M2 Pro Mac mini + 8K display

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HA5

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The new M2 Mac mini with the "M2 Pro" chip supports 8K at 60Hz over HDMI 2.1 with an HDMI cable that supports 48 Gbps.
I'm thinking about using that with the Samsung 55" 8K QN700B.

I'm trying to figure out if that will work.
Will that give me 60Hz and 4:4:4 chroma?
Any downsides?
 
MKBHD showed using a large 8K TV in his review video. So it works.

What he did not show is whether scaling options work. MacOS scaling works by "target resolution x2 -> downscale to native res".

But at the same time this has been for inexplicable reasons been limited to a 8K (7680x4320) framebuffer, so if you wanted e.g a scaled 6K view on a 8K display for more comfortable text/UI size, it might not work because the framebuffer would become 6144x3456 * 2 = 12288x6912. It is possible this limit has been raised on M2 but it is yet unknown unless you can find some videos testing this.
 
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Does the QN700B accept an 8k signal? I haven't been able to find any reviews saying it will, just the QN900B on rtings.
 
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Darn, I bet it doesn't take an 8K signal. That would explain why no one's using it.
 
It's hard to find any good info about this TV, so far I still haven't been able to figure out what One Connect box it is using but: https://downloadcenter.samsung.com/...car_Pontus_Nike_Kant-SU2e_SA_ENG_220825.0.pdf

p. 167 says it can handle 8k 60hz video codecs when played directly off of USB but it lists the QN8xxB and higher separately so their a difference between those sets and the 700B.

p. 173 says the QN700B can handle 8k input 10 bit at 4:4:4 so according to the manual you should be good with the new Mac Mini, just make sure you have Signal Plus turned on.
 
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I planed to ask similar question, but here it is already.
I saw two videos, mkbhd and macrumors (you can find it on youtube, both are reviews of m2 pro/max macbook) where they connect mac to 8k tv, and it seems there is no HiDPI? Maybe I'm wrong, but it looks like that, just different resolutions with highest being 8k, and no 'looks like xxxx x xxxx etc" ..
So I'm waiting for more informations..

btw I have 65 qn 900b and it is 8k 60 4:4:4 ..
 
lapcevics said:
I planed to ask similar question, but here it is already.
I saw two videos, mkbhd and macrumors (you can find it on youtube, both are reviews of m2 pro/max macbook) where they connect mac to 8k tv, and it seems there is no HiDPI? Maybe I'm wrong, but it looks like that, just different resolutions with highest being 8k, and no 'looks like xxxx x xxxx etc" ..
So I'm waiting for more informations..

btw I have 65 qn 900b and it is 8k 60 4:4:4 ..
Click to expand...
This is most likely that 8K framebuffer issue I explained above. Makes an 8K display pretty useless unless it's a huge TV.
 
But as I understand, native "retina" 4:1 scaling (3840x2160) doesn't change anything, resolution is still 8k only UI is 4 times larger, it makes no sense not to be in HiDPI mode ( still, maybe I don't understand) ..
Problem would be scaling larger then "looks like 3840x2160", then virtual resolution will be larger than native 8k ....

My 65" 8k display is like 4 x 32" 4k displays, so PPI actually is nothing special, below 140 ppi, but it's of course huge.. so you can't sit really close.. I mean you can.. but for that I have studio display 5k ..
 
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lapcevics said:
But as I understand, native "retina" 4:1 scaling (3840x2160) doesn't change anything, resolution is still 8k only UI is 4 times larger, it makes no sense not to be in HiDPI mode ( still, maybe I don't understand) ..
Problem would be scaling larger then "looks like 3840x2160", then virtual resolution will be larger than native 8k ....

My 65" 8k display is like 4 x 32" 4k displays, so PPI actually is nothing special, below 140 ppi, but it's of course huge.. so you can't sit really close.. I mean you can.. but for that I have studio display 5k ..
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This is Apple we are talking about so expect them to do the absolute worst solution for external displays.

Apple probably did the minimum possible work so they can plaster 8K support on the new Macs.
 
I will buy m2 pro macbook anyway, and try it out, but I'm impatient to know what's happening :)
and in my country m2 is still unavailable ..

I'm now using it in 4k (from non-8k macbook), and size of UI text and everything for my setup is quite ok, but with HiDPI 8k I'd have same size UI but real 8k for media, photos, video (I have sony A1 8k camera.. so it's big step for my use case..)
 
Seems like the HDMI 2.1 support is again a big pile of crap on the M2.



Apple needs to completely redo this to something more sensible. It makes zero sense that bandwidth limitations matter for scaled resolutions when the output image will be just the display native res.
 
kasakka said:
Seems like the HDMI 2.1 support is again a big pile of crap on the M2.



Apple needs to completely redo this to something more sensible. It makes zero sense that bandwidth limitations matter for scaled resolutions when the output image will be just the display native res.
Click to expand...

I’ve wasted too much time hoping Apple will improve anything about anything related to displays.
 
tl;dw of the video: if you run 4K at 150% scaling with HDR, 4:4:4 chroma, and 10 bit color, you'll be limited to 100Hz max refresh. 200% scaling with the same specs lets you go to 120Hz. It is unknown if that's a bug in need of fixing or a permanent limitation.

What I'd love to see is a test of the claimed 4K240 support of the news Macs. Under what configurations is that achievable?

EDIT: on second thought, that reviewer says he's using an LG C1. IIRC that one doesn't support DSC, which Apple uses on the HDMI port. I wonder if a monitor with DSC doesn't run into the reported limitation.
 
enc0re said:
tl;dw of the video: if you run 4K at 150% scaling with HDR, 4:4:4 chroma, and 10 bit color, you'll be limited to 100Hz max refresh. 200% scaling with the same specs lets you go to 120Hz. It is unknown if that's a bug in need of fixing or a permanent limitation.

What I'd love to see is a test of the claimed 4K240 support of the news Macs. Under what configurations is that achievable?

EDIT: on second thought, that reviewer says he's using an LG C1. IIRC that one doesn't support DSC, which Apple uses on the HDMI port. I wonder if a monitor with DSC doesn't run into the reported limitation.
Click to expand...
Scaling should have no effect on things like HDR working etc.
 
Guys, I'm a bit confused, please help me
I'd like to buy the Mac Mini M2 Pro for the Samsung QN900A
Does it support 8k@60Hz ? HDR ??
Is there a similar OSX setting like the Windows 10 - Scale and Layout ? I have it on 150 % and for me it looks perfect
Thank you

​

 
shadowj said:
Guys, I'm a bit confused, please help me
I'd like to buy the Mac Mini M2 Pro for the Samsung QN900A
Does it support 8k@60Hz ? HDR ??
Is there a similar OSX setting like the Windows 10 - Scale and Layout ? I have it on 150 % and for me it looks perfect
Thank you

​

Click to expand...
See the video I linked above. MacOS is absolutely awful with scaling and with 8K displays seems to not support it at all. I believe the issue is that MacOS will naively just send whatever scaled resolution to the display and let it handle scaling it back to native res. Which means that it quickly runs into bandwidth limitations and then scaling just refuses to work at all.

As an example, 150% scaling + high refresh rate + HDR does not work together on my 4K display on my Macbook Pro 16" M2 Max. The HDR option just disappears at that scaling level but comes back if I reduce refresh rate to 60 Hz or use 1:1 integer scale or no scaling. It's downright idiotic.

I would absolutely not recommend trying to use a Mac with an 8K display for anything but media content.
 
but if I use 60 Hz, still issues??
Thank you so much for your reply
Hopefully, Apple will fix this with some future updates
 
shadowj said:
but if I use 60 Hz, still issues??
Thank you so much for your reply
Hopefully, Apple will fix this with some future updates
Click to expand...
You are likely to run into issues like scaling + HDR not working at the same time.
 
HA5 said:
M2 Pro Mini with 8k TV? | MacRumors Forums

Also noted in that thread see the 9:54 mark in this video.
Click to expand...

Looking at that I'm guessing it supports integer scaled 4K, 1440p and 1080p. No in-between options. BetterDisplay might be able to offer them but expect HDR support to just disappear.

Initial reports said that 8K would not support scaling but finding any real info seems difficult.

Intel vs Apple silicon are not often comparable, both do weird shit. External display support on MacOS is one of the most annoying things because you can never know what you get, what works etc. Reviews on Rtings etc don't go into much detail other than max refresh rate as scaling can again mess with that.
 
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