Hands-On With LG's Massive 5K 49-Inch $1,500 Display

[lawrencejuliano]

Oh, I see you used SwitchResX to give the display a custom display name.

You can double click the current resolution in the Current Resolutions tab for the display in SwitchResX to see the timing info. It will tell you if it's scaled or not ("Active" pixels should say 5120x1440 and "Scale to" pixels should be blank).

An update, I installed the Big Sur public beta and now have native 5120x1440@60 in the preferences pane. Don't know if there was something up with my previous Catalina install or if this fix was introduced with Big Sur, but very happy to report that it now works.

 

[toke lahti]

Check output of AGDCDiagnose command. It will tell you that you are using two connections of HBR2, not one connection of HBR3. The 5K2K display is interesting because it can use both types of connections for full display resolution. The LG UltraFine 5K display can only use dual HBR2 for 5K. The 5Kx1440p displays can only use single HBR2 (or dual HBR2 with PBP mode but that doesn't act like a single display).

This means HBR2?

DP Configuration
Version: 65537
Mode: 0
BitRate: 2
Lanes: 4
CommonVoltage: 0
CommonPreEmphasis: 0
CommonPostCursor2: 0
EnhancedFraming: 1
Scrambling: 1
AlternateScramblerSeedReset: 0
OtherBitRateInMegaBitsPerSecond: 0

 

[joevt]

This means HBR2?

DP Configuration
Version: 65537
Mode: 0
BitRate: 2
Lanes: 4
CommonVoltage: 0
CommonPreEmphasis: 0
CommonPostCursor2: 0
EnhancedFraming: 1
Scrambling: 1
AlternateScramblerSeedReset: 0
OtherBitRateInMegaBitsPerSecond: 0

Yes, but that section is for EFI which occurs during boot. For after boot, during macOS, look at the "Connections:" section where it will say HBR or HBR2 or HBR3.

 

[toke lahti]

Yes, but that section is for EFI which occurs during boot. For after boot, during macOS, look at the "Connections:" section where it will say HBR or HBR2 or HBR3.

Yep,

[2] IOService:/AppleACPIPlatformExpert/PCI0@0/AppleACPIPCI/IGPU@2/AppleIntelFramebufferController/IntelFBClientControl

Vendor: AppleIntelFramebufferController [0000106b]: IntegratedGPU [1 10000] (0)

FBs: 3

Ports: 0x1c mst:0x1c ddc:0x1c aux:0x1c

Streams: dp:0 dvi:0 mst:2 max:3

FB: 00 : Group:   0 Address[ 0.0], Flags:[offline ], Stream:N/A

FB: 01 : Group:   0 Address[ 3.0], Flags:[online associated grouped], Stream:Enabled

FB: 02 : Group:   0 Address[ 0.0], Flags:[offline ], Stream:N/A

Port: 02 : [DP, 1.2, 4 x HBR2]      set [4 x HBR2 : status: 7777]      caps [features 0x1000a, p_encoding 0x9]       Sink OUI:0-20-185 ABCDEF [65-66-67-68-69-70] HW Version: 0 FW Version:0.0

Port: 03 : [DP, 1.2, 4 x HBR2]      set [4 x HBR2 : status: 7777]      caps [features 0x1000a, p_encoding 0x9]       Sink OUI:0-20-185 ABCDEF [65-66-67-68-69-70] HW Version: 0 FW Version:0.0

Port: 04 : empty

Problem with this 5k2k monitor and mini2018 is that after first sleep of mini, the awesome loudspeakers sleep forever. Even cold boot does not wake them up. You need to disconnect tb-cable and then cold boot.

Is there any command that would disconnect the links and connect them again, so no physical cable is needed?

 

[joevt]

Yep,

[2] IOService:/AppleACPIPlatformExpert/PCI0@0/AppleACPIPCI/IGPU@2/AppleIntelFramebufferController/IntelFBClientControl
Vendor: AppleIntelFramebufferController [0000106b]: IntegratedGPU [1 10000] (0)
FBs: 3
Ports: 0x1c mst:0x1c ddc:0x1c aux:0x1c
Streams: dp:0 dvi:0 mst:2 max:3
FB: 00 : Group:   0 Address[ 0.0], Flags:[offline ], Stream:N/A
FB: 01 : Group:   0 Address[ 3.0], Flags:[online associated grouped], Stream:Enabled
FB: 02 : Group:   0 Address[ 0.0], Flags:[offline ], Stream:N/A
Port: 02 : [DP, 1.2, 4 x HBR2]      set [4 x HBR2 : status: 7777]      caps [features 0x1000a, p_encoding 0x9]       Sink OUI:0-20-185 ABCDEF [65-66-67-68-69-70] HW Version: 0 FW Version:0.0
Port: 03 : [DP, 1.2, 4 x HBR2]      set [4 x HBR2 : status: 7777]      caps [features 0x1000a, p_encoding 0x9]       Sink OUI:0-20-185 ABCDEF [65-66-67-68-69-70] HW Version: 0 FW Version:0.0
Port: 04 : empty

Problem with this 5k2k monitor and mini2018 is that after first sleep of mini, the awesome loudspeakers sleep forever. Even cold boot does not wake them up. You need to disconnect tb-cable and then cold boot.

Is there any command that would disconnect the links and connect them again, so no physical cable is needed?

It looks like your display is connected with two HBR2 connections - the EDIDs included in the AGDCDiagnose output will verify that both connections belong to the same display and that one connection is for the left tile and the other connection is for the right tile.

I don't know of a way to fix the sleep issue with the display audio except to disable computer sleep (monitor sleep should be ok).

Is audio to the display from USB or DisplayPort? Is there a USB audio device? If not then audio is transmitted using DisplayPort (the audio device will have the same name as the display).

 

[toke lahti]

It looks like your display is connected with two HBR2 connections - the EDIDs included in the AGDCDiagnose output will verify that both connections belong to the same display and that one connection is for the left tile and the other connection is for the right tile.

I don't know of a way to fix the sleep issue with the display audio except to disable computer sleep (monitor sleep should be ok).

Is audio to the display from USB or DisplayPort? Is there a USB audio device? If not then audio is transmitted using DisplayPort (the audio device will have the same name as the display).

Thanks to you, I just remembered, that I got a usb-c->full-dp-dongle from my last amazon order (I always order one or two things that I don't know if or when I need them, to the side of bigger order).
And have now my 5k2k connected with both tb and dp cables to mini2018.
Also confirmed that I can't drive the display with its full rez with dp. It needs the double amount of dp1.2 lanes from tb.
Pretty sad.

But the good news are: if I change the input in display and then back again, mac has to do those handshakes and then I get the audio back from the dead! NICE! It only took over a year to suffer this problem...

Sys.info tells:

DisplayPort:
  Default Output Device:    Yes
  Manufacturer:    Apple Inc.
  Output Channels:    2
  Current SampleRate:    48000
  Transport:    DisplayPort
  Output Source:    LG HDR 5K

 

[joevt]

Sys.info tells:

DisplayPort:
  Default Output Device:    Yes
  Manufacturer:    Apple Inc.
  Output Channels:    2
  Current SampleRate:    48000
  Transport:    DisplayPort
  Output Source:    LG HDR 5K

Yup, your display uses audio over DisplayPort. The LG UltraFine 4K and 5K displays use USB audio.

 

[toke lahti]

Yup, your display uses audio over DisplayPort. The LG UltraFine 4K and 5K displays use USB audio.

Damn, just one more thing to add to the checklist, when looking for a new monitor.
I want to have versatile monitors, that can be used with many devices.

Otherwise this 34WK95U-W is very nice. 10-bits and wide gamut.
Next iteration could have a bit bigger pixels (for me, 49y old) ie.34"->closer to 40" and they should learn to CURVE these wide monitors! Somebody take those engineers to see the silver screen in movie theatre and tell them why.

 

[joevt]

Damn, just one more thing to add to the checklist, when looking for a new monitor.
I want to have versatile monitors, that can be used with many devices.

Otherwise this 34WK95U-W is very nice. 10-bits and wide gamut.
Next iteration could have a bit bigger pixels (for me, 49y old) ie.34"->closer to 40" and they should learn to CURVE these wide monitors! Somebody take those engineers to see the silver screen in movie theatre and tell them why.

Audio over DisplayPort (from GPU) is preferable because it does not require a USB connection (either using USB-C or Thunderbolt). It makes connecting the display to an eGPU easier (or a PC or whatever - it's more compatible - otherwise you need expensive cables/adapters). I think audio using USB is not as CPU efficient as built-in audio or audio from GPU (but I don't think it's ever been a problem?).

There are many curved displays already (LG makes a couple of them). They have different radiuses. One of the latest/greatest is the Samsung Odyssey G9. 1000R means a radius of 1 meter which is very curved. The display is 5120x1440 - so it's not retina like a 5K display. I think your 5K2K barely qualifies as retina? The G9 uses DisplayPort 1.4 with Display Stream Compression (DSC) to get the high refresh rates - so you need a AMD Navi GPU or a Nividia RTX for full performance.

I think what we're missing is a display that is high-res (retina) and curved - 10K x 2880p

 

[toke lahti]

Audio over DisplayPort (from GPU) is preferable because it does not require a USB connection (either using USB-C or Thunderbolt). It makes connecting the display to an eGPU easier (or a PC or whatever - it's more compatible - otherwise you need expensive cables/adapters). I think audio using USB is not as CPU efficient as built-in audio or audio from GPU (but I don't think it's ever been a problem?).

There are many curved displays already (LG makes a couple of them). They have different radiuses. One of the latest/greatest is the Samsung Odyssey G9. 1000R means a radius of 1 meter which is very curved. The display is 5120x1440 - so it's not retina like a 5K display. I think your 5K2K barely qualifies as retina? The G9 uses DisplayPort 1.4 with Display Stream Compression (DSC) to get the high refresh rates - so you need a AMD Navi GPU or a Nividia RTX for full performance.

I think what we're missing is a display that is high-res (retina) and curved - 10K x 2880p

With mini2018, audio works with ultrafine and doesn’t work with mine.
There’s one benefit of using usb-audio.
I’ve used 1600px high desktop over an decade, so I’m not bargaining that.
Anything over that in height and at least 4k width with curve would be good enough for me.
1,5 years ago there was none. Is there any now?
Every monitor is retina display, when viewed at certain distance. Ultrafine’s pixel size is a waste for me, I like physically bigger screen. I’ve had 30” eizo since 2008.

 

[joevt]

With mini2018, audio works with ultrafine and doesn’t work with mine.
There’s one benefit of using usb-audio.

You said you can get audio back by changing the input selection back and forth on the display, right?

I’ve used 1600px high desktop over an decade, so I’m not bargaining that.
Anything over that in height and at least 4k width with curve would be good enough for me.
1,5 years ago there was none. Is there any now?
Every monitor is retina display, when viewed at certain distant. Ultrafine’s pixel size is a waste for me, I like physically bigger screen. I’ve had 30” eizo since 2008.

I understand. I'm reading this from an Apple 30 inch Cinema Display at the moment (2560x1600). I also have a 4K and a 5K (both 27 inch) and I can tell that 5K is smoother than 4K when using HiDPI resolutions like 2560x1440 (5K default) or 3008x1692 (6K default).

There are 3840x1600 displays with curve.
https://pcpartpicker.com/products/monitor/#r=384001600&C=1

 

[toke lahti]

You said you can get audio back by changing the input selection back and forth on the display, right?

Yeah, but this is just an amazing workaround to a bug that never got fixed.
I can't say that I'm satisfied with it.

I understand. I'm reading this from an Apple 30 inch Cinema Display at the moment (2560x1600). I also have a 4K and a 5K (both 27 inch) and I can tell that 5K is smoother than 4K when using HiDPI resolutions like 2560x1440 (5K default) or 3008x1692 (6K default).
There are 3840x1600 displays with curve.
https://pcpartpicker.com/products/monitor/#r=384001600&C=1

I'm setting the bar of my future monitors to UHD vertical rez.
There are 4 curved monitors on the planet now (with UHD vert rez):

Monitore mit Auflösung vertikal: ab 2160 Pixel, Form: gebogen (curved) Preisvergleich Geizhals EU

Preisvergleich und Bewertungen für Monitore mit Auflösung vertikal: ab 2160 Pixel, Form: gebogen (curved)

geizhals.eu

Will have to check how's their gamuts when time for that, none of them seems very high quality...
...and only 31.5" Philips has a somewhat wider gamut!

Philips E-Line 328E1CA ab € 328,09 (2024) | Preisvergleich Geizhals EU

✔ Preisvergleich für Philips E-Line 328E1CA ✔ Bewertungen ✔ Produktinfo ⇒ Funktion: Monitor (stationär) • Diagonale: 31.5" (80.0cm) • Auflösung: 3840x2160 (4K UHD), 16:9, 140ppi •… ✔ Monitore ✔ Testberichte ✔ Günstig kaufen

geizhals.eu

And it has dp1.2, meh...

Display market just isn't for me...

If someone would sell me a 65" 3D uhd television with steep curve, I'd buy it in a heartbeat...

 

[joevt]

There are 4 curved monitors on the planet now (with UHD vert rez):

Monitore mit Auflösung vertikal: ab 2160 Pixel, Form: gebogen (curved) Preisvergleich Geizhals EU

Preisvergleich und Bewertungen für Monitore mit Auflösung vertikal: ab 2160 Pixel, Form: gebogen (curved)

geizhals.eu

Those all have UHD horz rez also, making them all just UHD.
Too bad none of the 5120x2160 displays are curved even though they are wider than those by a couple inches (34 inch vs 31.5 inch except for that Phillips which is 40 inch).

 

[toke lahti]

@joevt, maybe you could know what's the issue here?

 

[joevt]

@joevt, maybe you could know what's the issue here?

If you are asking about the audio cutting out, then I don't know. If the problem is caused by computer sleep then I would disable computer sleep. Just allow display sleep (I enable a hot-corner for the screen saver to put the display to sleep).

 

[toke lahti]

Oh, sorry, I missed the link: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...r-without-straight-connection-to-mac.2249163/
But this got resolved by the the sloppier-than-before author...