Try enabling HiDPI on a 1440p display

[Zur9ckrollen]

I have a 2560 x 1440 Thinkvision X24q display connected to a RX480 GPU and I wish to enjoy HiDPI scaling on it. I followed the steps in this thread:
https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/adding-using-hidpi-custom-resolutions.133254/
But there're only HiDPI resolutions under 1280*720, both in SysPref and RDM. Is there a way to enable HiDPI options like 1080p HiDPI? Things are just too big in 720p HiDPI.

 

[b166ar]

I think first you should understand what is HiDPI and how it works.

Now your monitor is working in native 2560x1440 resolution. one visible pixel equal to one physical pixel.

HiDPI resolution doubled the pixel density. So one visible pixel will be drowned by four physical pixels. In your case its possible only with the resolution 1280x720.

To enable true HiDPI for 1920x1080, your native resolution should be 3840x2160. iMac 5k has the visible resolution 2560x1440, but native screen resolution is 5120x2880.

If you scale 2560x1440 to 1920x1080, your display will try to show 1 visible pixel with 1.5 physical pixels. So the picture will be blurry in the result.

You have three options:

1. Work in native 2K resolution. Sharp image, but UI could be smaller than usual if your screen size is less then 27 inches.
2. Get HiDPI with 1280x720. Sharp but pixelated image (big screen, low resolution), super big UI.
3. Scale your image to 1920x1080. Bigger UI size, but blurry image.

No magic. You can't trick a pixel grid.

If you want a great experience with an external monitor paired with macOS systems, you should think in terms of DPI (dots per inch), not resolution.

macOS UI looks excellent with DPI about 110 for non-HiDPI/Retina screens, and 220 DPI for HiDPI/Retina. This is how Apple designed macOS.

You can count your DPI with this calculator https://www.sven.de/dpi/

If DPI is lower than 110 for non-HiDPI/Retina, UI will be bigger then on iMac. Your monitor DPI is 123.41, so UI and fonts look tiny. If you scale resolution to 1920x1080, your UI will be big, because of 95.78 DPI. And blurry ThinkVision X24q is not macOS friendly at all.

 

[Zur9ckrollen]

I think first you should understand what is HiDPI and how it works.

Now your monitor is working in native 2560x1440 resolution. one visible pixel equal to one physical pixel.

HiDPI resolution doubled the pixel density. So one visible pixel will be drowned by four physical pixels. In your case its possible only with the resolution 1280x720.

To enable true HiDPI for 1920x1080, your native resolution should be 3840x2160. iMac 5k has the visible resolution 2560x1440, but native screen resolution is 5120x2880.

If you scale 2560x1440 to 1920x1080, your display will try to show 1 visible pixel with 1.5 physical pixels. So the picture will be blurry in the result.

You have three options:

1. Work in native 2K resolution. Sharp image, but UI could be smaller than usual if your screen size is less then 27 inches.
2. Get HiDPI with 1280x720. Sharp but pixelated image (big screen, low resolution), super big UI.
3. Scale your image to 1920x1080. Bigger UI size, but blurry image.

No magic. You can't trick a pixel grid.

If you want a great experience with an external monitor paired with macOS systems, you should think in terms of DPI (dots per inch), not resolution.

macOS UI looks excellent with DPI about 110 for non-HiDPI/Retina screens, and 220 DPI for HiDPI/Retina. This is how Apple designed macOS.

You can count your DPI with this calculator https://www.sven.de/dpi/

If DPI is lower than 110 for non-HiDPI/Retina, UI will be bigger then on iMac. Your monitor DPI is 123.41, so UI and fonts look tiny. If you scale resolution to 1920x1080, your UI will be big, because of 95.78 DPI. And blurry ThinkVision X24q is not macOS friendly at all.

I see... So there's no way around? Enabling 1080p HiDPI might make UI elements look too big, but I think it's still better than having the fonts so awfully rendered, especially in dark mode. I wonder if I can enable a 125% scaling like in Windows, though scaling is different in Windows and macOS.
Maybe I should look for a new display the next time I build a hack... Thank you for your reply.

 

[b166ar]

I see... So there's no way around? Enabling 1080p HiDPI might make UI elements look too big, but I think it's still better than having the fonts so awfully rendered, especially in dark mode. I wonder if I can enable a 125% scaling like in Windows, though scaling is different in Windows and macOS.
Maybe I should look for a new display the next time I build a hack... Thank you for your reply.

Windows can scale only fonts and UI without changing the native resolution. It's true. But macOS don't have this future.

Your best option is 27 inches and 1440p (109 DPI). Fonts and UI will be similar to iMac 27.

 

[YaPaY]

Hello,

I have 4k 3840 x 2160 4k Samsung display. Can i enable 1440p hidpi or stick only 1080p hidpi