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OS X 10.10.3 brings enhanced 4K support (including 12-inch MacBook), adds 5K Dell for Mac Pro/iMac

4K-displays-Sharp-Dell-LG-01

Apple has expanded support for 4K displays in its recent OS X 10.10.3 release and officially confirmed specifics for using 4K displays with its new 12-inch MacBook.

While previously Apple only officially supported certain Multi-Stream Transport (MST) displays at a refresh rate of 60Hz, it now says that “most single-stream 4K (3840×2160) displays” are officially supported at 60Hz as well following the recent OS X Yosemite v10.10.3 update. That should mean support for a lot more inexpensive 4K displays that don’t include DisplayPort’s Multi-Stream Transport feature.

A full list of Macs that will support Single-Stream (SST) displays with a 60Hz refresh rate include:

-MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015)
-MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014)
-Mac Pro (Late 2013)
-iMac (27-inch, Late 2013 and later)
-Mac mini (Late 2014)
-MacBook Air (Early 2015)
-MacBook (Retina, 12-inch, Early 2015)

SST displays running at a resolution of 4096×2160, however, are only supported at 60Hz on the Mac Pro (Late 2013) and iMac (Retina 5k and 27-inch, Late 2014).

For Apple’s new 12-inch MacBook, the device will support displays running at a resolution of 3840×2160 at 30 Hz or 4096×2160 at 24 Hz over HDMI. Since the device only has a single USB-C port, you’ll need a USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter. Technically it’s possible Apple could support monitors hitting the market that use HDMI 2.0 at 60 Hz, but you’ll of course still need the appropriate USB-C adapter.

If you want 60Hz on the new 12-inch MacBook, you’ll need an SST display, DisplayPort cable, and OS X 10.10.3. Although you’ll also need to get an adapter in order to go from the 12-inch MacBook’s 1 USB-C port to DisplayPort on the display— like this one.

Additionally, Apple’s update to its 4k support doc confirms that it’s officially supporting Dell’s new UP2715K 27-inch 5K display following the OS X 10.10.3 update on the Mac Pro (Late 2013) and iMac (Retina 5k and 27-inch, Late 2014).

Our 4K monitor comparison is here. 

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Comments

  1. adisor19 - 9 years ago

    So Is there an USB-C adapter for DisplayPort that also has a USB-C power injector so that I can use an external 4K monitor and charge the laptop at the same time ?!

  2. Rod Drury (@roddrury) - 9 years ago

    So could this mean that USB-C Cinema Display is coming so we can actually use the new MacBook?

  3. Mark (@MarksTehTwitz0r) - 9 years ago

    -MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014) supported.

    They can’t say the Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013 is not supported? The only difference is a the base model coming with 16GB (can’t be an issue, other 8GB devices are supported) and a TINY 0.2GHz spec bump. It’s the same Intel Iris Pro iGPU.

    Hope they are just mentioning the Mid 2014 because it’s the newest, but it would be very disappointing if the Late 2013 model isn’t supported. I thought Apple would be different then other company’s…

    • Mauro Vime Castillo - 9 years ago

      From Apple’s website:

      MacBook Pro (Retina, Late 2013 and later)
      Mac Pro (Late 2013)
      iMac (27-inch, Late 2013 and later)
      Mac mini (Late 2014)
      MacBook Air (Early 2015)
      MacBook (Retina, 12-inch, Early 2015)

  4. armandsberzins - 9 years ago

    Does anyone know how to make my MBP Early 2011 run UHD? Like Radeon with 1GB vRAM should be powefull neough sine even Iris GPU wthout vRAM and i5 dualcore can run UHD. Thunderbolt is faster than HDMI which supports UHD. So there should be only software limitation. Does anyone know how to make my MBP Early 2011 run UHD?

  5. J. B. (@le_jean) - 9 years ago

    I’m wondering if this means better driver support also for MBP Late 2013 with GT 750M dedicated graphics by nVidia.
    I would be very much interested in driving a Dell UP2715K in 5K @ 60Hz using Dual DisplayPort Cable.

  6. spaceblack - 9 years ago

    Does this mean that the Mac Pro (2013) can now sport two 5k external monitors? Via MST with two TB2 cables each. Since it has three (3x) ThunderBolt-2 controllers (and six TB2 ports).

  7. nana (@purplemaize) - 9 years ago

    It is amazing I have been using my mac mini on flat screen tv’s for 4yrs now… I am going to take my computer to store and hook it up and check out 5K Dell just for fun, I want to compare the color… I am very picky.

  8. Jason Burroughs - 9 years ago

    On the newest 15″ MBP retina, how do you watch 4k video in 4k?

    For example, the default resolution is the pixel doubled 1440×900. If I have an mkv in 1920×1080 playing in VLC, for example, I expect it to be interpolating and downsamplling or whatever, and displaying as a 1440×900 image.

    But I know there has been talk of the OS somehow sensing that a video in a higher resolution than the pixel doubled resolution, and then turning off the pixel doubling for that section of the screen. I’ve never heard details on exactly how this works, what apps do or don’t support it (other than a couple of content creation software like FCP), etc.

    I want to go to youtube and find awesome 4k videos, turn on 4k, go into full screen, and see at least 2880×1800.

    AND, I want to connect my Asus PB287Q 4k monitor and know exactly what settings to put that monitor in to get 4k video from sources like youtube and netflix.

  9. Henry Aidasani - 9 years ago

    Why isn’t the late 2013 rMBP supported with SST monitors? 2014 and 2013 rMBP have very minimal differences.

  10. My 12″ MacBook arrived today along with the above-mentioned Google USB-C to DisplayPort adapter and I can confirm that on OS X 10.10.3 the new MacBook will power a 4K display at 60Hz, but it appears that at the moment it will not be at 2x resolution (ie. Retina). Instead of my Samsung U28D590’s 3840×2160 native resolution, it runs at 2560×1440 (the Scaled options in System Preferences include this and lower resolutions) and not at 2x.

    This is disappointing, but it also maybe a software problem and not a hardware problem. Future OS X updates may remedy this, and I don’t have the HDMI adapter to test it further. That said, my 2012 15″ Retina MacBook Pro will power the same display at 2x at any resolution, including it’s native 3840×2160, over HDMI. But only at 30Hz. Even though Apple’s documentation has no mention of this support for older MacBook Pros.

  11. Rob Burnham - 9 years ago

    For awhile the 2014 Mac Mini only ran a 4K display at 30Hz. Did the 10.10.3 update really allow it to run at 60 Hz? If so, I’ll buy a new Mac Mini in a heartbeat.

    • Wish You Were Here - 9 years ago

      Rob – I have a 2014 Mac Mini and its connected via HDMI to a 4K Samsung (model year Late 2014) and it only delivers 2160p @ 30Hz. I too would like to know if there is any other way to achieve 60hz.

  12. Jared Fleury - 8 years ago

    I’m trying to use/using an Acer B286HK 4K with a MacBook Pro (Retina, 15 inch, late 2013) 10.11.1. No matter how I connect it and no matter what I set the resolution at it compresses the image horizontally slightly. A circle drawn in Illustrator displays correctly on the laptop screen and becomes slightly oval when dragged over to the 4K. Other than that the monitor looks great so this is very frustrating. Naturally Acer was no help. Any ideas?

  13. Jose Almeida - 8 years ago

    Hi i was looking in the refered page from Apple and there is no mention of the dell 2715, since I wanted to buy one of those but wanted to be sure that was supported where did you find this info?

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.