Hi Peter,
No, only newer machine is a Macbook Air which, aside from being with Georgie in Perth at the moment, only has USB3 ports. So no other way to test the same monitor/lead setup. But, I’m pretty sure it shouldn’t be the older OSX since the machine, as bought, supposedly supported video output up to 2560x1600 through the mini display port and it came with SL 10.6! However, since Officeworks is a 15 minute walk, and since I value my ever diminishing time on this earth, I may pass on saving a few dollars waiting for Amazon and just buy the lead and see if it works! Sometime later …… Well, that DID work!! Both iMac and external monitor are now set at 2560x1440 and, interestingly, the monitor display also seems much crisper and cleaner with the new cable. Also, a quick systems report now shows that the iMac recognises the display as: LEN D32qc-20: Resolution: 2560 x 1440 @ 60 Hz Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888) Mirror: Off Online: Yes Rotation: Supported Connection Type: DisplayPort Television: Yes So, now I’m a happy camper and, even though the monitor only has the same resolution as the iMac screen, the larger physical size means I don’t need the same zoom level on Excel spreadsheets and so see more of each worksheet. The lesson learned is: If you want to drive an external monitor from an older Mac with a mini display port output you will get MUCH better results with a mini display port to display port cable than with a mini display port to HDMI cable. Cheers Neil From: <wamug.org.au-wamug-boun...@lists.wamug.org.au> on behalf of Peter Crisp <petercr...@westnet.com.au> Reply-To: WAMUG <wamug@wamug.org.au> Date: Friday, 25 March 2022 at 14:26 To: WAMUG <wamug@wamug.org.au> Subject: Re: [WAMUG] Cannot get external monitor to display full resolution Hi Neil, I read this with interest as I too have found the adaption of external monitors with Mac’s a bit hit and miss. As a test, do you have on hand a late model Mac/Macbook you could see if the later OSX is smarter in this sense and how it recognises the external monitor when you plug it in using the leads you currently have and get the quick systems report for the connected monitor. Your 2009 Mac is certainly high spec but by being 2009, it is held back to older OSX versions and perhaps this may be the issue. You may have to get yourself a late model iMac but I wouldn’t resort to that yet. Pete. On 25 Mar 2022, at 1:48 pm, Neil Houghton <n...@possumology.com> wrote: OK, here is the iMac setup: Late 2009 27” iMac – top configuration, 2.8 GHz core i7, Graphics ATI Radeon HD 4850 512 MB iMac has been reconfigured with 250 GB SSD, 3TB internal drive and currently 20GB RAM Currently running El Capitan OSX 10.11.6 With the SSD and RAM upgrade this is still pretty snappy and I am frequently running multiple Excel spreadsheets and/or multiple browser windows with many tabs in each – which took me to a second monitor. For a while I had a 27” full HD 1920x1080 monitor running, which all worked fine but I found the discontinuity of tracking from the 2560x1440 iMac screen to the 1920x1080 monitor screen sufficiently annoying that I ended up reducing the iMac resolution to 1920x1080 to match the monitor – which I found much more useable. However it seemed a shame to have to resort to downgrading the iMac resolution – so, given that the iMac can support video output up to 2560x1600 - I decided to upgrade the monitor! I found a good deal on a 31.5” monitor with 2560x1440 resolution – the same as the iMac native resolution this was the product (though it was only $355 when I bought it) https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/product/B08J3S6BT4 I was pretty happy when after promising delivery by March 30 to April 11 they actually delivered it yesterday – 2 days after I ordered it! So all setup and ready to go – and it is all working fine EXCEPT, despite the monitor having 2560x1440 resolution, the maximum resolution offered in the OSX display preferences is 1080i, ie 1920x1080 and a quick systems report shows that the iMac recognises the display as: LEN D32qc-20: Resolution: 1920 x 1080 @ 60Hz (1080i) Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888) Mirror: Off Online: Yes Rotation: Supported Interlaced: Yes Television: Yes In my setup the monitor connection is by a direct mini display port to hdmi cable (no adaptors) as this was readily available when I bought my previous monitor. I have googled this and find that this is not an uncommon problem and not specific to any particular monitor but seems to be a problem with the Mac recognising the availability of the higher resolution of an attached monitor. People seem to have mixed success in resolving this problem but some seem to have more luck with Display port connections, rather than hdmi, recognising higher resolutions and this monitor does have a display port input as well as hdmi. So, I guess, the question is – does anyone have any experience of driving higher resolution monitors from older imacs? Is buying a new cable such as this: https://www.amazon.com.au/Rankie-DisplayPort-Cable-Resolution-Ready/dp/B00YOQYQWY or this: https://www.officeworks.com.au/shop/officeworks/p/comsol-displayport-to-mini-displayport-4k-cable-2m-comdpdp020 likely to solve my problem? Any feedback gratefully received! Cheers Neil -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml> Guidelines - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml> Settings & Unsubscribe - <http://lists.wamug.org.au/listinfo/wamug.org.au-wamug> -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - Guidelines - Settings & Unsubscribe -
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