I recently bought a MacStudio with 512GB of RAM and connected it to a LG 5k2k monitor. For some reason there was no way to change the font size (they removed the text size "Larger Text ... More Space" continuum from the Display section of settings) so I ended up with either super small or super large fonts without anything in-between. In the end I had to install some 3rd party software and mix my own scaled resolution with acceptable font size. This has never been a problem on Linux in the past 10 years, all I needed to do at worst when it wasn't done out of the box was to set scale somewhere and that was it.
I bought a MacStudio 2 months ago, on Sequoia you go to "display" and should see the various resolutions. If not, "advanced">"show resolutions as a list">"show all resolutions".
Unfortunately, resolutions offered were weird. Native is 5120x2160 but that wasn't offered and scaled resolutions were weird. I guess macOS didn't read monitor's information properly or something. I wasted a few hours frantically trying to figure out how to connect a $12k computer to a 4-year old monitor which should have been a breeze but for some reason wasn't. The same monitor worked fine on Linux or Windows.
I feel like this has something to do with Apple fucking with DP 1.4 for the ProDisplay XDR.
My 2019 Mac Pro with Catalina could happily drive 2 4K monitors in HDR @ 144 Hz.
People wondered how Apple got the math to work to drive the ProDisplay.
Big Sur? Not any more. 95Hz for 4K SDR, 60Hz for 4K HDR. Not the cables, not the monitors. Indeed, "downgrading" the monitors advertised support to DP 1.2 gave better options, 120Hz SDR, 75Hz HDR.
And it was never fixed, not in Big Sur, Monterey or Ventura, when I had switched monitors.
Hundreds of reports, hundreds of video/monitor combinations.
Truth. Third party software for trackpad. Third party software for mouse. Third party software for window management. Third party software for Spotlight replacement. Third party software to support a second external display.
The third party software is really good, but come on, Apple, take a hint.
That's basically the problem of today's Apple, and it won't get fixed because they have an incentive to let the 3rd parties fix those problems (they win both by taking a cut of software sales in the app store and selling more Macs while costing less dev money).
I doubt anything is going to get fixed, and Apple's hardware crown isn't as strong as before. But they like selling "services," so...
This is partly because of the culture of hacking the GUI started back in the 80s with original Mac OS. Extending the OS beyond base capabilities is fun, but Apple also is usually selling an 'as is' experience like a high end chef. You can add ketchup to your stake, but they aren't going to do it for you.
And, as I said, I really only needed the software once I got an (ultra)ultrawide monitor, and it could be the info it is sending is also non-standard in some way.
Why should someone need to set aside time to do research and come up with a plan to make a brand new (very expensive) computer do what it should do out of the box? Isn't Apple's big selling point that it "just works"?
"a hurried, wild, or desperate manner, often due to extreme worry, fear, excitement, or panic"
At some point this frantic nature of trying to do something will cause more issues all by itself.
Instead of spending hours in desperation, I was only suggesting taking a step back and maybe when not in a frantic state, it would be easier to move forward.
Yeah, I made the mistake of thinking I could use MacStudio for work right away. My bad. Next time I won't frantically try to work and take a vacation instead. /s
It was BetterDisplay. Thanks for the hint, will take a look at SwitchResX as well. BetterDisplay looks too complicated for what I need it to do (just switch the screen to 2560x1080 scaled).
i think (no proof, just experimenting on my 5k2k LG) that the various resolutions imply differing scalings. my eyes are really fortunately good so i just run at 5k2k and it's sharp (because i use larger fonts, app by app, so somewhat manually set scalings).
