Why you should still NOT buy an Ultrawide Monitor for your M1 Mac (P3421W & BetterDummy)

A follow up to my previous Ultrawide + M1 Mac video. In this video, I clear up some misconceptions about the issue, the solution, the issues with the solution and whether you should get the Ultrawide for the M1 Mac.

See below to skip to different topics in the video.

0:00 - Intro
0:40 - Overview
1:20 - The problem - clarified
6:19 - Solution: BetterDummy
7:48 - Issues with BetterDummy
9:57 - Conclusion
11:29 - Should you get an Ultrawide for your M1?
12:44 - Ultrawide vs Standard & 4K vs QHD Matrix. This matrix shows the proper scaling ability of various types of monitors.

This fix should solve most flickering issues:

The following procedure eliminates the problem on the affected setup consistently:
1. Ensure that the Dummy is mirror main for the external screen
2. Set the external screen color profile to Dummy...
3. Ensure that the Dummy's color profile remains Dummy...
4. Disconnect the dummy
5. Reconnect the dummy
6. Activate sleep
7. Wait until the display goes to standby
8. Wake the mac
9. Result: the color space should not alternate and there should be no flickering anymore.
Steps 3 and 4 are important to ensure the fix works, if you simply change the color profiles to Dummy... for both displays, the issue will not be fixed.

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[skytechone]

Hi everyone. I have BetterDisplay (Rebrand - originally named BetterDummy) version 1.2.7 and it no longer flickers! So now this is pretty much a perfect fix. Thanks to WayDabber the developer for his hard work and dedication! This is no longer an issue and now, you SHOULD buy an Ultrawide for your Apple silicon!

[dannycase]

I've been using an M1 Macbook Pro and a 34" ultrawide for a year and I absolutely love it. Graphics, colors, clarity, brightness, crispness...absolutely zero complaints.

[td-blue]

Thank you so much!! It solved issue on Dell U3421WE, text is crispy clear now!. I needed to play with settings to set it up correctly. If it doesnt solve your problem play with settings.It works

[dverser]

Love the Better Display. I run on MacStudio, got this display today.
The app solved my scaling issue, so now this is pretty handy to work on.

[sonidojamon]

If you want to go for ultrawide 21:9 aspect ratio, get a 34" UWQHD (3440x1440) and use it in native resolution. Screen real state and text size are perfect. No high DPI, but sharp as native can get.
Same thing for a 16:9 27" monitor which must be 2560x1440 native.
If you want a 4K display, go for a 32" one running native as well.

For 2x High DPI, get a 27" 5k 5120x2280 monitor, which is exactly double the size of a 2560x1440 monitor.
And for Ultrawide (21:9) 2x HDPI, its equivalent would be a 34" UWUHD 5040x2160.
Any other option would and extra stress to macOS' rendering engine (CPU/GPU) and could affect performance.
Settled!!

[dannieduplessis]

Oh man...money is not so much an issue for me to a degree...but im not buying the 34' apple monitor...thats completely ridiculous.
I am wanting to buy a Mac Mini.
For my workload, i need 1 wide monitor as apposed to having 3 monitors which drives me nuts.
What monitor do you think or where can i find good fair information on a 34" to 40" wide screen monitor ?
My requirements are not so much for gaming, but running trading programs.
So i need txt clarity along with watching a financial tv on the monitor at the same time.
Thanks.

[jYarmo]

Thank you so much! I legitimately looked everywhere trying to solve this issue and BetterDummy is exactly what I needed. I am slightly worried about my memory usage (I'm on an m1 mac mini w/ 8 gig of ram trying to power an LG 49" ultrawide lol), but so far it's worked perfectly.

[padrontorre]

Just to clarify what BetterDisplay does is the ability to output the original resolution but with a custom UI scaling? Thanks for the info on the video about ultrawides

[lolfirepoisonftl]

Great video! I appreciate the production quality and how informative you made it. From your personal experience, how is the sharpness of native 3440x1440 compared to your 4K monitor? I'm used to the sharpness of a 27" 4K monitor so I'm worried 3440x1440 would be a noticeable downgrade for me. I was hoping Betterdummy would help with the sharpness on a 3440x1440 but I'm not confident in that. It's tough because I really want to try an UW monitor but now that I'm on a Mac Studio, I'm leaning towards your advice at the end of the video and staying with a 27" (or 32") 4K monitor. Thanks Victor!

[jbar_]

Thank you for talking about this! I just got a MBA M3 and the text is terrible on a 4k LG monitor. No matter what I did. I simply gave up and returned it. I will just use the build in screen on my current MBA M1. It’s clear and sharp. It’s a shame Apple does it. They do it to force you to buy their expensive monitor.

[cosmooooooooo]

Hey man, this is a very valid problem, and extremely well explained, GJ ! Such a pity that in 2023 we have to deal with such issues for a ultra premium product. My current set-up is a M2 + an ultrawide 3440x1440 and my current sweet-spot (conformable text size & crispness/sharpness) is in HiDPI 1720 X 720, with 'zoomed out' text within the apps (basically I went in View and chose a smaller value for the text size and luckily you can default that for all apps). I'm using a chromium based browser that allows scaled 67% for any website and so on and so forth. The result is Ok, just that the title bar text and some system text are a bit larger. Do I have any better options ? And then is there a way to save these OS settings, play with other modes and easily revert if needed (like a snapshot)? Thanks.

[TeitokuGaming]

My mate was selling the P3421W for cheap and I was thinking about picking it up for my MBP M2 work machine but after watching this, nah I rather just stick with 4K 27inch monitor for safe bet, I prefer cripsy image.

[thomasdietz]

I get you.. I tried two really good 4k monitors for music productions and it sucked! Native was way to small and as you say if I went lower the text got bigger but I hated the look of it! My solution was 3440-1400 (for my use) on a 34 BenQ PD3420Q! I have been looking at the same Dell you have and my quetstions to you is will it be the same as the BenQ I have if I use 3440-1440 on the Dell ? Soory if my English is bad. By the way I am on a Mac Mini M1

[Msenlightened]

So what monitor do ya”ll suggest? I’d like a bigger screen than 32in. This is for an Apple Mac Studio and content creator. Thanks

[oholdeno]

Would it be accurate to say that you're eyes are more suited for 1080p? Since an ultrawide is 1440p natively and you wanted things "bigger", then the step below that is 1080p isn't it? Seems like you may as well go with a 4K monitor that natively scales to 1080.

[farhadlalehdashti]

Thank you 🙏
Is that ok Monitor Charge MacBook Pro hundred percent all the time ?

[scottphardin]

I have better display 1.415 with no flickering. Ive enabled the near native HDPI scaling options and it works great on my 1440p ultra wide.. I'm still super confused on whether I can get anything out of creating dummies.

[dylizchill]

Ya I bought the samsung 49inch and paired it with my Mac Studio... wish I just bent over and got the Apple display.
The screen is just not a good fit for color and resolution.

[SuperArtarded]

Coming to mac from the windows side of things, its odd that apple fans like to scale resolutions so much. I don't understand the idea of paying for 4k and then running 1080 effective resolution, seems to defeat the point.

[kitespongan]

I’m really regretting my Samsung CJ791 ultrawide after a few months. While I’m fine with that 2k res and lower, the bigger issue for me is cursor lag, delay, and almost always inaccurate. This is on a Mac Studio M1 base, even a wired mouse still performed as bad as a wireless mouse or trackpad. Anyone else have cursor issues with Ventura? 😢