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New 15-inch is the first MacBook to support 5K displays, 4096×2160 4K

MacBook LG 4K display

Apple’s new 15-inch MacBook Pro is the first of Apple’s notebooks to officially support single-stream 4K displays at a full resolution of 4096×2160 at 60Hz. The new MacBook Pro is also the first to support 5K displays.

Apple confirmed the support today in an updated support document detailing official support for 4K and 5K displays on Macs.

The support for higher resolutions — previous MacBooks only support 4K at a maximum resolution of 3840×2160 at 60Hz — appears to be related to the switch to AMD graphics in the new machine. Apple’s new 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro (mid-2015) comes with AMD Radeon R9 M370X that the company said are up to 80% faster than previous generations. Apple’s 13-inch Retina MacBook Pros released earlier in the year come with Intel Iris Graphics 6100.

The new 15-inch MacBook is also the first to support 5K displays using a dual-cable DisplayPort setup. Apple first introduced official support for 5K displays back in April alongside its OS X 10.10.3 update, but at the time only listed Mac Pro (Late 2013) and iMacs as supported. So far the only 5K display officially supported by Apple with these machines is Dell’s new UP2715K 27-inch 5K display.

Catch up on our 4K monitor comparison here.

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Comments

  1. masamune6 - 9 years ago

    i quickly read this notification as the first 4K macbook. i almost lost it LOL

  2. Winky225 (@Winky225) - 9 years ago

    Hi Jordan,

    Please tell me the Skylake chipset for the new 15″ MacBook Pros will be coming this year. I will cry if they don’t :'(

    I have a Mid 2010 15″ model, which makes me ready to upgrade but I can’t do it knowing the potential release of Skylake processors coming to this laptop.

    • Apaches911 - 9 years ago

      Do you really think you need to 10-15% speed bump that skylake will have over Haswell?

      I am buying the new MBP in the next month or two when I will have time to transfer a machine. It will fly compared to my 2011 MBP!

      • Avenged110 - 9 years ago

        MacBook upgrades aren’t always about CPU speed.

      • Mike Retondo (@mretondo) - 9 years ago

        Agreed, and it’s more like 8-10% Also the new MBP has a SSD that’s over 2x faster which is far more important. The only think Haswell has going for it is better battery life. Instead of 9 hours it will get around 10.

    • ncookleon - 9 years ago

      They literally just updated it. It’ll be at least a year.

    • PMZanetti - 9 years ago

      You should wait for Skylake. Better yet, wait for what comes after that. Then you’ll really have a good machine. Actually, wait for what comes after THAT one. That will be the good one. Actually…

      • PhilBoogie - 9 years ago

        That’s a perfectly valid point. The only time one should wait is when a company announces a new product and informs us with a release date. That can be later than what they announce, but at least you’ll know what the product is.

        People who simply wait for The Next Thing shouldn’t be buying anything, as they apparently are able to use what they have. In which case, never upgrade¡

      • Winky225 (@Winky225) - 9 years ago

        Everyone has valid points and perhaps I made a poor example with my whining (I am flawed and human) but the straight forward question was if Apple would most likely update the MacBook Pros to have Skylake by their next keynote in the Fall.

        It’s not too out of their realm to do such a thing, they even introduced the 4th gen iPad less than a year before the 3rd gen was released.

        Haswell has been growing long in the tooth, and although the speed improvements for the new model mainly come from the improved SSD, Skylake may introduce other benefits like better battery performance.

        Of course I can’t get a definitive answer to my question because Apple keeps everything secret, but I was really just asking a professional opinion.

        I do graphic design work and am lucky to have my MBP for 5 years now, Skylake will definitely make me feel future proof for the next 5 years of OS updates, creative software releases etc. more than Haswell would.

    • People waiting for Skylake don’t care about the CPU. It’s the GPU (2x better), Thunderbolt 3 (single cable 5K, possibly dual 5K on a single laptop), and likely USB Type-C. But all of that stuff points to a re-design, which we often hear about months in advance and nothing has popped up so far. So it’s a 2016 thing at this point.

  3. Paul Van Obberghen - 9 years ago

    How is a MacBook Pro 15 able to support a 5K display using a “dual-cable DisplayPort setup”, when there’s only one DisplayPort available?

  4. tanner2001byu - 7 years ago

    Great article. I’m trying to figure out if my MacBook Pro can support a 32″ 4k display at 60hz. This is my Mac (according to “About This Mac”): MacBook Pro (retina, 15-inch, mid 2015). And this is the monitor I’m thinking about getting: https://goo.gl/KcYE4k. I’ve never used an external display with my laptop and I’m not sure if it has the right ports/power to handle a display like that one. Please help! Thanks a lot.

Author

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Jordan Kahn

Jordan writes about all things Apple as Senior Editor of 9to5Mac, & contributes to 9to5Google, 9to5Toys, & Electrek.co. He also co-authors 9to5Mac’s Logic Pros series.