How big external monitors will a Macbook Pro Retina support?

I am considering buying a Macbook Pro Retina as a developer machine (and dual boot it into Windows 8).

The thing is I love big monitors, and lots of them.

How many and how big external monitors will a Macbook Pro Retina support?

In particular, can it display with native resolution on a 2560x1600 and a 2560x1440? And use its internal display too? Will it require particular adapters, e.g. DisplayPort?

Will I be able to use those monitors when booting into Windows 8?

Solution 1:

Here's one example of someone running two 27" displays at 2560x1440 via Thunderbolt/DisplayPort plus an HDMI display at 1920x1200: http://blog.macsales.com/14241-macbook-pro-15-with-retina-display-can-run-3-external-displays

The Thunderbolt ports officially support up to 2560x1600 so that resolution shouldn't be any problem either:

Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display and up to 2560 by 1600 pixels on up to two external displays, at millions of colors http://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/specs/

To get up to that resolution, you're limited to either Thunderbolt/MiniDisplayPort or Dual-Link DVI via an adapter - single link DVI and VGA adapters won't go that high.

For the HDMI port, I haven't seen any specific maximum resolution. This person got up to 2048x1280: http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-3121_7-57460642-220/how-to-power-four-simultaneous-screens-with-the-retina-macbook-pro/

Generally, external monitors work fine in Windows. I see no reason why it would be any different on the Retina model or on Windows 8 specifically.

Solution 2:

From the tech specs page:

Dual display and video mirroring: Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display and up to 2560 by 1600 pixels on up to two external displays, at millions of colors

So the answer is yes, it will support those resolutions to up to two external displays. There will be no problems using these resolutions on Windows either.