M2 Mac mini/HDMI : which 24 inches monitor should I get?

[stratquebec]

Hi!

 

My next mac will be an M2 Mac mini. I would like to  connect it to a HDMI monitor. So, which 24 inches  monitor should I get to have the same or near the same beautiful image quality I get on my 2015 13 inches 1280x800 Macbook Pro  Retina display? I don’t want a 27 for some reasons.  24 inches will be perfect.

Thanks for your help!

 

[David Nahmani]

The ASUS ProArt monitors are pretty good... here's the 24" ASUS ProArt.

[stratquebec]

Thanks for the suggestion David and for pointing me in the right forum!

This budget monitor seems interesting. I tried to find a 4k/24 inches but there are not so many out there and they are now so much expensive at least here in Quebec. 

So,  I’ll keep an eye on this one. 

Thank you!

[Holger Lagerfeldt]

I'll second the newest Asus ProArt. But remember to install BetterDisplay and activate HiDPI or activate HiDPI yourself in the Terminal.

This will give you a much sharper look, closer to the Retina look you're used to.

[stratquebec]

Thanks for your help Holger.

7 hours ago, Holger Lagerfeldt said:

This will give you a much sharper look, closer to the Retina look you're used to

Ok but I’ll get bigger text and image using HiDPI on a full HD monitor, isn’t it?

[Holger Lagerfeldt]

No, that's the thing.

You should always run at the screen's native resolution. If the screen's native resolution is e.g. 1920 x 1200 then do not change that in your display preferences.

Then simply enable HiDPI using BetterDisplay or via a Terminal command.

It'll give you the same UI size and font size, but things will be sharper and crispier. Less blurred. You get the picture.

The lower the resolution, the bigger an impact HiDPI will have.

Edited November 18, 2023 by Holger Lagerfeldt

[David Nahmani]

20 minutes ago, Holger Lagerfeldt said:

No, that's the thing.

You should always run at the screen's native resolution. If the screen's native resolution is e.g. 1920 x 1200 then do not change that in your display preferences.

Then simply enable HiDPI using BetterDisplay or via a Terminal command.

It'll give you the same UI size and font size, but things will be sharper and crispier. Less blurred. You get the picture.

The lower the resolution, the bigger an impact HiDPI will have.

So basically you're scaling the resolution with Better Display rather than in your Mac's system preferences, and this results in a smoother scaling? I'm going to test this now. 

[Holger Lagerfeldt]

It's merely activating macOS' own HiDPI mode, which Apple a couple of years ago decided to hide from users with 3rd party sub-4K displays.

One can only guess as to their motivation. Ahem.

https://github.com/waydabber/BetterDisplay/wiki/Fully-scalable-HiDPI-desktop

You don't need to use BetterDisplay, you can simply activate HiDPI using commands in the Terminal. But most people don't know how or don't like to use the Terminal, which is why I recommend BetterDisplay.

It doubles pixel density, similar to Retina, or uses fractional scaling.

The physical resolution stays the same (e.g. 1920 x 1200), it's simply more detailed because the framebuffer is rendered at 2x vertical and 2x horizontal resolution.

With HiDPI mode on a LoDPI screen, the framebuffer is then interpolated and grey-scale aliased down to match the physical resolution. I don't think Apple uses sub-pixel rendering anymore.

In this case, vectorbased UI elements don't get tiny, but they get sharper. Bitmapped graphics are upscaled, but maintain relative size. Fonts still have the same size on screen, but aliasing looks much nicer.

For me the difference with HiDPI off/on in the studio is between a headache and being able to focus on what I'm doing. See emuated screenshot examples below.

My 5K iMac is already Retina, so no worries there.

The lower your screen's native resolution, the bigger the difference with HiDPI activated, so it's a must for sub-4K displays IMO.

EDIT: Fixed bad example/explanation

Edited November 19, 2023 by Holger Lagerfeldt

[stratquebec]

Seems very cool Holger! 

According to   this article  ,the terminal commands to activate HiDPI are:

 

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver.plist DisplayResolutionEnabled -bool true

To de- activate HiDPI:
sudo defaults delete /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver.plist DisplayResolutionEnabled

Too bad I can't test this HiDPi hack right now since I just returned an Asus 24" Full HD monitor because I was not satisfied with the "blury-ish" fonts/icons/image quality...

 

 

7 hours ago, David Nahmani said:

I'm going to test this now. 

Very easy via Terminal it seems! 

Edited November 18, 2023 by stratquebec

[Holger Lagerfeldt]

Consider getting the newest ProArt 16:10 (1920 x 1200) rather than "Full HD" 16:9 (1920 x 1080). Then activate HiDPI.

https://www.asus.com/displays-desktops/monitors/proart/proart-display-pa248crv/

The "blurry-ish" effect on the Full HD screen you tested is probably because you're used to Retina now, nothing wrong with the screen per se.

HiDPI will go a long way to fix that blurry-ish look, and the extra space on the 16:10 screen doesn't hurt either, especially when you're at only 24" in size.

By far the sharpest 3rd party screen I've seen and smashing color space.

Emulated LoDPI vs. HiDPI framebuffer on the 1920 x 1200 ProArt.

Please notice that in reality you cannot grab a screenshot from HiDPI mode and say "this is how it looks on my screen" since what you're grabbing is actually the framebuffer. That's another benefit of HiDPI mode, you'll get better screenshots.

To capture the actual displayed picture you'd need to grab the downscaled signal after interpolation and aliasing, just before it's sent to the screen.

HiDPI mode gives my CPU a -1% hit, but it's worth it. No idea what the GPU or memory hit is.

Edited November 19, 2023 by Holger Lagerfeldt

[stratquebec]

Wow Holger! The difference is stunning on this PA248CVR Proart monitor. Very very near from the Retina quality. And thanks for the detailed technical infos.

And may I ask you to post a screenshot of the icons in the duck? I’m curious to see what they look like! 

[Holger Lagerfeldt]

Remember what you're seeing here are the screengrabs from the framebuffer and an emulation of the difference HiDPI makes at the same physical size, not a photo of the actual screen, which - yes- happens to be an excellent screen.

Here are examples of my dock. Don't have ducks this year, though (geese I do keep some years, though. Taste great).

Archive.zip

Previews seemed off in the post, so I attached the two pics as a downloadable ZIP instead. Makes it easy to A/B as well.

Here's how to calibrate the PA248CRV:

I use 75 Hz on my Mac mini M2. HDR off. HiDPI on, naturally.

Preset
User Mode 1

Palette
Brightness: 100

Contrast: 80

Saturation: 55

Hue: 50

Color Temp.: 6500K (or 5500 if you prefer it cold)

RGB Tuning: None (50/50/50)

Black Level > Signal: 50

Image
Sharpness: 0

Trace Free: 20

Aspect Control: Dot To Dot

Input Range: Auto

Blue Light Filter: N/A or Off

 

Edited November 19, 2023 by Holger Lagerfeldt

[stratquebec]

1 hour ago, Holger Lagerfeldt said:

Don't have ducks this year, though (geese I do have some years, though. Taste great).

Oh well, it's better not to try to eat a piece of your Apple dock in any case. Must be really difficult to digest!

Thanks for the pics of the dock and the screen settings Holger. The difference is rather noticeable I would say.

I hesitate between a new M3 24" iMac and a combo Mac Mini/3 party monitor solution but this HiDPI/PA248CVR settings makes me seriously lean towards this option...

Thanks a lot for your time!

 

Edited November 19, 2023 by stratquebec