Ultrawide Primary Monitor + normal-size Extended Display results in font/cursor too small

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Ultrawide Primary Monitor + normal-size Extended Display results in font/cursor too small

I'm using a Samsung Odysee Neo 49" as my main monitor (which has been out for over one year), and a UPerfect 4K 15.4" as my extended display. They are both connected to the Mac Studio via USB-C to DisplayPort. This is perfect for Final Cut editing using the 15.4" as a preview viewer and the Ultrawide to see an expansive editing timeline.

But with the 15.4" correctly set to 4K (3840x2160) which I require for editing 4K content, macOS unfortunately misinterprets the monitors as being these relative sizes:

Obviously macOS has got this badly wrong, thinking the small monitor at the bottom is huge (because it incorrectly calculates it in comparison to the 5140x1440 resolution of the Ultrawide), and it results in windows, fonts, icons, and even the cursor, on the extended display looking unusably tiny:

Is there any way to fix this, whilst retaining 3840x2160 resolution for the small monitor?

Thanks in advance.

Posted on May 15, 2022 7:39 PM

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Answer 1

May 21, 2022 2:42 AM in response to AppleIIme

If you check "Show all resolutions", is not there one resolution like "1920x1080 HiDPI" or something similar?

This would be similar to how an internal "Retina" display works. The interface is drawn scaled as if the whole resolution were 1920x1080 (hence text is larger, but also smoother, using additional pixels) but media is displayed at "real" resolution.

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Answer 2

AppleIIme Author

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May 21, 2022 9:42 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Thanks Luis. That's what I had hoped but when I change it to 1920x1080 the monitor's OSD itself reports that the screen is now in 1920x1080 mode. Hence, using the FCPX Viewer no longer displays a 4K preview of the video, just HD 1080p. Is that not the intended behavior?

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Answer 3

May 21, 2022 9:46 AM in response to AppleIIme

I was hoping not for a straight 1920x1080 resolution, which behaves as you describe, but one with "HiDPI". If that option is not available, then you may want to try a third party solution as a workaround, like Display Menu or SwitchResX, in the hope that they offer the extra resolution options.

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Answer 4

AppleIIme Author

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May 21, 2022 9:50 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

I've tried SwitchResX but couldn't see anything that might help. To be clear, per my screenshot, Apple is offering the 3840x2160 option. But the text, timecode, Ken Burns and Crop and Transform menus and everything else on that FCP Viewer are microscopic.

If we're on the same page, what should I be looking for in SwitchResX other than the 3840x2160 that Apple Prefs already offers?

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Answer 5

AppleIIme Author

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May 26, 2022 3:06 PM in response to AppleIIme

Well, for anyone else with this issue, this tool solved everything for me. I now have a 3840x2160 display with normal size fonts and cursor. https://github.com/waydabber/BetterDummy

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Answer 6

AppleIIme Author

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May 20, 2022 5:17 PM in response to AppleIIme

Polite bump. Really hope someone can assist me. The text on the bottom monitor is so microscopic its unusable. This can't be what Apple intended.

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