[i336_]

Question. There are several mentions of $gigantic_resolution either providing the same or less display area than $smaller_resolution.

Are there any hacks that can convince macOS (or the older versions of OS X described in this article) not to treat the display as HiDPI? Yeah, I realize the machine will abruptly feel like it needs a magnifying glass to use, but in a pinch (laptop on lap <2ft from eyes) it might work for some (insert standard disclaimers here about eyes being non-replaceable and needing to last the distance).

Also.

The late-2015 21″ iMac is ~$1.5k+, and "has a multi-core Geekbench score of 5623."

Then the late-2011 17″ MacBook Pro which is ~$1.3k checks in with a "9240 Geekbench score".

Is there some datapoint I'm missing here?

[coldtea]

>Are there any hacks that can convince macOS (or the older versions of OS X described in this article) not to treat the display as HiDPI? Yeah, I realize the machine will abruptly feel like it needs a magnifying glass to use, but in a pinch (laptop on lap <2ft from eyes) it might work for some (insert standard disclaimers here about eyes being non-replaceable and needing to last the distance).

macOs already supports several resolutions higher than the standard 1/2native which is what Retina uses (half the native pixels at each dimension for twice the resolution).

IIRC, already the "default" resolution on newer MBPr with the touch strip is higher than the 1/2native (that used to be the default on retina laptops).

There are also apps like: https://www.thnkdev.com/QuickRes/ and http://www.madrau.com/ for more flexibility and full-native resolution even.

That said, the full native retina resolution on something like a 15" screen doesn't make any sense to me except for some special circumstances (maybe 4k movie viewing, but doesn't that already use the full resolution?).

>The late-2015 21″ iMac is ~$1.5k+, and "has a multi-core Geekbench score of 5623." Then the late-2011 17″ MacBook Pro which is ~$1.3k checks in with a "9240 Geekbench score". Is there some datapoint I'm missing here?

Yes, one is a GeekBench 3 score, the other is a GeekBench 4 score. Scores of 3 and 4 editions of the GeekBench suite are not comparable.

[i336_]

> Yes, one is a GeekBench 3 score, the other is a GeekBench 4 score. Scores of 3 and 4 editions of the GeekBench suite are not comparable.

Ah, that's what I was missing. Thanks.

[jolux]

>Are there any hacks that can convince macOS (or the older versions of OS X described in this article) not to treat the display as HiDPI?

You can change the display scaling directly in system preferences, I can crank mine all the way up to 1920 x 1200 scale (Late 2016 15"). Beyond that, there's QuickRes: https://www.thnkdev.com/QuickRes/

[to3m]

Another option is RDM, which is free: https://github.com/avibrazil/RDM

(RDM has never had an official home, I don't think, and I don't remember where I got my copy from. Think it was a link from reddit. So I can't comment about this particular version, which I found via Google just now.)

[bluedino]

>> Are there any hacks that can convince macOS (or the older versions of OS X described in this article) not to treat the display as HiDPI?

SwitchResX and others allow you to use your Retina Mac at its native resolution