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The best way to fix image problems on external monitors is to use a free app called BetterDisplay (formerly known as Better Dummy).īetterDisplay works by “unlocking” your screens making them fully scalable natively with an HiDPI resolution slider to freely scale the desktop size. Here then are the best ways to fix external display problems on Macs including Apple Silicon Macs.

To fix these problems with external displays on Macs, including Apple Silicon M1 and M2 Macs, you need to either change the display resolution settings in macOS or use third party software to do so depending on what the problem is.

How To Fix External Display Issues On Macs This is why you need third party software in order to manage a monitor’s resolution when using it with an Apple Silicon M1 or M2 Mac. Intel x86 processors can still enable HiDPI on non 4K and 5K displays and allow you to configure the resolution.Īpple Silicon M1 and M2 Macs can only do this on external displays that support at least 4K but if you sent the display to its native 1440 resolution with an M1 or M2 Mac, everything looks really small.

There are also other reasons for these display issues with Apple Silicon M1 and M2 which are complex but are basically because Apple Silicon chips are based on ARM architecture compared to the older Intel Macs which are based on what’s called x86.ĪRM based Macs use different graphics drivers to Intel Macs which don’t play well with anything other than Apple products such as Apple’s own displays, iPads and iPhones. On those external displays that don’t support 218 ppi, even those with stunning 5K 5120 x 2160 resolution, the image may still appear blurry or difficult to read particularly on ultra-wide displays such as the 5K LG UltraFine monitor. The only non Apple monitor that can support 218 ppi is the 27 inch LG UltraFine which is by far the best alternative to the Apple Studio Display.

The reason why the image on external monitors connected to MacBooks sometimes looks so bad is basically because external displays can’t support the Retina high pixel density mode (HiDPI) of a Mac which is 218 pixels per inch (ppi).Īpple’s own Apple Pro Display XDR (which supports a stunning 6K and 1600 nits of brightness) and Apple Studio Display can support HiDPI but they don’t come cheap at $5,000 and $1,599 respectively. The result is text and web page elements that look either too small or blurry magnified images on your external display. On many non Apple displays with 1080p, 1440p, 4K and 5K resolutions, Macs do not scale them well. Why External Monitors Look Blurry On M1, M2 & Retina Macs

How To Fix External Display Issues On Macs.

Why External Monitors Look Blurry On M1, M2 & Retina Macs.

Best Alternatives To The Apple Studio Display.

This is why we strongly recommend only buying an external display for an M1 or M2 Mac that supports 4K or more such as one of these external displays: This is a particular problem on cheaper QHD monitors with resolutions of less than 4K especially 1440p which cannot reproduce the retina quality display of the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air. Other problems Mac owners have struggled with include flickering, color problems, blurry fonts, garbled images and lag on external displays. Many MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, Mac Mini and Mac Studio owners have found that text and icons can appear tiny, blurry or fuzzy when connected to external monitors that support 4K and 5K resolutions. There are various issues that can affect Mac users with external monitors but one of the most common is terrible image quality when connected to M1 and M2 Macs although Intel Mac users have also had problems.

However, if you’ve bought one of the many alternatives to the Apple Studio Display then most of them don’t support 218 ppi which is at the heart of most resolution issues with external displays connected to Macs. If you bought an Apple Studio Display then chances are you have no problems with the resolution because with support for 218 pixels per inch (ppi), it’s designed for the high pixel density that Macs are capable of. If you’ve bought an external display for your Mac Studio, MacBook Pro or Mac Mini and found that the resolution is poor or the picture is blurry including on M1/M2 Macs, macOS Ventura and Monterey, here are some tips on how to fix it.

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