Is it possible to put a retina 4k display in this model?
Good afternoon. Is it possible to put a retina 4k display in this model?
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Sadly no!
Your system specs: 21.5” iMac 2.3 GHz i5 (Mid-2017)
And the 4K mode: 21.5” iMac 3.0 GHz i5 (4K, Mid-2017)
Whats important here is the graphics services yours only uses the on CPU Iris Plus Graphics 640 services Vs the 4K which Radeon Pro 555 which is a more powerful GPU.
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If You mean that intel iris pro 640 can not cope with the resolution, then this can not be the reason. You can connect an external 5K monitor to this iMac and it will work through intel iris pro 640.
Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display at millions of colors (21.5-inch) or 1 billion colors (21.5-inch 4K) and:
One 5120‑by‑2880 (5K) external display at 60Hz with support for 1 billion colors, or
Two 3840-by-2160 (4K UHD) external displays at 60Hz with support for 1 billion colors, or
Two 4096‑by‑2304 (4K) external displays at 60Hz with support for millions of colors.
If you are working on static images (which we don't) then sure the external monitors can do this. If you are doing video editing or need motion then the answer is no the externals will lag and the higher the resolution and color depth the harder the graphics services work.
But unlike the the external monitors the internals are not complete displays! There is still a lot of stuff being driven by the logic board this gets into the signaling pathway the two displays use different logic as such they are not compatible in a spout and we still have the issue of what are you expecting!
Lets look at it this way a car and and a bus can carry people but can a car carry the same amount of people as a bus - No! This issue case here. Once you start pushing the displays the ability of the graphics services breakdown.
