If you own a MacBook Pro with Retina Display and desire extra screen real estate, then a 4K monitor can be a good investment, especially as the price of such monitors continue to dwindle.
Why should you consider a 4K display instead of a cheaper monitor with lesser resolution? It all boils down to clarity.
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Video producer Adam Matthews wanted to double the number of 4K monitors hooked up to his Mac Pro, so he built an external GPU to do it. He used a Sonnet Thunderbolt chassis with an AMD 7970 GPU – before discovering that the machine could actually drive all six monitors without it.
When Matthews tried connecting the monitors using only the twin graphics cards built into the Mac Pro, just to see what would happen, he found he was still able to get 60Hz on each, suggesting that Apple has been conservative in its claims.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Y3C5Mthmlc]
Of course, it’s possible that the strain of pushing video to six monitors at once might shorten the life of the Mac Pro, so his Plan A is probably the best route to go if you want to emulate his setup.
Future MacBook Pros could themselves drive three 4K monitors at 60Hz, as Intel revealed that its upcoming Skylake processors have this capability. It’s even possible that Apple could create a MacBook Pro with Mac Pro performance, as Intel also announced professional class Xeon processors for laptops. It’s not likely to happen, but a man can dream …
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Today’s can’t miss deals:
Last Call updates:
Seiki 4K Ultra HD TVs: 39″ $404 (Reg. $699), 50″ $607 (Reg. $1,500)
Sling Media Slingbox SOLO Media Streamer Refurb $40 shipped
Apple Time Capsule AC wireless router/backup device (newest version): 2TB $250/3TB $350, AirPort Extreme $165
Other great deals from today:
Apple iPad Air WiFi 16GB $470 shipped (Reg. $499) http://t.co/WBQ3o14L6k
— 9to5Toys (@9to5toys) January 16, 2014
More great deals still alive:
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— 9to5Toys (@9to5toys) January 14, 2014
U: Back in stock!
RT @9to5toys: Pioneer A3 WiFi speaker w/ AirPlay and streaming apps $70 shipped (Reg. $200) http://t.co/S1ENhs8CET
— 9to5Toys (@9to5toys) January 13, 2014
Update: Pricing has just been announced, at $3,799. Pricey, but actually not bad value in a market that had five-figure pricing not so long ago.
ASUS today revealed that it will launch a 31.5-inch 4k monitor late next month, its 3840×2160 pixels allowing four 1080p HD videos to display full-size on the same screen without overlap. A 4k monitor in such a small package is made possible by using an IGZO panel, whose smaller transistors enable greater pixel density, and is likely to be in the same league (and possibly from the same manufacturer) as the 32-inch Sharp panel we saw at CES.
However, don’t rush out to buy one just yet: it’s unlikely that even a top-spec Mac from today’s line-up would be able to drive the resolution at a decent frame-rate. But the next-generation of Haswell-powered Macs almost certainly will. Indeed, as we mentioned earlier, it’s even possible that a next-generation MacBook Air could do so …
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