How to determine the maximum supported resolution on a given Macbook

displayresolutionthunderbolt

I recall that Macbooks produced in 2009-2011 supported a maximum external resolution (through Thunderbolt or DVI) of 2560x1600.

An aspect ratio of 16:10 is much more useful for those who use their Macbooks mostly for work, rather than entertainment. The aspect ratio of 16:9 is more suitable for entertainment.

Yet Macbooks produced starting in 2012, and before supporting 4K external resolution, appear to provide only 2560x1440 (which is 16:9).

It's really a pity, because this may be one factor why it's impossible to find 2560x1600 monitors in the 24" and 27" variety. To get 16:10 one must move all the way to the cumbersome 30", and then the DPI is hardly impressive.

But before buying any monitor for a "legacy" Macbook, it's nice to know for sure.

How do I determine the maximum external resolution supported on a given Macbook? Is this available in System Information...? I see the type of graphics card there, but not the resolution. Under Thunderbolt I see the speed (10GB/s x2), but not the resolution.

Best Answer

While I don't normally like to post 'link only' answers, this needs to be an exception. The answer to your question will largely be 'it depends on the MacBook'.

To help you figure it out, I recommend going to EveryMac.com's MacBook Pro section. This site will list the technical specs of every MacBook, including the maximum external resolution.

For example, here's a partial tech spec for a 2010 13" MBP:

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MacBook Pro no longer outputs native resolution to external monitor when rotation is on

I had exactly the same problem, with the same monitor, Dell U2713 / U2713H / U2713HM / U2713HMt. I had two of them plugged in to my late-2014 Retina Macbook Pro 15" and only one was experiencing the problem. I tried 100s of different solutions (I can say for sure it's definitely not the cable!) and nothing worked. Just like you, I could get landscape 2560x1440 but not portrait. And I was getting the same error WindowServer: description_for_mode_number: IOFBGetPixelInformation failed (-536870206) when I tried to switch to portrait. That is, until I came across this: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5485930?start=0&tstart=0. I regenerated the EDID override for the screen using the Ruby script, copied it into the correct location, rebooted and now it works again. I think I caused the problem by playing a game (Trine 2) in vertical (720x1280) resolution - after that, I tried everything to get the screen back to displaying portrait 1440x2560 but to no avail. Until I got the Ruby script from the thread above which fixed it.

Just to note, in case the linked thread disappears... the override file is in /System/Library/Displays/Overrides/ under the folder DisplayVendorID-10ac which is for Dell displays. The file for the U2713-series of monitors (and I think the U2711-series too) is DisplayProductID-4080. The contents of the file should be:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
  <key>DisplayProductName</key>
  <string>Dell U2713HMt</string>
  <key>IODisplayEDID</key>
  <data>AP///////wAQrIBATDA1NB4WAQSlPCJ4Iku1p1ZLoyUKUFSlSwCBALMA0QBx
T6lAgYABAQEBVl4AoKCgKVAwIDUAVVAhAAAaAAAA/wBHSzBLRDI3TjQ1MEwK
AAAA/ABERUxMIFUyNzEzSE0KAAAA/QAxVh1xHgEKICAgICAgAA0=
</data>
  <key>DisplayVendorID</key>
  <integer>4268</integer>
  <key>DisplayProductID</key>
  <integer>16512</integer>
</dict>
</plist>

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