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I've recently got a 32" 6K (6144x3456) display for my M4 Mac mini. Turns out 10-bit RGB at 60Hz requires about 38Gbps bandwidth, which is just slightly below th

I've recently got a 32" 6K (6144x3456) display for my M4 Mac mini. Turns out 10-bit RGB at 60Hz requires about 38Gbps bandwidth, which is just slightly below the theoretical limit of Thunderbolt 4 and USB 4 (40Gbps), but the actual video signal inside TB4/USB4 is DisplayPort 1.4 which can only offers a little bit less than 26Gbps after coding overhead. So it has to be compressed using DSC to work. Luckily the M4 Mac mini comes with an HDMI 2.1 port allowing 42Gbps data rate after deducting overhead, and that's the one I'm currently using to attach the 6K display. Only the M4 Pro/Max-equipped Macs offer Thunderbolt 5 with DisplayPort 2.0/2.1 (~77Gbps data rate). And people are asking if the 6K display can do high refresh rate like ProMotion at 120Hz… I just wish the TV and monitor industries could just stop fighting and get a unified ultra high bandwidth standard to work. I'm so fed up with the hard choice we're forced to make regarding DP vs HDMI.

throw0101c 1y ago
> I've recently got a 32" 6K (6144x3456) display for my M4 Mac mini. How are you finding the scaling on that? I currently have an aging 27" 5K iMac and want/need to upgrade. I'm not really interest in going >27" because of desk space issues, but there are a limited (though finally growing) number of 27" 5K monitors—besides the more-than-I-want-to-spend Apple Studio Display. 32" may be sufficiently not-large for my wants/tastes, so does 32" 6K work with macOS 'properly'?
- riobard 1y ago
  At ~220PPI and 2x HiDPI mode it works as properly as Apple's Pro XDR 6K display: everything is crisply clear and the working area is vast. You basically get two and a half 4K screens seamlessly in one rectangle. Actually it has 4% more pixels than 6K Pro Display XDR (6144x3456 vs 6016x3384) and 44% more pixels than 5K Studio Display (5120x2880). It is the highest resolution computer monitor I can get at the moment. (8K and higher resolutions are mostly TV sets or cinema equipment, not optimized for computer use.) I was even trying to attach two of these 6K babies to the M4 Mac mini. According to Apple spec it should work, but no matter how I tried, the second attached display only gets max 4K signal. Maybe it needs M4 Pro.
  - patrakov 1y ago
    Honest question: > 8K and higher resolutions are mostly TV sets or cinema equipment, not optimized for computer use. Does this mean "not offering true RGB 8K processing even internally, only compressed YCbCr 4:2:0"?
    - riobard 1y ago
      That's only one of the reasons. 8K 10-bit RGB requires ~60Gbps while HDMI 2.1 can carry at most 42Gbps. So video has to be compressed somehow and it's mostly likely YCbCr with subsampling (coz that's how most video is encoded anyway). HDMI 2.1 also supports DSC so it's an option but I doubt any non-computer-monitor-oriented TV will support that. Another reason is PPI. macOS works best ~220PPI for 2x HiDPI mode so 8K would be about 40". But current batch of 8K TV comes in sizes over 60", which is too big for most desks. There're also convenience factors like DDC control (where you can control brightness and volume using software on your computer) which most modern computer monitors support but I've never seen any TV supporting that. Without HDMI CEC on the computer side, you can't even auto wakeup the TV when you wake up the computer.
      - perching_aix 1y ago
        > So video has to be compressed somehow Multiple plugs is also an option, as seen on the 32" 8K Dells 8 years ago.
        riobard 1y ago
        I don’t know any Mac support that.
  - throw0101c 1y ago
    What's the exact make/model?
    - riobard 1y ago
      That's the tricky question. It doesn't have one (or it has many???) It's the same LG panel (LM315STA-SSA1) used by Dell's ugly-as-hell U3224KB, but in an all-aluminum case and stand weighing about 9KG. Assembled in China at half the cost of U3224KB and various Chinese brands are selling it with their logos etched on the back.

throw0101c 1y ago

> I've recently got a 32" 6K (6144x3456) display for my M4 Mac mini. How are you finding the scaling on that? I currently have an aging 27" 5K iMac and want/need to upgrade. I'm not really interest in going >27" because of desk space issues, but there are a limited (though finally growing) number of 27" 5K monitors—besides the more-than-I-want-to-spend Apple Studio Display. 32" may be sufficiently not-large for my wants/tastes, so does 32" 6K work with macOS 'properly'?

riobard 1y ago
At ~220PPI and 2x HiDPI mode it works as properly as Apple's Pro XDR 6K display: everything is crisply clear and the working area is vast. You basically get two and a half 4K screens seamlessly in one rectangle. Actually it has 4% more pixels than 6K Pro Display XDR (6144x3456 vs 6016x3384) and 44% more pixels than 5K Studio Display (5120x2880). It is the highest resolution computer monitor I can get at the moment. (8K and higher resolutions are mostly TV sets or cinema equipment, not optimized for computer use.) I was even trying to attach two of these 6K babies to the M4 Mac mini. According to Apple spec it should work, but no matter how I tried, the second attached display only gets max 4K signal. Maybe it needs M4 Pro.
- patrakov 1y ago
  Honest question: > 8K and higher resolutions are mostly TV sets or cinema equipment, not optimized for computer use. Does this mean "not offering true RGB 8K processing even internally, only compressed YCbCr 4:2:0"?
  - riobard 1y ago
    That's only one of the reasons. 8K 10-bit RGB requires ~60Gbps while HDMI 2.1 can carry at most 42Gbps. So video has to be compressed somehow and it's mostly likely YCbCr with subsampling (coz that's how most video is encoded anyway). HDMI 2.1 also supports DSC so it's an option but I doubt any non-computer-monitor-oriented TV will support that. Another reason is PPI. macOS works best ~220PPI for 2x HiDPI mode so 8K would be about 40". But current batch of 8K TV comes in sizes over 60", which is too big for most desks. There're also convenience factors like DDC control (where you can control brightness and volume using software on your computer) which most modern computer monitors support but I've never seen any TV supporting that. Without HDMI CEC on the computer side, you can't even auto wakeup the TV when you wake up the computer.
    - perching_aix 1y ago
      > So video has to be compressed somehow Multiple plugs is also an option, as seen on the 32" 8K Dells 8 years ago.
      - riobard 1y ago
        I don’t know any Mac support that.
- throw0101c 1y ago
  What's the exact make/model?
  - riobard 1y ago
    That's the tricky question. It doesn't have one (or it has many???) It's the same LG panel (LM315STA-SSA1) used by Dell's ugly-as-hell U3224KB, but in an all-aluminum case and stand weighing about 9KG. Assembled in China at half the cost of U3224KB and various Chinese brands are selling it with their logos etched on the back.