Mac – Resolution when connecting to a headless Mac Mini

displayheadlessmac-miniremote desktopresolution

My setup is as follows:

  1. Mac Mini 2012 with a dummy video adapter with latest OSX.
  2. Retina Macbook Pro 13-inch, Early 2015 running the default OSX VNC client with the latest OSX.
  3. Display Menu to switch resolutions.

My problem is that I'm not able to get the right resolution such that it fills up the entire Retina Macbook Pro display. Ideally I would have liked 1280×800 or equivalent higher. This way it would fill up the entire screen (though it would be scaled since Retina has a higher resolution, which is fine).

However the only resolution options I see are:

Resolution options

My question is that do these options depend on the dummy video adapter? If so, is there a recommended video adapter to achieve such a setup?

Best Answer

I’m not sure how you could do this within macOS, but I know that every portable Mac I’ve owned since the PowerBook G4, as well as my current Mac mini, all run a tool called SwitchResX. It has saved me so many times in connecting to projectors, screens, etc. and in exactly the same situation you’re in where I wanted to have my MacBook Air screen resolution exactly matched by the Mac mini so that I had a full screen experience.

Go and have a look at SwitchResX over at http://www.madrau.com. There is a fully functional 10-day trial version, and €14 buys you a license. Well-worth the expense in my opinion!