Apple confirms fix for ultrawide monitors with M1 Apple Silicon Macs is coming

AppleInsiderAppleInsider
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in General Discussion
Users of certain ultrawide and super-ultrawide external monitors are reporting that some resolutions are not available when used with an Apple Silicon M1 Mac, but Apple says that a fix is coming.

Apple Silicon Macs are having problems with ultrawide monitors
Apple Silicon Macs are having problems with ultrawide monitors


Apple's Apple Silicon M1-based Macs did change what external monitors are supported, but now an unknown number of users are reporting issues with limited resolution options.

Specifically, when either so-called ultrawide or super-ultrawide displays are connected to the new M1 Macs, macOS Big Sur does not offer the option to use certain resolutions. Such monitors are built to display a range of resolutions, but those are simply not listed in the System Preferences, Display pane.

"Apple is aware of this issue," says the company in a new support document, "and resolution is planned for a future macOS update."

The issue was first spotted by MacRumors. Apple has not confirmed when a fix will be released and adds only that "this document will be updated as more information becomes available."

Apple's Displays settings pane is not displaying all the available resolutions that an attached monitor can support
Apple's Displays settings pane is not displaying all the available resolutions that an attached monitor can support


It's also not clear yet how widespread the problem is, nor whether it affects only certain brands of monitor. The new 13-inch MacBook Pro and M1-based MacBook Air, are both limited to supporting just one external monitor, down from multiple in their previous Intel versions.

The new Mac mini has a similar limitation with only one external display allowed via DisplayPort. However, it's possible to run a second monitor off the Mac mini via HDMI.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 12
    ivanhivanh Posts: 597member
    iMac should have Display rotation available for the internal display. It’s too high and not ergonomic. Many people have neck pain because of the iMac design. 
    williamlondon
  • Reply 2 of 12
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,727member
    ivanh said:
    iMac should have Display rotation available for the internal display. It’s too high and not ergonomic. Many people have neck pain because of the iMac design. 
    Interesting idea, the entire iMac itself could have a 90° rotation on a newly designed stand as the Radius Monitor had back in the 1990s. This could be an alternative BTO as no doubt it would cost more to build and manufacture.
  • Reply 3 of 12
    dewmedewme Posts: 5,371member
    ivanh said:
    iMac should have Display rotation available for the internal display. It’s too high and not ergonomic. Many people have neck pain because of the iMac design. 
    With my desk height set to 29” my 27” iMac is exactly at the level specified by the Mayo Clinic’s recommendation.

    (https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/adult-health/in-depth/office-ergonomics/art-20046169)

    It’s almost as if Apple planned it that way at least for a person of average height, which I am. Adjustability would have been ideal because there’s no way as you said to lower the screen. As they mention, people with bifocal eyeglasses need to lower the screen 1”-2” for better ergonomics. When I wore multifocal eyeglasses I had a special pair designed for working at a computer screen specifically to compensate, so I wouldn’t be inclined to tilt my head back. Interestingly, I have a second 27” screen attached to my iMac with exactly the same dimensions as the iMac screen, in fact I think it’s the same LCD panel, and I have it rotated 90 degrees. It gives me a great display surface for displaying certain types of content, like running three VMs stacked top to bottom, but it is far from ideal for me (with mono focal vision) because the top part is too high and the bottom part is too low. It’s okay as a second screen but would be torturous as an only screen. But if you have normal vision your results may be different. I totally agree that Apple should at least make the iMac’s display height variable, and if they can also accommodate rotation - why not.


    edited December 2020
  • Reply 4 of 12
    Eric_WVGGEric_WVGG Posts: 968member
    fyi, you can buy any iMac with an industry standard "VESA" mount instead of the stand and then put it on any old adjustable arm you want. Many are rotating. It'd be nice if that was just the standard and then the Mac stand was detachable, I guess, but maybe less Apple-y. 

    https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-mac/imac-vesa

    I could definitely imagine the next major revision of iMac using the XDR Display mount and then shipping with a basic stand, and letting users upgrade to the crazy thousand dollar stand at their discretion…
    seanjgc_ukmike1
  • Reply 5 of 12
    paraeekerparaeeker Posts: 73member
    Back to the topic at hand, multiple monitor support (or lack of) should have been noted when these were announced. 

    I have an M1 MBAir and while it’s fantastic to use as a laptop because it runs cool like an iPad, at some point in the future it might be more useful to me running in clamshell mode driving a pair of monitors. 

    Is this a hardware limitation or a way to get early adopters to upgrade?

    Aside: Rosetta for non native apps has been working flawlessly. So well that I’m tempted to think that some x86 emulation (ala microcode) is going on at the hardware level. 
  • Reply 6 of 12
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,727member
    Eric_WVGG said:
    fyi, you can buy any iMac with an industry standard "VESA" mount instead of the stand and then put it on any old adjustable arm you want. Many are rotating. It'd be nice if that was just the standard and then the Mac stand was detachable, I guess, but maybe less Apple-y. 

    https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-mac/imac-vesa

    I could definitely imagine the next major revision of iMac using the XDR Display mount and then shipping with a basic stand, and letting users upgrade to the crazy thousand dollar stand at their discretion…
    I did not know that!  That would mean it could easily have a 90° rotation... so does the System Preferences on said Vesa iMac allow rotation? I have an iMac 5K 27" in my Mac collection and it doesn't show any such ability that I can find.
    edited December 2020
  • Reply 7 of 12
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,727member

    paraeeker said:
    Back to the topic at hand, multiple monitor support (or lack of) should have been noted when these were announced. 

    I have an M1 MBAir and while it’s fantastic to use as a laptop because it runs cool like an iPad, at some point in the future it might be more useful to me running in clamshell mode driving a pair of monitors. 

    Is this a hardware limitation or a way to get early adopters to upgrade?

    Aside: Rosetta for non native apps has been working flawlessly. So well that I’m tempted to think that some x86 emulation (ala microcode) is going on at the hardware level. 
    I got an M1 Mac mini to play around with, mostly out of curiosity, and I agree Rosetta is amazing and I think we will see ARM Windows running easily via VMs soon.  Talk about a smooth transition!  The M1 Mac mini makes my new 27"  iMac 5K i9 with upgraded GPU look like a slouch in many situations, it's crazy.
    edited December 2020
  • Reply 8 of 12
    22july201322july2013 Posts: 3,572member
    I would definitely pay $300 extra for a rotating monitor. And I would use it for/with apps like Pages, Notes, Mail, Safari, xCode (if I could ever figure out how to use it) and Messages, which probably (collectively) represents about 40% of the time on my Mac.

    If Apple wanted to be innovative, the mount could include a motor so that it rotates on command. And it needs to be bevelless. (Two l's? I love coining new words unintentionally. One of my favourite poems ends with the word "lllama" [https://compendium.vuduc.org/poem94.html ] now I'm wondering if I can make a real three l-word like a wallless home, or a firewallless network.) 
    edited December 2020
  • Reply 9 of 12
    CheeseFreezeCheeseFreeze Posts: 1,249member
    I hope they’ll also fix the constant connection dropping of Bluetooth devices. 
  • Reply 10 of 12
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,727member
    CheeseFreeze said:
    I hope they’ll also fix the constant connection dropping of Bluetooth devices. 
    Agreed, my Magic Mouse drops out every now and then on my M1.
  • Reply 11 of 12
    MplsPMplsP Posts: 3,931member
    MacPro said:
    I hope they’ll also fix the constant connection dropping of Bluetooth devices. 
    Agreed, my Magic Mouse drops out every now and then on my M1.
    Is this a problem with the M1s or the mice? we have several iMacs with magic mice at work and routinely get dropouts from the mice. 
  • Reply 12 of 12
    nicholfdnicholfd Posts: 824member
    paraeeker said:
    Back to the topic at hand, multiple monitor support (or lack of) should have been noted when these were announced. 

    I have an M1 MBAir and while it’s fantastic to use as a laptop because it runs cool like an iPad, at some point in the future it might be more useful to me running in clamshell mode driving a pair of monitors. 

    Is this a hardware limitation or a way to get early adopters to upgrade?

    Aside: Rosetta for non native apps has been working flawlessly. So well that I’m tempted to think that some x86 emulation (ala microcode) is going on at the hardware level. 
    It was announced and is in the specs for all M1 based Macs.  It is a hardware limitation of the M1 processor - it can only drive two displays, and on the MacBook Pro/Air, the built-in display counts as 1 x display, always (clamshell or not).

    For MacBook Air, see this page, under video support:  https://www.apple.com/macbook-air/specs/
    • One external display with up to 6K resolution at 60Hz
    See equivalent pages for other M1 based systems.

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