It’s clear that even in 2026 most people still don’t get the pixel density (PPI) argument. Or perhaps they get it but they don’t appreciate it. For me, any monitor that is not HIDPI (218 ppi) is a non starter. Maybe my eyesight is better than the average but looking at a non-retina display seems atrocious after having spent time working on a retina display.
>macOS has been designed to be legible and usable with a pixel density of about 218PPI (pixels per inch) for “Retina” class desktop displays. If a display’s PPI is higher, text and the macOS user interface will be smaller. If a display’s PPI is lower, text and the macOS user interface will be larger. Stray too far from 218PPI and macOS becomes unusable.
I some ways I wish I'd never seen a Retina display. I'm cursed to buy expensive monitors for the rest of my life.
It would be nice if these comments were used to discuss this specific article rather than becoming a general dumping ground for unannotated brief announcements about what monitor somebody uses. What’s particularly frustrating is when a commenter posts their setup, it goes against the advice given in the article, but then there is no acknowledgement that the poster has even read the article or wants to justify their choice!
It doesn't help the way that Apple is using "internal" resolution and scaling versus how Windows does it. If you aren't within the density of "retina" display [1.] then there's solid chance the image you're looking at will be blurry. Even though you might have high quality display (whatever the size and resolution are) if you don't play by the rules Apple had imagined you're in tough spot.
I normally use 1440p Retina mode on a 2160p display (internally rendered at 5120x2880, scaled to 3840x2160) on my 2013 Mac Pro running Sequoia, and almost everything looks great.
Caveats:
1. Non-Retina aware VM hosts, remote control clients, and emulators that try to render anywhere near the native resolution look bad, as there's no way to render individual pixels. Retina-aware remote control clients like Microsoft Remote Desktop look great, as do emulators running low resolutions like VGA.
2. Images can't be displayed pixel-perfectly, which is rarely a problem when viewing or editing photos, and obviously not a problem when viewing or editing vector artwork, but can be an issue when viewing or editing native resolution screenshots and other non-photographic images, as shown in the article (but see the first "nice benefit" below).
3. X11 applications displayed in Xquartz don't look great.
4. Video decoding and processing is considerably more resource intensive, as video, like everything else, is rendered at the full internal resolution. On my system (12-core 2013 Mac Pro with D300 GPUs), the only practical problem I've had, aside from relatively high CPU/GPU utilization, is frame drops when playing back 60 FPS video in MPV with some of the higher-quality GPU scaling and postprocessing algorithms enabled.
Nice benefits of the implementation:
1. Screenshots are saved at the full internal resolution, so they look accurate when opened in an image viewer, and even better when viewed on a display that supports the full internal resolution.
2. You can zoom in to see the full internal resolution in real time using the OS's Accessibility Zoom feature.
Final note: I've rarely had problems more serious than window rearrangement when switching between 2160p60 native, 1440p60 Retina, 1080p60 Retina, and 1080p120 native, so switching resolutions in the rare cases where I need a native or integer scaled resolution is only a minor inconvenience (e.g., I occasionally run Mac OS 9 under QEMU for fun or to copy data from an older Mac filesystem that current OS versions don't support; incidentally, I seem to recall QEMU is one of the few examples I've found of Mac software that has trouble with resolution changing at runtime).
I use two LG 5K Ultrafine models. The quality is fantastic.
Only two things to watch out for.
The first is burn-in. I now move windows about when I can, and also tend to use Dark mode for everything. I also set up BetterTouchTool to give me 10%, 20%, 30% etc brightness mapped to Cmd plus the numeric keypad. I use a comfortable level of brightness, and only bump it up for a short while when I need to examine something. I also have some anti burn-in videos downloaded with yt-dlp to clear burn-in when I find a ghost of it on the screen.
The other problem is screen activation. There is no power button on the LG displays. I like to keep the Macbook Pro in sleep mode when not in use, so I can resume with my app windows in the same state from the previous session. My whole desk setup is behind a smart switch. Often, when resuming from sleep, one of the displays would not wake and the only workaround was to unplug and replug the thunderbolt cable at the Macbook side. I work around this by having the Macbook continuously powered by my Orico dock when in use or sleeping, and this seems to address the problem. There is also an occasional issue of a single display switching off when I am using it, and this just means a thunderbolt unplug and replug at the Macbook side. But fortunately this has been fairly rare.
So, visually great hardware that I’m thankful for, but Apple’s “it just works” doesn’t really apply here. Just mentioning these in case someone is experiencing similar issues.
Actual display recommendations aside I would have loved this article years ago when trying to explain to designers why a font on one device may not look the same on another device, even if it's the same font-family and pixel height, especially when they're all using Macs.
> 120Hz refresh rate would be nice to have, but there is no display I’m aware of that meets the macOS pixel density requirement while also providing faster refresh rates.
Is this still true, meaning, is the new Studio Display XDR the only option that is also Retina/HiDPI and also 120Hz? I've seen a lot of commentary dumping on the price, but if they're really the only option then they can charge whatever Apple Tax they want.
16 comments
[ 3.5 ms ] story [ 116 ms ] threadNot about the new Apple Displays.
The requirement I have is that it has to be 120Hz, probably OLED and it must have built in speakers.
Any recommendations?
I have a 5k2k 44" OLED monitor from LG. Looks great on my Mac Studio.
Sadly they were not produced since 2024, but they are very good.
BTW, if someone is selling, I'm buying to have more spares.
I some ways I wish I'd never seen a Retina display. I'm cursed to buy expensive monitors for the rest of my life.
[1.] https://www.caseyliss.com/images/2017/5/marc-edwards-display...
Caveats:
1. Non-Retina aware VM hosts, remote control clients, and emulators that try to render anywhere near the native resolution look bad, as there's no way to render individual pixels. Retina-aware remote control clients like Microsoft Remote Desktop look great, as do emulators running low resolutions like VGA.
2. Images can't be displayed pixel-perfectly, which is rarely a problem when viewing or editing photos, and obviously not a problem when viewing or editing vector artwork, but can be an issue when viewing or editing native resolution screenshots and other non-photographic images, as shown in the article (but see the first "nice benefit" below).
3. X11 applications displayed in Xquartz don't look great.
4. Video decoding and processing is considerably more resource intensive, as video, like everything else, is rendered at the full internal resolution. On my system (12-core 2013 Mac Pro with D300 GPUs), the only practical problem I've had, aside from relatively high CPU/GPU utilization, is frame drops when playing back 60 FPS video in MPV with some of the higher-quality GPU scaling and postprocessing algorithms enabled.
Nice benefits of the implementation:
1. Screenshots are saved at the full internal resolution, so they look accurate when opened in an image viewer, and even better when viewed on a display that supports the full internal resolution.
2. You can zoom in to see the full internal resolution in real time using the OS's Accessibility Zoom feature.
Final note: I've rarely had problems more serious than window rearrangement when switching between 2160p60 native, 1440p60 Retina, 1080p60 Retina, and 1080p120 native, so switching resolutions in the rare cases where I need a native or integer scaled resolution is only a minor inconvenience (e.g., I occasionally run Mac OS 9 under QEMU for fun or to copy data from an older Mac filesystem that current OS versions don't support; incidentally, I seem to recall QEMU is one of the few examples I've found of Mac software that has trouble with resolution changing at runtime).
- BenQ PD2730S (5K)
- BenQ MA270S (5K, Thunderbolt 4)
- Asus PA27JCV (5K)
- Acer ProCreator PE270XT (5K)
- Asus PA32QCV (6K)
- Acer ProCreator PE320QXT (6K)
Announced at CES, not yet for sale:
- MSI MPG 271KRAW16 (5K)
- MSI MAG 271KPD7 (5K)
The first is burn-in. I now move windows about when I can, and also tend to use Dark mode for everything. I also set up BetterTouchTool to give me 10%, 20%, 30% etc brightness mapped to Cmd plus the numeric keypad. I use a comfortable level of brightness, and only bump it up for a short while when I need to examine something. I also have some anti burn-in videos downloaded with yt-dlp to clear burn-in when I find a ghost of it on the screen.
The other problem is screen activation. There is no power button on the LG displays. I like to keep the Macbook Pro in sleep mode when not in use, so I can resume with my app windows in the same state from the previous session. My whole desk setup is behind a smart switch. Often, when resuming from sleep, one of the displays would not wake and the only workaround was to unplug and replug the thunderbolt cable at the Macbook side. I work around this by having the Macbook continuously powered by my Orico dock when in use or sleeping, and this seems to address the problem. There is also an occasional issue of a single display switching off when I am using it, and this just means a thunderbolt unplug and replug at the Macbook side. But fortunately this has been fairly rare.
So, visually great hardware that I’m thankful for, but Apple’s “it just works” doesn’t really apply here. Just mentioning these in case someone is experiencing similar issues.
Is this still true, meaning, is the new Studio Display XDR the only option that is also Retina/HiDPI and also 120Hz? I've seen a lot of commentary dumping on the price, but if they're really the only option then they can charge whatever Apple Tax they want.