Apple Pro Display XDR on Windows.

Rabel · January 18, 2020

In their newest video about the Pro Display XDR Linus mansions, that, on Windows, you only can have 4k resolution.

I think he used a thunderbolt add in card and hooked that up to the monitor. Most of them are quiet old or just support DP v1.2, which would make sense, because the max res of 1.2 is 4k60.

However in a Video made by Snassy labs the display worked with a surface laptop 3 at 6k. Which doesn't even has Thunderbolt. So I think thunderbolt isnt needed for the Pro Display XDR and you just need a DP 1.4 USB type-C connector. And isnt the virtual link port on the new RTX lineup just that?

So the Pro Display XDR should work at 6k with the Virtual Link provided by the RTX lineup, or am I wrong?

skimmilk5 · January 18, 2020

Technically, the display must be DisplayLink compliant, since it is Thunderbolt3 compliant (tech politics blah blah). As a result, it will work. The key is, it won't work WELL with Windows. Like mentioned, the display itself has no OSD, since it utilizes the Mac that it's connected to control the display's settings, such as its color mode, the scaling, and even the display brightness.

Your definition of "work" defines whether it work in the way you like. There might be hacky ways to do it (someone might write some software to spoof the display), but you definitely won't be getting all of the features that are advertised, the important part of which is the color reproduction features. Lmk if this doesn't make sense, hope this helps!