I have a DELL E7450 laptop connected via an HDMI cable to a DELL UP3214Q monitor (which can display 3840×2160 @ 60Hz with a DP1.2 cable) . Ubuntu 14.10 uses the 3840 X 2160 resolution just fine – although @ 30Hz (which I don't mind). No drivers required. xrandr shows:
HDMI1 connected 3840x2160+1920+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 698mm x 392mm
3840x2160 30.0*+ 25.0 24.0 30.0 24.0
1920x1200 60.0
But Windows 7 64-bit only sees 1920×1080 as the maximum resolution. The Intel HD Graphics 5500 settings allow for custom resolutions, but the maximum I could set was 2560 x 1440 @ 30Hz. Beyond that, everything would error with
The custom resolution exceeds the maximum bandwidth capacity
This error is obviously completely bogus!
Also, I accidentally managed to get 3840×2160 @ 30Hz as a regular resolution in Control Panel after I booted back from Ubuntu into Windows once. This trick didn't work after rebooting windows once again to install some updated. I hadn't installed anything else in Windows, or changed any settings. Before booting into Ubuntu, I had rebooted Windows several times, so I'd rule out rebooting itself as a solution. Could Ubuntu have written some information to the graphics card or the monitor?
Other things I've tried – nothing worked:
- Installed the Dell Display Manager: it can't do anything about resolutions
- Installed Entec PowerStrip. It detects the maximum resolution but can't set it, even after adding it from Custom Resolution.
- tried to install Intel's native HD Graphics driver, but is says "The driver being installed is not validated for this computer. Please obtain the appropriate driver from the computer manufacturer."
- updated Dell's Intel HD video driver
- I've already installed the monitor driver and the monitor shows correctly by name in Device Manager. Still, no native resolution shows up anywhere.
- Custom Resolution Utility allegedly doesn't work on Intel graphics cards. I've run, and it gave no error about the graphics card being Intel. It flickered the monitor and ultimately reset it 1920×1080, but didn't help at all with 4K.
- Display Changer – seems to just pick up whatever resolutions are in the Registry
- disconnect the laptop's internal display, and only "connect to projector"
There's an Intel Community thread on the buggy "The custom resolution exceeds the maximum bandwidth capacity", but the Intel rep there isn't listening.
This is a nearly $2000 4K monitor that doesn't display 4K in Windows 7.
What else can I try?
Best Answer
The only thing that has worked so far was buying a Mini-DisplayPort to DisplayPort 1.2 cable. 3840x2160 @ 60Hz works great now.
It's disappointing that the Intel folks refuse to acknowledge the "maximum bandwidth exceeded" bug.