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by mdasen 147 days ago
> I assume the dearth of other options was because macOS doesn't do fractional scaling

Except it does? I have a 14" MBP with a 3024x1964 display. By default, it uses a doubling for an effective 1512x982, but I can also select 1800x1169, 1352x878, 1147x745, or 1024x665. So it certainly does have fractional scaling options.

If you connect a 4k 2160p monitor, you can go down or up from the default 1080p doubling (https://www.howtogeek.com/why-your-mac-shows-the-wrong-resol...). If you select 2560x1440 for a 4k 2160p screen, that's 150% scaling rather than 2x (https://appleinsider.com/inside/macos/tips/what-is-display-s..., see the image where it compares "native 2x scaling" to "appears like 2560x1440").
2 comments
plorkyeran 147 days ago
macOS fakes fractional scaling by rendering a larger image at 2x and then downscaling it. For example, 1800x1169 renders a 3600x2338 at 2x scaling, then resizes the rendered image to 3024x1964. This is slower and looks worse than true fractional scaling would be, but makes the implementation a lot easier and in practice it’s hard to tell the difference. It’d look pretty awful if the native ppi wasn’t so high.
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MBCook 147 days ago
I believe it was 2x only early on. But as you said it’s fractional now and has been for a longtime.

The instant Apple wanted to use a panel that wasn’t 2x, the feature appeared.

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dzogchen 147 days ago
They may have fractional scaling but font rendering absolutely sucks if you don’t have 200dpi or more.

I tried using macOS on a 4K 27 inch monitor and it was pretty unbearable. Worse than a 1080p monitor on Windows or Linux.

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MBCook 147 days ago
They stopped shipping computers that have less than that. They clearly think that’s the minimum that’s viable.

Personally, I’m fine with that. It’s 2026 and I don’t understand why people are using 1080p monitors for work.

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jlokier 146 days ago
Some people don't have a choice. See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46698278

"The company I work at gives all new developers a pair of 1080p displays that could have come right out of 2010."

I have the same problem. The monitors at the office where I currently work are all low-DPI.

Work is quite irrational when it comes to spending decisions. It's not just penny pinching. They waste a lot of time and money at the same time as they block and worry about much smaller expenses. Asking them to provide one or two good, modern monitors at non-trivial cost would likely be described something as a "luxury" or "treat", which is how they described my personal laptop when they found out how much it cost.

At least I'm able to use my own laptop at the current job. It's much more powerful than anything the company would provide.

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