MacBook Pro with Retina Display takes on the new 4K monitor from Asus

Looking for a 4K display for your brand new MacBook Pro with a Retina display? Asus just unveiled it in Taipei and it’s coming out later this month. But you better wait for the next generation of MacBook because right now they can’t move millions of pixels smoothly due to hardware and software limitations.

Asus recently presented its new monitor with 4K resolution at the Computex Taipei 2013, the most important technology fair in Asia. What is 4K? It’s the power to watch four videos at 1080p at once without missing a single pixel. Doing the math that gives a resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels for the new ASUS monitor with an IGZO panel of 140 ppi density. A screen monster dedicated to professionals, gamers or people with a lot of money. Now, what are you missing? A computer capable of moving that many pixels.

MacBook Pro with Retina Display takes on the new 4K monitor from Asus
MacBook Pro with Retina Display takes on the new 4K monitor from Asus

The Verge lo has been testing a MacBook Pro with a Retina display with the dedicated GeForce GT 650M graphics card, capable of 4K output, but due to OS X limitations the MacBook was only able to rescale the content to reach the display resolution.

The fun part was opening resource-intensive applications like Lightroom. By all accounts the system became slow and even the mouse cursor had lag . They also tested YouTube content at 4K that was processed correctly by the graphics card, rescaling the content and experiencing no delay. As they say it was already demonstrated in the past how the MacBook Pro with Retina display was able to move 3 external monitors plus its high-resolution screen without getting messy.

All this may change soon. The newest Intel processors, the Haswell, seem to be the candidates for the new MacBook, and among the most outstanding features besides the lower power is the ability to handle 4K resolutions thanks to the integrated graphics.

If you were willing, Asus is planning to release his monstrous 31.5-inch monitor at the end of this month at the affordable price of $4,000. There is some debate about whether this monitor is aimed at laptops or desktops – new Mac Pro? – but if anything, it is not curious to see the direction the market is taking towards more and more pixels. What will be the end?

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