Apple RetroTink 4K Profiles

Upscaler profiles for vintage Apple computers.

View the Project on GitHub

HomeInstallation

Old Macintosh systems can use some Apple-specific display modes or timings that don’t quite line up with what the RetroTink expects. They can also use different refresh rates that require tweaks to get things looking their best.

This is a package of RetroTink profiles and custom modes that make it easier to use vintage Macintosh systems with the RetroTink 4K. Much of this is an early work in progress based on a couple of vintage systems I own.

Included Profiles

Quadra 605

Aimed at early machines that include an Apple DB-15 video port and a VGA adapter. Should work with most 68K machines, and even early PowerPC machines. Has only been tested with System 7 and MacOS 8.1.

Tuned for 640x480 @ 67Hz, 832x624 @ 75Hz and 1024x768 @ 75Hz.

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VGA GPU Profiles

These are a collection of VGA profiles based on different video cards of the era. So far there are:

These include an array of tuned display modes out of the box. To get the most out of these modes, it is stryongly recommended to use SwitchRes. The RetroTink cannot get optimized timings for different refresh rates at the same resolution/input mode, and MacOS doesn’t know how to filter the list of supported modes to just the ones tuned in the profile. Using SwitchRes, you can easily limit the list of modes to the ones the profiles have been tuned for, and will work best with modern displays at 60Hz.

These profiles can also serve as a starting point for other VGA GPUs of the era if you want to experiment.

DVI GPU Profiles

DVI profiles are not included as they aren’t needed to get optimized timings. Instead, we need to make sure the Mac is presenting the best signal to the RetroTink.

SwitchRes is strongly recommended when using a DVI GPU. Some cards like the Radeon 9000 Pro may only offer a handful of display modes as it detects the RetroTink as an HDMI device rather than DVI. In this example, the 9000 Pro only outputs 720p, and will upscale lower resolutions itself, which will look very fuzzy. With SwitchRes, you can enable the DVI display modes, and even enable 1080p output on cards like the 9000 Pro.

Custom Timings

Apple Specific Modes:

Unusual Apple Timings over VGA:

Changelog

20250104

20250101