See at Apple Who should get a 4K display for Mac? If you want the maximum amount of pixels all in one panel, want a focused working environment, don't want to turn your head a lot, like the idea of a single cable connection, and don't care about having extra ports on the display, go with the 5K display.

If you need more and more varied ports, go with one of the other 4K.If you don't need a hub but you do need an amazing display, go with the 5K.See the best 4K displays currently available for the Mac Other 4K displays, though, offer more in the way of ports. In other words, they're freaking great panels that make for freaking crappy hubs.Īlso, because all the ports are USB-C, if you want to connect USB-A, Ethernet, or anything else, you'll need a dongle. The same, for some less explicable reason, is true of the LG UltraFine 4K display. Literally every other bit is streaming steady 5K. Here's how the LG UltraFine 4K display looks next to the LG UltraFine 5K:īecause of the incredibly bandwidth required for 5K - and the chicanery needed to make it work over DisplayPort 1,2-bound Thunderbolt 3 ports - the LG UltraFine 5K display only leaves you with 3x USB-C ports on the back, and they're restricted to 5 Gbps. In some cases, bigger isn't better at all. Whether or not size matters will depend on how much space you available to you on your desk and in your room. Those are different beasts and something outside what I'm discussing here. Note: There are 4K televisions, which can connect over HDMI, that come in a wide range of sizes, including enormous 120-inch models. That's Apple's name for when the dots-per-inch (dpi) is high enough that you can no longer see the individual pixels and it looks more like a photo or real-world image. Apple seems to have standardized around 21.5-inches for 4K and 27-inches for 5K, that way the pixels remain at a small enough physical size that, when used from a normal working distance, qualify as 'Retina'. In other words, 5K displays are typically bigger than 4K displays. With great pixels comes great panel size.

If the sheer quantity of pixels on the panel is important to you, go with 5K.

5k monitor for mac pro 2013