“When the new MacBook Pros and Airs were announced, we reported that both systems were capable of driving 4K displays at a refresh rate of 60Hz. In our head-to-head comparison of the two systems, we did it again,” Andrew Cunningham reports for Ars Technica. “But in the last few days a number of readers have pointed out that Apple’s tech specs page for the new MacBook Airs claims a maximum resolution of 2560×1600.
“We were fairly sure that Apple’s spec page was incorrect, but to get a definitive answer we dove into the still-nascent 4K display ecosystem to do some testing. The short answer is that yes, both the Pros and Airs now support 4K output at 60Hz using a single DisplayPort 1.2 cable,” Cunningham reports. “Last year’s Air connected to the same display with the same cable can manage, at best, a blurry 2560×1440.”
“Despite what Apple’s spec page currently says, connecting the 2015 Air to the [Dell] P2415Q [4K display] worked perfectly,” Cunningham reports. “The Mac detected the display, noticed that it was 4K, and without any extra cajoling began displaying in HiDPI mode. You get the same usable screen space as a standard 1080p display, just with sharper images and text.”
Much more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Intel’s integrated graphics are all growed up!
Apple is likely downplaying this capability because, as Cunningham reports, ‘Dropped frames are clearly visible when entering into Full Screen mode or using Mission Control.”
Yes, Intel’s graphics has grown up, but still not enough to support 4K to Apple’s standard of quality in terms of fluidity and smoothness of UI.
Which is why I’ll patiently wait for Intel’s Skylake, which is suppose to have a big boost on the GPU side.
Wouldn’t it be great if Apple used the technology it developed in-house for the 5K iMac and applied it to laptops? And a long overdue update to Cinema Displays? And an update to the Mac Pro?
Seems odd that Apple for as long as we can remember continues to accept the same or older GPUs that are available to the competition. Apple keeps focusing on ultralight portables instead of demonstrating cutting edge video performance. The Mac Pro, which should be Apple’s most powerful machine, has custom chipsets that are well behind the competition. Apple really needs to do better for power users.