Dual Monitor layouts on Apple Silicon Macs - C1 sluggish
Hi everyone, Im running C1 Pro 23 (Build 16.3.3.6) on a Macbook M1 Max (macOS 14.2). The Macbook is connected to a LG Ultrafine 5K screen via Thunderbolt. The C1 Project an all files are on the very fast internal SSD. I'm mostly editing Phase One 60MP RAW files. Hardware acceleration is enabled.
When using C1 on only one screen, everything's zippy. But when I have my tools on one screen, and only the viewer on the second, C1 becomes sluggish. For example, if I change the exposure in an image, the change only shows up in the image after 1 or 2 seconds.
Rebuilding the previews doesn't help.
I've been having this problem for a couple of years now. C1 support told me back in January 2022 me that "Macs are still incompatible with multiple/dual-monitor setups - that is to say, they can technically run on a dual-monitor setup, but only the primary display will be working without any significant dropouts."
It would be disappointing for sure if this still were the case 2 years later. Does anyone in the forum have experience with Dual Monitor layouts on Apple Silicon Macs?
best,
Gebhard
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I'm using C1 16.3.2.32 with Ventura on a M2 Studio Ultra and a 16" M2 MBP Max. The Studio is connected to dual 4k monitors and the MBP is connected to a M1 iPad Pro using Luna Display, which makes the iPad into a secondary display. On the Studio, each monitor is connected to its own Thunderbolt port.
C1's working perfectly with both dual display setups. In both, I have my image window taking up most of the main monitor and tools are mostly in a single tab and arranged with the tools I use most showing on the main monitor and other tools (in the same tab) placed on the secondary. It works like a charm and I can switch among Workspace configurations properly on both machines.
I wonder if C1 was referring to Apple's published native multi-monitor support for the various Macs. This article tells how to connect multiple monitors to M1's and other Apple Silicon Macs:
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Hi Abbott,
thanks you so much for the detailed write-up of your setups. Good to hear that this works for you, I wonder what I'm doing wrong or missing.
The article you're referring to talks about connecting more than one external monitor to a Macbook, which is not the case with my setup.
best, Gebhard
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I'm going to butt in here.
I wonder what I'm doing wrong or missing.
Thank you so much for that. It seems seldom someone takes a moment for self reflection and possible ownership of a problem. Perhaps and likely it's confirmation bias as I read every post that hits this board but today it feels so very seldom people are willing to do this.
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Hi Gebhard,
Your setup "should" work fine. Have you tried connecting the monitor with something other than Thunderbolt? With my dual monitor Mac Studio setup, I've got the monitors connected via Thunderbolt-Mini DisplayPort cables. And doesn't your MacBook have an HDMI port that you could try?
The other thing to look at is the resolution you've set the external monitor to. If you haven't already, try using its native resolution instead of something that the Mac and/or C1 need to scale. Scaling can impact performance.
Good luck!
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But when I have my tools on one screen, and only the viewer on the second, C1 becomes sluggish.
There are two ways to do that
- Main window with tool tabs on one screen, the separate viewer window on the other
- Main window with the normal viewer on one screen, and floating tools on the other
Which way do you use, and does it make a difference if you use the other?
When using C1 on only one screen, everything's zippy.
With C1 on one screen, do you show the tools? The image in the viewer then is smaller, so maybe the preview will be used whereas with C1 distributed over two screens the image might be bigger and exceed the preview size.
What is your preview size set to?
In the two screen setup, can you make the image viewer as big (small) as in the one screen setup and see if there is a difference?
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+1 for preview size, also there is no mention of resolution used on the main screen - I assume that LG Ultrafine 5K is at its maximum?
Another quick explanation - you may have preview sizes determined by the main screen, but it might have relatively low resolution, so if viewer resolution after moving to the other screen exceeds preview size, Capture One is "forced" to use the original files in full.
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Thanks for your suggestions, Abbott, Beo and Marcin!
The monitor is a LG Ultrafine 5K, it only has a thunderbolt input and no HDMI. It's running at it's native Retina Resolution of 2560*1440 (which equals 5120*2880px). C1 previews are at 5120px. I also tried "Regenerate Previews" in the "Image" menu. The LG monitor shows the main C1 window (viewer in the middle, tools to the left and browser to the right). The Macbook's internal monitor has lots of floating tools. When C1 starts up, the C1 main window starts on the LG monitor.
"regenerate previews" seems to alleviate the choppiness a little, so maybe I'll have to do that more while editing.
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I'm using C1 16.3.2.32 with Ventura on a M2 Studio Ultra and a 16" M2 MBP Max. The Studio is connected to dual 4k monitors and the MBP is connected to a M1 iPad Pro using Luna Display, which makes the iPad into a secondary display. On the Studio, each monitor is connected to its own Thunderbolt port.
C1's working perfectly with both dual display setups. In both, I have my image window taking up most of the main monitor and tools are mostly in a single tab and arranged with the tools I use most showing on the main monitor and other tools (in the same tab) placed on the secondary. It works like a charm and I can switch among Workspace configurations properly on both machines.
I wonder if C1 was referring to Apple's published native multi-monitor support for the various Macs. This article tells how to connect multiple monitors to M1's and other Apple Silicon Macs:
https://www.macworld.com/article/675869/how-to-connect- y9 -two-or-more-external-displays-to-apple-silicon-m1-macs.html
Hey, thanks for sharing your setup and experience! It's interesting to hear that C1 is running smoothly for you with dual displays on the M2 Studio Ultra and MBP. I've been a bit hesitant about expanding my workspace because of the issues mentioned, but it sounds like it might be worth giving it another go, especially with different Apple Silicon Macs. Appreciate the link to the article as well; I'll definitely check it out for more insights on multi-monitor support. Cheers!
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I’m not see ing any sluggishness here and I have a very similar setup.
I’m running C1 16.3.3.6 on the latest Ventura OS, on an M1 max Mac Studio with 64GB of RAM, 32 GPU cores. Its a dual monitor configuration, with a BENQ SW2700 (2550x1440) for my viewer and tools, and an older Dell 1920x1080 in portrait orientation for the browser.0
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