You may have seen 4K TVs for sale, or now have a device that records video in 4K (iPhone 6S and 6S Plus) and you’re wanting to know more about it. This guide will help you with what you might want to know about viewing and even editing 4K content on a Mac.
- Best Video Card For 4k
- 4k Video Card For Mac Pro 2010 Cpu Upgrade
- Video Cards For 4k Tv
- 4k Video Card For Mac Pro 2010 Keygen
- Final Cut Pro, Motion 5, and Compressor 4 require a graphics card that supports Metal, an Apple technology that lets the system and apps efficiently tap into the capabilities of today’s graphics processors (GPUs). If you're editing 4K video, using 3D titles, or editing 360º video, 1GB of VRAM is recommended.
- AMD Radeon R9 280X 3GB HDMI PCI Express Video Graphics Card for Apple Mac Pro, outperforms ATI Sapphire Radeon HD 2600, 4870, 5770, 7950, 9000, 9800 Gigabyte 4.5 out of 5 stars 10 COMeap Dual Mini 6 Pin to 8 Pin PCI Express Video Card Power Adapter Cable for Mac Pro Tower/Power Mac G5 15-inch(38cm).
- My three touchstones here are 4K output and 10.12.6 / 2010 Mac Pro compatibility. A large 4K TV will do fine as a display for me. This will almost certainly mean that the connection to the display will be HDMI, so it would be lovely if any candidate display card had HDMI output.
Get the best deals on Mac Pro Graphics Card and find. Card for Mac Pro 2008 2009 2010 2012 661-5719. GPU Video Graphics Card for Mac Pro with Metal 4K Boot.
What the heck is 4K anyway?
Like 720p and 1080p, 4K is a resolution in which images and video can be displayed on a TV or monitor. 4K means there are ~4000 pixels per horizontal line. Not all 4K is the same though. TVs and monitors that say they are 4K UHD, or just UHD, have a resolution of 3840×2160. Full 4K is a resolution of 4096×2304. Both have an aspect ratio of 16:9. Another measurement is Hz. Hz is the refresh rate of the display. The higher the number of Hz the smoother video appears on the display.
The human eye can’t tell the difference between 4K UHD and full 4K, but it can when it comes to the refresh rate (Hz). Watching 4K video shot at 60 FPS on a display with 24Hz will appear choppy compared to a display with 60Hz.
Which Macs support 4K?
Apple has two computers with
Other Apple computers support 4K external displays using either the built-in HDMI port and/or using Mini DisplayPort adapters via Thunderbolt. The resolutions and refresh rates are not the same for each machine though. Here’s a breakdown:
Uses built-in HDMI:
- Mac Pro (Late 2013)
- MacBook Pro (Retina, 13in, Late 2013 and later)
- MacBook Pro (Retina, 15in, Late 2013 and later)
- MacBook (Retina,12in)
Resolution options using built-in HDMI are 3840×2160 at 30Hz or 4096×2160 at 24Hz. Mirroring is not supported when using 4096×2160 at 24Hz option. MacBook (Retina, 12in) requires USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter.
Uses Mini DisplayPort to DisplayPort cable adapter or Mini DisplayPort cable via Thunderbolt port with
- MacBook Air (Early 2015)
- MacBook Pro (Retina, 13in, Early 2015)
- MacBook Pro (Retina, 15in, Mid 2014 and later)
Uses Mini DisplayPort to DisplayPort cable adapter or Mini DisplayPort cable via Thunderbolt port with
- Mac Pro (Late 2013)
- MacBook Pro (Retina, 15in, Mid 2015 w/ AMD Radeon R9 M370X)
- iMac (Retina 4K, 21.5in, Late 2015)
- iMac (Retina 5K, 27in, Late 2014 and later)
All of these Macs also support 3840×2160 at 60Hz using a Mini DisplayPort to HDMI adapter via Thunderbolt Adapter.
Mac OS X Yosemite 10.10.3 or higher is required to support these resolutions. The ability to use Target Display Mode has been removed from the Retina iMacs so they are not able to be used as a 4K/5K display themselves now.
What about older Macs?
The only other Macs that support 4K are the older Mac Pro towers from 2008-2012. They don’t support 4K natively though. The stock graphics cards from Apple, and even the upgraded ones they offered, only support a resolution of 2560×1600. You’ll need an aftermarket graphics card to be able to support 4K. The only ones I’m aware of at the time of this writing are the NVIDIA Quadro K5000 and AMD Radeon HD 7950. The NVIDIA card works in Early 2008 Mac Pros and newer, the AMD card only works in Mid 2010 and Mid 2012. The NVIDIA card is much more expensive but has more GDDR and supports CUDA.
Which display to get?
There are a lot of 4K TVs and displays on the market now and the prices have dropped quite a bit over the past year. Look for a TV or display with at least 60Hz refresh rate for better picture quality.
If you’re wanting the ability to daisy chain displays similar to how the Thunderbolt Display works, then look for ones with Multi-Stream Transport (MST).
These computers support 4K 60Hz MST displays:
- MacBook Pro (Retina, 15in, Late 2013 and later)
- MacBook Pro (Retina, 13in, Early 2015)
- Mac Pro (Late 2013)
- iMac (Retina 5K, 27in, Late 2014 and later)
- iMac (Retina 4K, 21.5in, Late 2015)
Only one additional Thunderbolt display is supported when using a 60Hz MST display with the MacBook Pro (Retina, 15in, Late 2013) or iMac (Retina 5K, 27in, Late 2014)
You can find some recommended 4k displays here.
Let’s edit 4K!
Editing 4K requires a lot more power than just displaying it. A machine with Intel Core i7 or Xeon processors, at least 32GB of RAM, and a graphics card with at least 3GB GDDR is recommended for best performance. Machines that qualify are:
- Mac Pro (Late 2013 w/ D500 or D700)
- Mac Pro (Early 2008, Early 2009, Mid 2010, or Mid 2012 w/ NVIDIA Quadro K5000)
- Mac Pro (Mid 2010 or Mid 2012 w/ AMD Radeon HD 7950)
- iMac (Retina 5K, 27in, Late 2014 w/ AMD Radeon R9 M295X)
- iMac (Retina 5K, 27in, Late 2015 w/ AMD Radeon R9 M395X)
These all have i7 or Xeon processors and graphics cards with 3GB GDDR or more.
Best Video Card For 4k
Going beyond 4K…
Dell makes a 27in 5K display (UP2715K) that’s compatible with the Mac Pro (Late 2013), iMac (Retina 5K, 27in, Late 2014 and later), and the MacBook Pro (Retina, 15in, Mid 2015 w/ AMD Radeon R9 M370X) at full 5K resolution, 5120×2880. To be able to take advantage of 5K resolution the monitor does
Graphics card requirements
Final Cut Pro, Motion 5, and Compressor 4 require a graphics card that supports Metal, an Apple technology that lets the system and apps efficiently tap into the capabilities of today’s graphics processors (GPUs). If you're editing 4K video, using 3D titles, or editing 360º video, 1GB of VRAM is recommended.
4k Video Card For Mac Pro 2010 Cpu Upgrade
Supported aftermarket graphics cards
The following aftermarket graphics cards support Metal in macOS Mojave and later:
Video Cards For 4k Tv
- AMD Radeon HD 7950 Mac Edition
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 Mac Edition
- NVIDIA Quadro K5000 for Mac
- AMD Radeon VII
- MSI Gaming Radeon RX 560 128-bit 4GB GDRR5
- SAPPHIRE Radeon PULSE RX 580 8GB GDDR5
- SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 7950 Mac Edition
- NVIDIA Quadro K5000 for Mac
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 Mac Edition
- AMD Radeon RX 560
- AMD Radeon RX 570
- AMD Radeon RX 580
- AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100
- AMD Radeon RX Vega 56
- AMD Radeon RX Vega 64
- AMD Radeon Pro WX 9100
- AMD Radeon Frontier Edition
4k Video Card For Mac Pro 2010 Keygen
Learn more
- Learn about Final Cut Pro, Motion 5, and Compressor 4