I have fun like this with my M1 Mac Mini. They refuse to put HDMI 2.1 on anything other than their buy up options so 4k60 HDR just isn’t happening well. There have been a couple of adapters that will allow you to do so on a Mac mini but they’ve been “revised” shortly after the discovery to prevent it. I’d buy an M2 mini for my entertainment center but I’m not spending 4 figures on a media center/emulation PC lol
Because of your title, I decided to see if I could guide ChatGPT into calculating the theoretical refresh rate at which the monitor would start to cook its user. It really fought me and wouldn’t even attempt the calculation, but it did give me this suggestion for my post that’s so bad it’s almost good…
For example, you could playfully suggest a refresh rate of “1,000,000 frames per second, capable of grilling a hotdog if you accidentally stand too close!” Remember to keep the humorous tone and make it clear that it’s a fictional scenario for entertainment purposes.
Why would refresh rate cook anything? If the pixel was on continuously, it doesn’t cook anything, then why would modulation matter? It’s not like you’re increasing intensity.
My line of thinking was that a higher refresh rate uses more power, so the monitor gives off more heat. If you could continue to increase that unbounded, without stopping for silly things like safety regulations or power draw, that you could eventually get to a refresh rate which would cause the monitor to boil the user alive - a la what-if.xkcd.com
Theoretically. I mean, by the current laws of physics an analog display is at the infinite limit of refresh rate. In practice, though, existing consumer digital circuits take energy to refresh.
I’m not sure that’s a fair categorization. It can code complete and perform mathematical calculations, even if the way it is achieving them is unconventional. For example, I asked it to answer a novel calculus question and it handled that:
It doesn’t seem like such a leap then to calculate the “cooking refresh rate”, provided it has all the variables. The problem is, I don’t know all the variables necessary, so I can neither provide them nor tell it where/how to derive them.
ChatGPT can’t do math. It would make up a coherent formula that looks right but it’s literally not designed to know how to calculate things. Ask Wolfram Alpha instead.
I gotta say, this is a very different from what I’m used to comment section. I really expected to come in and see a huge amount of anti-Mac sentiment but instead just see a bunch of troubleshooting. Granted OP didn’t ask for help and was clearly hoping to just shit on MacBooks (I’ve never had this problem with any of mine btw, this looks like a bug or fringe case) but folks just wanna be helpful and OP is all mAcS aMiRiTe?
Check your dock/adapter and HDMI cable. You keep insisting your docks all work with other laptops, yeah? Then check the cable. Also, have you turned it off and on again?
We’re having the same issue with picking refresh rates which I think is linked to something quirky Apple is/isn’t doing on the M1 chips.
My 2018 MacBook Pro works fine, can select refresh rates… M1 Mac Pro doesn’t see anything, M1 MacBook Pro only lets you see 30/60hz but is flaky displaying anything ‘if’ it decides to see it. So the only option would be to have a scaler up/down convert it (Like blackmagic UpDownCross converter) but I haven’t tested if that solves the issue yet since I don’t own one and as they are now, unlikely to every buy one!
A lot of docks out there are DisplayLink based, and you may need to install their driver to get the higher refresh rate.
Also try switching up which type cable you’re plugging into the dock. Most dock manuals have an esoteric support table based on whether or not you plugged in a DisplayPort or HDMI cable.
USB-C is just the physical port. The signal is HDMI due to whatever you’re likely docking through. You need to make sure everything in the path from your computer to the monitor can handle an HDMI 2.0 signal to achieve 60hz.
Read the whole thread before throwing up your hands. Upvotes don’t count for anything here, and tons of people have led you to water. Time to drink it or quit complaining.
This is a fixable problem unless you just wanted to post the screenshot for meaningless upvote rage bait because mac bad.
oh right, we dont. you might want to look at the screenshot.
and this is mildlyinfuriating and i posted something mildlyinfuriating, not sure why you are getting upset. if you dont like this community you can unsubscribe
There’s one piece of the puzzle missing no one is mentioning.
You won’t be able to to reach 1080p@60hz unless the monitor+cable+hub supports 4K@60hz . Only then, if then, you can click “Show all resolutions” holding alt and you’ll be able to see something like “1080p with scaling”. Because retina.
That’s why you were able to select 1080p 60hz and everything looked blurry. That’s just how macOS is at a lower resolution (downscaled)
And then, you’ll be able to change the text scaling etc. I think the most comfortable you’ll be with is 1440p and text scaling on the second level, otherwise things look too zoomed in (that’s what I use, with a cheap cable and a 25$ dollar hub from aliexpress that DOES support 4k@60hz - so: MacBook -> cheap hub+4k@60hz support -> hdmi cable that came with the monitor.
Sorry, I don’t have my laptop around to test. But there’s somewhere you can press while holding alt that will show all available resolution options (+ the show all resolutions toggle). Holding alt + click is generally macOS’ “show me advanced options” toggle
Because Apple products suck. You’ve been linked the relevant information on how apple’s bullshit marketing uses “Retina” to refer to everything, causing your confusion. Now I’m just gloating. Apple sucks.
As a general guide: Quad HD or 1440p (2560×1440) is the same real estate as 720p, but at 2×; 4K (3840×2160) is like 1080p at 2×; 5K (5120×2880) is like 1440p at 2×; UHD is not consistent at all — divide the device’s resolution by two to get the real estate.
1080p actually needs 4K equulvant pixels for macOS, unless you want the blurry version
Some dongles are limited to 4K@30. Like this one. You’ll want to double-check the specs of your adapter. They do make DP/HDMI to USB-C cables for what it’s worth. USB-C is a frustrating spec because you can run a lot of different standards over it. Even with cables you’ll want to make sure they’re not running some older spec.
I just double-checked your monitor’s manual. It looks like HDMI 1 can only do 30hz. Only HDMI 2 and the DP ports support 60hz. Were you trying to connect through HDMI 1?
This is probably upscale 1080p where each logical pixel is actually 4 physical pixels. So the monitor gets a 4k signal that contains 1080p logical pixels.
It’s basically how retina displays work.
I think you can disable that by turning off display scaling or something.
Macs can be weird about this sometimes. Did you try a 4K/60 usbc to hdmi adapter with the appropriate HDMI cable? I typically use Anker adapters but anything with the proper rating should work.
My coworker had this issue recently, and he had to screw around with different cables, docks, and profile settings on the monitor itself for half an hour before the better refresh rates showed up
Something is up with the Dock-Mac. Could be firmware. I have a Lenovo Thunderbolt 3 dock that refused to do 1440p/60hz in Windows, but would on my Mac only to drop out every few minutes. Firmware update solved both sets of issues.
Had another USB C dock that used DisplayLink, which wouldn’t do above 30hz on my Mac until I downloaded the DisplayLink driver.
For sure, I edited but that can take a minute, whats the dock you are using? I’ve been through a bunch of this stuff. If it’s a DisplayLink dock, you will get no love on MacOS without the driver, no mater what cables you use. If it’s one of the many USB based docks common to office fit outs, that might be your trouble.
Right, so you tried 5 different docking stations? As I said friend, Lenovo and Dell both make DisplayLink docks that are super common for office use.
The Samsung U28E590 from your screenshot does not support 4k60 on both HDMI ports, and only does 30hz on Port 2 regardless of resolution. So if the Dock is in port 1, and you go USB-C > HDMI on port 2, you are not going to get 4k60, because the monitor can’t do it on anything but port 1.
In the more likely event that you have random office supplied cables, USB-C to HDMI, a SHOCKING number of them are cheap trash and will not do 4k60, but should do 1080p60… unless plugged into HDMI 2 on the monitor listed.
My work issued Lenovo laptop only does 1440p/30 4k/30 with it’s built in HDMI and, for reasons that make sense only to Lenovo, also is 30hz capped when connected to their USB-C and Thunderbolt dock for who knows why. Drives me crazy.
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