Reverse virtual monitors for 8K2K ultrawides - possible?

[piokaczo]

Hi!

I'm preparing to buy an 8K2K ultrawide monitor (7680 × 2160), which I plan to connect to my MacBook Pro M3 Max using the solution provided here: https://www.reddit.com/r/ultrawidemasterrace/comments/184irpy/how_to_connect_neo_g9_57_to_the_mac_m1_m2_m3_pro/. Essentially, it involves using two cables for two separate parts of the screen, both working at 4K@120Hz, and then displaying them as one unified screen using the picture-by-picture setup. Unfortunately, this has one disadvantage on Macs: the dock won't be positioned in the center of the display, but rather on one of the halves.

I already know that I will need to use BetterDisplay to achieve some of the things I want, but the question remains: is it possible to create a single 8K2K virtual display and then send its halves to both outputs? In this configuration, the monitor would be connected through two cables, stitched together on the display, thereby overcoming the 60Hz limitation.

[tslaton]

To my knowledge, it is not possible to combine the two separate 4k displays into one 8k2k display, but you might find other aspects of my experience with this resolution helpful.

[piokaczo]

Hi @tslaton. I have actually ended couple weeks ago doing exactly the same as you described. I believe that my CPU, display as well as even resolution I’ve chosen are exactly the same :) I just have bumped refresh rate to 120Hz.

Probably that’s just a case of great minds thinking alike ;)

There are some issues and occasionally some pink flashing but it is relatively issues-free and perfectly usable.

Btw. There is a way to have two displays in PIP with 120hz as well. There is at least one thread somewhere on Reddit describing using usb-c to DP and usb-c to hdmi emulating DP through CableMatters adapter. I believe that having thunderbolt dock that may be accomplished by one cable but hadn’t need to test it.