Since the release of the new Mac’s with M1 chip, users have been blown away and rightly so. New MacBook’s featuring the Apple M1 chip are surprisingly fast and outshines some of the previous processors on the market, not to mention the M1 chips’ powerful graphics capabilities compared to intel-based computers.
There have been few reported issues with MacBook’s loaded with the M1 chip since November 2020 until now, however, one problem has been noted with some users. If you’ve ever used your previous generation intel MacBook before then you’ll know that they support a variety of external display monitors and resolutions. You may also be aware that intel-based MacBooks can support more than one display screen.
However, this is not the case for silicone M1 MacBooks as only one external display monitor can be used at any time. However, this is not the only issue. New M1 chip-based Macs are having significant issues with ultra-wide external displays. To be more precise, they are having issues with displaying some ultrawide and super-ultrawide resolutions.
macOS Big Sur does not support certain high levels of resolutions in the system preferences making ultra-wide and super-ultrawide external displays redundant, for now.
It’s not yet clear which external display screens are having this issue and how widespread the issue is but Apple has acknowledged it and has released the following statement in a support document;
“If the supported resolution isn’t available on an ultrawide or super-ultrawide external display connected to your Mac with Apple M1 chip:
If you connect an ultrawide or super-ultrawide monitor to your Mac with Apple M1 chip, some resolutions supported by your display may not be available.
Apple is aware of this issue and resolution is planned for a future macOS update.
To see the additional resolutions for your external display, choose Apple menu  > System Preferences, click Displays, then press and hold the Option key while you click Scaled.“
This is clearly a software oversight on Apple’s part and it will only be a matter of time before Apple patches this resolution issue with an update but until then you can try the following fix whilst you wait.
SwitchResX to the rescue!
Whilst you wait to Apple to hurry up and release an update for your ultrawide display monitor why not check out SwitchResX? SwitchResX is an app you can download and try our for 10 days for free.
“SwitchResX is the most advanced tool for Apple computers to take control of any screen connected to the Mac. No matter whether a MacBook Screen, an external monitor, a Retina display, a TV set, or a beamer: SwitchResX can handle them all – if you want, straight from the menubar, a contextual menu, or both. It’s that easy!“
With ScreenResX, you can take control of the resolution you need. It will work seamlessly with most ultra-wide and super ultra-wide display monitors and will sit in your Mac’s preference panes. You can then easily activate it and select which resolution you need for your external display screen.
Of course, full use of this app will cost you something but you can download SwitchResX here and try it for 10 days for free.
If you are one of those users who have been affected by the problems of the M1 Macs with ultrawide displays, then wait until Apple releases an official patch.
