Ever since I bought the Dell U2713HM monitor, I've had it plugged into my hackintosh and never considered using it with my Retina MacBook Pro, recently I wanted to find out if it is possible to get the full 2560x1440 resolution from the rMBP.

The short answer is yes, it is doable.





The long answer is a little bit more involved. I've tested a bunch of different cables and adapters to see what works and what doesn't. Below are my findings.

This is the configuration of the rMBP used for this test:


The first cable I tested was a Mini-Display Port to HDMI.


Resolution: 1920 x 1080 @ 60 Hz
Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)

Next up was the Mini-Display Port to Display Port cable.


Resolution: 2560 x 1440 @ 60 Hz
Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)

Then was time to use the Apple Mini-Display Port to DVI adapter with a DVI to HDMI cable.


Resolution: 1920 x 1080 @ 60 Hz
Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)

After this I tried the Apple Mini-Display Port to DVI adapter with a Dual-Link DVI cable.


Resolution: 1920 x 1080 @ 60 Hz
Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)

Last combination was the Apple Mini-Display Port to VGA adapter with a VGA cable.


The picture quality was terrible using a VGA cable.

Resolution: 2048 x 1152 @ 60 Hz
Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)
Adapter Firmware Version: 1.03

It looks like the Apple DVI Adapter and a HDMI connection are the most limitation configurations. The VGA cable picture was terrible and not usable with colour bleed and ghosting. The best option is to use a mini-DP to DP cable.

-i