New Apple Silicon M4 & M5 HiDPI Limitation on 4K External Displays

Starting with the M4 and including the new M5 generations of Apple Silicon, macOS no longer offers or allows full-resolution HiDPI 4k modes for external displays. The maximum HiDPI mode available on a 3840x2160 panel is now just 3360x1890 (with a 6720x3780, instead of 7680x4320 backing store) - M2/M3 machines did not have this limitation. With this regression Apple is leaving users to choose between: Full screen real estate at 4k (3840x2160) with blurry text due to HiDPI being disabled. or ...

March 29, 2026 ยท 10 min ยท 2115 words ยท Sam McLeod