019 13" MacBook Pro (for work), a 2017 13" Pro and a 2016 12" MacBook, all with Intel graphics.  My goal is to get the max resolution 5120x1440 over a single USB-C cable while charging the laptops.

I read the thread carefully and there seem to be two different issues ongoing.  Is this a correct summary?

1. For Mac's with AMD Radeon discrete graphics: 5120x144 worked prior to 10.15.0 and was fixed after 10.15.2.  joevt's EDID script was to fix this issue in 10.15; however that is no longer needed for the LG since 10.15.2. The monitor works perfectly (5120x1440) out of the box for AMD Radeon Macs.
2. For Macs with integrated Intel Iris graphics card: there is NO solution or workaround, even in 10.15.5 beta -- except to install Windows with Bootcamp or use 2 monitors with Picture-by-Picture with 2 cables.

How does 2 monitors picture-by-picture work for you?  At first I thought 2 "monitors" would defeat the purpose, but it may not be that bad after I thought about it.  Can you stretch apps seamlessly across "monitors" and have it work well?  There is no physical bezel but is there a virtual one?  Windows has a bit of "resistance" to move your monitors across screens.  Plus, going full screen with 2 "monitors" may be even better since YouTube, Zoom, etc only takes up half the display, albeit on left and right (not center), but they won't waste space on the left and right with bars.  On PC, I am used to working with 4x 27" monitors and I actually prefer having a different app full screen on each monitor. I am used to content not being centered.  It also seems good for sharing your screen on Zoom since you can share half of what you see, while keep your private notes open on the other "screen", and not force top/bottom letterboxing for your viewers.  Anything I am missing any downsides about PbP except 2 cables?

I've spent most of the day speaking with the senior technical team over the phone explaining (again) that both my work and personal 13" Macbook Pros (2017 (purchased in 2019) and 2018 model) are not showing the option to drive the U4919DW at 5120-by-1440 (but instead only get shown 3840-by-1080) resolution.

I called the support team 2 days ago and today they came back with an initial response: that the technical specification at: https://support.apple.com/kb/SP754?locale=en_GB is not accurate and indeed the only way to support the resolution (5120-by-1440) would be to use an external GPU. The current intel graphics is not able to support the required resolution (which you folks have already mentioned in this thread).

AND they will update the technical specification page in due course to make it clear!

I iterated the fact that this would mean that I have been mis-old a product based on the product description (see https://www.apple.com/uk/legal/statutory-warranty/) "The goods will match the description given of them." and based on UK Consumer Law, Apple should either refund me or provide a product the meets the outlined technical specification.

So now my case will get escalated (again) and I will be notified in 48/72 hours! Let's see what happens.

Ah, I didn't realize before that a second window opened for the second screen. There were multiple profiles for the Dell and the screens had selected different ones.

Now everything works perfect. Thank you so much! This display is a beauty, amazing to work with.

I just got the Monoprice Dark Matter 49" UW monitor and I am having difficulties getting my Macbook Pro 13" (2018), macOS 10.15.7 (19H114), to display the full 5120x1440 resolution. I am using a Cable Matters USB-C to DP on the left side Thunderbolt 3 ports connected to the monitor. At first, it was still only giving me 3840x1080, but after fiddling with SwitchResX and creating a custom resolution, SwitchResX started displaying resolutions up to 5120x1440. However, the Display preferences in Sys prefs did not show the same.

When I select 5120x1440 in SwitchResx, it tries to produce the resolution but the whole picture is scaled down and does not fill the entire screen. The aspect ratio looks correct, but for some reason the picture is shrunken in the middle of the screen with huge black bars on all sides. Not sure why it won't fill up the entire screen. SIP is disabled on my machine according to the commands. I currently have it setup to display as two separate screens at 2560x1440 so the output below reflects that.:

kextstat | grep Intel | egrep "Graphics|Framebuffer"
  132    0 0xffffff7f84126000 0x235000   0x235000   com.apple.driver.AppleIntelCFLGraphicsFramebuffer (14.0.7) 0A3CFAE4-5282-3569-B60A-169FFB86B569 <131 130 124 17 13 12 8 7 6 5 3 1>
  166    0 0xffffff7f844c6000 0xf7000    0xf7000    com.apple.driver.AppleIntelKBLGraphics (14.0.7) 1C0D406A-F030-308D-9506-39E3743F8944 <130 124 82 13 8 7 6 5 3 1>

ioreg -lw0 | grep "AAPL,ig-platform-id"
    | |   | |   "AAPL,ig-platform-id" = <0400a53e>

ioreg -lw0 | grep '<"Mac'
    |   "compatible" = <"MacBookPro15,2">
    |   "board-id" = <"Mac-827FB448E656EC26">
    |   "target-type" = <"Mac">
    |   "product-name" = <"MacBookPro15,2">
    |   "model" = <"MacBookPro15,2">

system_profiler SPHardwareDataType SPDisplaysDataType | sed '/.*Serial.*/d;/.*UUID.*/d'
Hardware:


    Hardware Overview:


      Model Name: MacBook Pro
      Model Identifier: MacBookPro15,2
      Processor Name: Quad-Core Intel Core i5
      Processor Speed: 2.3 GHz
      Number of Processors: 1
      Total Number of Cores: 4
      L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
      L3 Cache: 6 MB
      Hyper-Threading Technology: Enabled
      Memory: 16 GB
      Boot ROM Version: 1554.60.15.0.0 (iBridge: 18.16.13030.0.0,0)
      Activation Lock Status: Enabled


Graphics/Displays:


    Intel Iris Plus Graphics 655:


      Chipset Model: Intel Iris Plus Graphics 655
      Type: GPU
      Bus: Built-In
      VRAM (Dynamic, Max): 1536 MB
      Vendor: Intel
      Device ID: 0x3ea5
      Revision ID: 0x0001
      Metal: Supported, feature set macOS GPUFamily2 v1
      Displays:
        SwitchResX4 - H3C2R-HQ:
          Resolution: 2560 x 1440 (QHD/WQHD - Wide Quad High Definition)
          UI Looks like: 2560 x 1440 @ 120 Hz
          Framebuffer Depth: 30-Bit Color (ARGB2101010)
          Main Display: Yes
          Mirror: Off
          Online: Yes
          Rotation: Supported
          Automatically Adjust Brightness: No
          Connection Type: Thunderbolt/DisplayPort
          Television: Yes
        SwitchResX4 - H3C2R-HQ:
          Resolution: 2560 x 1440 (QHD/WQHD - Wide Quad High Definition)
          UI Looks like: 2560 x 1440 @ 60 Hz
          Framebuffer Depth: 30-Bit Color (ARGB2101010)
          Mirror: Off
          Online: Yes
          Rotation: Supported
          Adapter Type: Apple USB-C Digital AV Adapter
          Automatically Adjust Brightness: No
          Connection Type: Thunderbolt/DisplayPort
          Adapter Firmware Version: 2.35
          Television: Yes

system_profiler SPSoftwareDataType | grep System
    System Software Overview:
      System Version: macOS 10.15.7 (19H114)
      System Integrity Protection: Disabled

... and your computer, it has a Discrete graphics chip or an Intel Integrated graphics chip?

SwitchResX works with the 15" but not with the 13". With the 13" (and the Mini) you are stuck with 3840x2160. With SwitchresX you only get an upscaled version of 5120x1440 which looks creepy.

Hi temizyurek,

Use ResXtreme software, it's the best solution for now.

It's works with my Philips 499P9H, it's not perfect but better than 3840*1080.

I hope Apple will fix that.

Has anyone tried a dual cable setup? This is an old article, but it got me thinking that maybe in order to drive the Dell 5K screen on Mac OS, it needs to be fed by 2 cables? My MPB 13" only has 2 USB-C ports, so if that is the case I will need to figure out a port solution. See also https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206587.

I only have 1 Thunderbolt 3 to Displayport cable but thought I would toss out the thought to the group...

Very good troubleshooting .... I too have just tried this on my Mac Mini and this gives me 2 screens as 2560 x 1440 so totalling 5120 x 1440

It's not the perfect solution like you say, but it certainly has just given me much more real estate that I should be getting anyway!

The same problem here.

2017 Macbook Pro, 13in, Touchbar, i5 3.1GHz.

I started with High Sierra. Mac sees a U4919DW, supports 5120x1440, but when I connect Type C cable, monitor is all black. Closing laptop does not change anything. My Type C cable works fine on this monitor and RTX 2080 with full resolution at 60Hz, 8bpc, which matches specs of this monitor. I tried Type C cable that came with monitor, same situation. Type C cable came wtih laptop, does not even recoganize monitor, only charging. Type C to HDMI adapter then HDMI cable to monitor, no full resolution. 3840x1080 is always available and working, but that is not the purpose for this monitor.

I read half way through this thread, and someone metioned 10.14.2 beta. I upgraded to Mojave, and then to 10.14.2. Now Mac does not even see 5120x1440 as supported resolution. I can still use picture by picture mode, but that is still not the purpose of this monitor. I do not believe Dell is to blame. Full resolution via Type C cable is supported on my PC. Someone mentioned full resolution works from bootcamp windows. That leaves 1 option: Apple does not support this resolution, even in 10.14.2.

Right. But 15 in 2018 model has Radeon GPU in it, RX 555 to Vega 16.

The most reported issue is on 13 in model which has Irix iGPU.

So the problem is down to iGPU under macOS cannot support full resolution.

Yes correct.

I have the 13" MacBook Pro 2018 with Touch Bar and Dell U4919DW does not work as a single display over Thunderbolt 3.

Currently I have to use the display as 2 different displays by driving it with both USB-C and HDMI (another dongle) which really is a subpar experience since it's 2 cables and window management is a pain (you can't have a window in the "middle")

It seems to be a software limitation in MacOS.

I had the issue explained here, and used “dual monitor mode” as a solution.

Then I bought an eGPU (Razer Core X) and an AMD RX580. Right out of the box the monitor worked great as intended.

Such a strange and frustrating limitation.