MacBook Pro External Monitor Resolution

displaymacbook proresolution

Is there a way to specify what resolution I want my external monitor to be?

I have been looking around the internet for a few weeks, but I have not found a solution that works.

The native resolution of the external monitor is 1440×900, but that does not show on the list of resolutions on the list. With "Option" pressed when pressing "Scaled" the best fit I get is 1280×768. There are higher options available, but not in the 16:10 scale, so the monitor rescales them and they do not look nice.

When I boot in Boot camp (Windows 8.1) Windows picks up the monitor right away, knows what resolution it should be, and sets it to 1440×900, so I do not think there is any issue with the hardware.

The resolution on the MacBook's monitor is 1280×800. I thought that maybe it was trying to keep the two monitors to a similar scale, so I tried setting the resolution of the external monitor with the lid closed, but the results where exactly the same.

I don't think it is an issue with hardware (it works in Bootcamp), but basically what I have is, 13-inch MBP (mid 2012). It has the mini display port, and I am using a VGA adaptor (Monitor is VGA only).

Is there anything else I can try, even if I need to go into a settings file and manually add possible resolutions?

Best Answer

You can try Display Maestro :

Unlock all display resolutions Display Maestro gives you full control over attached displays, allowing the usage of all available resolutions and bit depths. This is done by ignoring the operating system setting of hiding potentially unsafe resolutions.

Restore legacy depth modes It is ideal for running legacy games which require 256-color mode and do not automatically switch the screen depth for you. Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard removed the ability to set 256 color mode manually using the built-in preferences pane, but the feature is now available here in Display Maestro!

Light-weight and background-friendly Display Maestro is a small application which can be configured to launch during login, and sits quietly in the menu bar. Upon exit, it will also automatically revert your display back to the resolution chosen before it was launched.

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