Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

The author says that you don't need to choose between 4K and 120Hz, because there are "reasonably priced" monitors on the market that have both. But their recommended monitor ($900) seems a lot more expensive than a 4K 60Hz monitor (which is around $300-$400 when I search on Amazon).

The author also says (they think) that you need the discrete graphics card in a MacBook to take advantage of a 120 Hz display, and that the integrated Intel Iris graphics won't do.

I was actually shopping around for a new MacBook earlier today, and noticed that the 13" MacBook Pros only come with integrated GPUs, and you have to get the 16" MBP if you want discrete graphics. So if you like the portability that a 13" laptop has, this might not be a good tradeoff (not to mention that the 16" one costs $400 to $800 more than the top-spec 13" one).

I totally agree with the stuff they say about rendering fonts on 4k screens, but I don't think I'd be willing to take the hit in portability, or shell out an extra $700+, to get 120 Hz.




For what it’s worth, the latest 13” MacBook Pro (with integrated intel graphics) can power the 6016x3384 Pro Display XHR at 60Hz.

I am unsure what refresh rates it can achieve with a lower resolution.

But really as someone who made the jump from 60Hz to 120Hz, I wouldn’t bother unless you’re gaming. I accidentally was running my monitor locked to 60Hz and when I fixed it, I barely noticed the difference - it was only really when playing FPS that I noticed.


Yeah you're right, it can do 6K at 60Hz, and according to Apple it can also do:

> Up to two external 4K displays with 4096‑by‑2304 resolution at 60Hz in millions of colours

So I guess if it can power 2 monitors at 60Hz, it should be able to do 1 monitor at 120hz, right?


The current Ice Lake MacBook Pro 13" supports DisplayPort 1.4, which can do 4K at 98Hz with HDR or 4K at 120Hz in SDR.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: