MacBook – the highest resolution external display that can be driven by the Late 2012 13″ Retina MacBook Pro

displaymacbook proresolution

The MacBook is configured with 2.5 GHz Intel i5 processor, 8 GB of RMA and the Intel HD Graphics 4000 with 768 MB shared memory.

It's running Mac OS X 10.8.5 (12F45).

In particular, I'm wondering if it can drive Ultra HD display with a resolution of 3840 × 2160?

Best Answer

If you are talking about the non-Retina version, then the highest it can go is 2560 x 1600 pixels for one display. (Source (under "Graphics and Video Support")).

If you are talking about the Retina version, then it can also go up to 2560 x 1600 pixels, but up to two displays. (Source (under "Graphics and Video Support"))

Conclusion: you should still be able to use the display in question, but your Mac will only let your monitor go up to 2560 x 1600.

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With the Display pane of System Preferences visible, hold down the Option key and the "Gather Windows" button in the lower right should turn into a "Detect Displays" button. Click on that button and your computer should take care of the rest.

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You will need an active adapter that converts the DisplayPort 1.1 signal coming from your Thunderbolt port to an HDMI 1.4 Signal. The UltraAV Mini DisplayPort 1.1 to HDMI 1.4 Active Adapter for example. The regular (passive) adapters will not give you the HDMI 1.4 that is required for your resolution.

Also, make sure your HDMI cable is High Speed certified (sometimes it's called a Category 2 cable), and that you use the right resolution, refresh rate and color depth.

HDMI resolutions

HDMI Standard    1.3a                 1.4                   2.0 
HDMI cable       Standard/Cat1        HighSpeed/Cat2        HighSpeed/Cat2
Resolution       2880x576  2560x1600  3840x2160  4096x2160  4096x2160
Max Refresh Rate 50 Hz     75 Hz      30 Hz      24 Hz      60 Hz
Max Color Depth  48 bpp    30 bpp     36 bpp     48 bpp     30 bpp
                                      ^

Mind the maximum color depth, although 24 bits per pixel should suffice for most uses. On the Mac, 24 bit is sometimes called "millions of colors".

Best Answer

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