2018 Macbook Air hot/slow when using UHD monitor

Question

So I upgraded from a 1080p 27 inch monitor to the following

Samsung 32" UHD 4K Monitor Model: LU32J590UQNXZA

I've tried connecting over HDMI using a USB C dock, and over Displayport with a Displayport to USB C cable.

In both cases if I'm doing anything graphic intensive, or even in a video call, my laptop gets hot quickly and starts stuttering to the point of the mouse and keyboard hesitating.

All I've read says the new macbook air should be able to handle a 4K monitor. I mostly needed more screen real estate, not so much high resolution.

Am I expecting too much of integrated graphics? I'm not expecting to game on this laptop, but video calls become non-functional, and when I'm using Affinity Photo it also starts screeching to a halt even when working on small images.

Answer 1

I have the same problem with my 2018 15" Macbook Pro. The only thing that helps is to set the scaling for the display not to the max screen real estate.

It's not getting warm or anything, but the interface is kind of laggy.

Answer 2

Par for the course, sadly. The more pixels that need pushing out, the harder the whole machine has to work, and the thinner the machine the less efficient the cooling.

Answer 3

I went to the Apple store to get some diagnostics done. When I plugged into one of the high end 4K LG monitors that had USB C built in it ran fine, even using Affinity Photo on high resolution projects. My guess is the USB-C adapters I tried were only Thunderbolt 2 and not Thunderbolt 3 capable. The hard part is getting honest/clear specs on the adapters, many claim to be Thunderbolt 3 but I'm guessing they really just mean it's the USB-C physical form but not actually capable of the data/power throughput.