I have 2 x LG Ultrafine 4K monitors and an Intel MBA.
I run both monitors from a single TB port, the monitors are daisy chained.
Is this not possible with the MM M1??
Are there any downside to connecting one LG to TB and the other LG to HDMI if I went with the MM M1? Apart from untidy wires?
Daisy-chaining through Thunderbolt is not possible on the current crop of M1 machines, full stop. It's just a cabling untidiness issue if you go with one on USB-C to DisplayPort on one, and HDMI on the other.
I am so disappointed. Been desperate t upgrade from my 2011 MacBook Air 11” which I have used with a Thunderbolt dock to extend its useful life (allows for USB3 use for one).
I was planning to purchase either a 4K or 5K main monitor and then flank it with 2x HD monitors mounted in portrait mode AS WELL as utilising the MacBook Pro 13” screen.
I know the MBP 13” doesn’t seem to be a genuine Pro as the 2x TB port versions never were but I didn’t even consider connecting multiple monitors would be an issue coz I thought all those shitty limitations were in the past, especially considering that I’m only intending to connect one very high res display and two ‘old ones’.
EDIT: Ok so I did forget about the potential of an eGPU sorting this issue out for me but I really rather was hoping to avoid this as Thunderbolt equipment is generally more expensive and I was keep to put my money towards a nice LG Thunderbolt or USB-C Display that also has docking features/USB ports etc.
I really think I might have to bite the bullet and then buy again in 12 months or 18 months time when the Apple Silicon MacBook I wanted/expected actually comes out.
I have 2 x LG Ultrafine 4K monitors and an Intel MBA.
I run both monitors from a single TB port, the monitors are daisy chained.
Is this not possible with the MM M1??
Are there any downside to connecting one LG to TB and the other LG to HDMI if I went with the MM M1? Apart from untidy wires?
Apparently not. The SoC seems to be bandwidth limited. It looks like even though the SoC supports two TB3 ports, it doesn’t have enough bandwidth to support video out to both. Surprising to me. I guess doing your own TB3/USB4 hardware is pretty difficult.
Difficult? No. These SoCs are extremely powerful and what Apple does not want happening is sales of "higher-end" models dropping like a rock. One possible way of making sure that doesn't happen is by limiting these systems in other areas, such as RAM and/or expandability. More than likely these limitations will remain until SoCs for higher-end models are available.
I tend to think that if Apple wants to take their time with this transition, we won't see expandability until the M2. But if they're truly interested in getting on ASAP we could very well see more expandability in the "M1X". If I had to guess, I'd say they limited the M1 to 8 PCI lanes. The M1X could be increased to 12 lanes giving it an extra 4GB/s of throughput. which doesn't seem like a lot, but would be enough to support two more Thunderbolt ports and at least a 3rd display.
I am so disappointed. Been desperate t upgrade from my 2011 MacBook Air 11” which I have used with a Thunderbolt dock to extend its useful life (allows for USB3 use for one).
I was planning to purchase either a 4K or 5K main monitor and then flank it with 2x HD monitors mounted in portrait mode AS WELL as utilising the MacBook Pro 13” screen.
I know the MBP 13” doesn’t seem to be a genuine Pro as the 2x TB port versions never were but I didn’t even consider connecting multiple monitors would be an issue coz I thought all those shitty limitations were in the past, especially considering that I’m only intending to connect one very high res display and two ‘old ones’.
EDIT: Ok so I did forget about the potential of an eGPU sorting this issue out for me but I really rather was hoping to avoid this as Thunderbolt equipment is generally more expensive and I was keep to put my money towards a nice LG Thunderbolt or USB-C Display that also has docking features/USB ports etc.
I really think I might have to bite the bullet and then buy again in 12 months or 18 months time when the Apple Silicon MacBook I wanted/expected actually comes out.
You're right. I missed that Apple called them USB4 above. I think was is somewhat deceiving about them though is that they don't support a lot of USB4 speeds - only 10Gb/s and not the 20Gb/s or 40Gb/s. Note I'm talking about USB speeds and not TB speeds.
Would be nice if they actually said it support DisplayPort 2.0 which is part of the USB4 spec as well.
What some people are missing here is that the USB4 Spec is not just about speed (unlike the transition say from USB1 to USB2, for example, which was all about a major speed bump), and as such USB4 includes all sorts of other aspects to the spec beyond speed as well with many optional aspects that a controller or device may optionally support, much like USB-C. Thus the spec allows controller manufacturers (such as Apple) and device manufacturers to state they support USB4 without needing to provide support for all USB4 speeds possible (that's speed on the USB bus, not TB). So like USB-C and while this may be confusing for customers, it is not technically deceiving since it relies on a misunderstanding of what the USB4 spec is. As such, with USB4 you'll have to reads the specs carefully to see just what the max USB speed any USB 4 computer or device is capable of, if USB speed is your concern. Everyone concerned about this should read the USB 4 spec to see just what is required to be implemented to be USB 4 complaint and what is not so that you know what you can assume with USB4 and what you cannot (because it's optional). This is the approach we have to use with USB-C since any USB-C port may or may not support all features USB-C is capable and as such not all USB 4 ports support charging, thunderbolt, or DisplayPort, for example. You can complain about how the USB spec authors wrote the spec with too many optional aspects while not making sure there was a adequate labeling scheme to clarify what any particular USB4 port/device supports. HDMI allready has decent labeling system that better explains to consumers what features/option any particular HDMI port/Device device supports so there is no reason USB4 can't do the something similar.
For anyone that's interested, I bought a new M1 MacBook Air and can confirm that I can do 2 external monitors IF one of them is Sidecar.
Ohhh thank you! Finally some GOOD news! Haha! Nah that's not a bad compromise then. I have also heard of users utilising some 3rd party software to enable 3x 2K screens in clamshell mode but I think there was technically issues with other stuff, so not ideal. Also what's not ideal is that my iPad Air 2 recently shit itself (went really hot, shut itself down and then touch no longer worked!), so does Sidecar work for iPhones?
For anyone that's interested, I bought a new M1 MacBook Air and can confirm that I can do 2 external monitors IF one of them is Sidecar.
Ohhh thank you! Finally some GOOD news! Haha! Nah that's not a bad compromise then. I have also heard of users utilising some 3rd party software to enable 3x 2K screens in clamshell mode but I think there was technically issues with other stuff, so not ideal. Also what's not ideal is that my iPad Air 2 recently shit itself (went really hot, shut itself down and then touch no longer worked!), so does Sidecar work for iPhones?
USB DisplayMate docks and drivers work today to allow for it, but it's a kludge. I'd be wary about investing money right now in third-party solutions as they can and do break with macOS updates.
Case in point - this is the first full macOS update in a long time that didn't break the DisplayMate drivers at launch, sometimes for months.
At launch, Sidecar did not work on iPhones. We haven't tested it in a long while, though, but I have no reason to believe that it works now.
A thought just occurred to me.. A workaround for connecting 4+ monitors to previous TB3 equipped Macs has been to use an eGPU, though in this case the breakout box and GPU (say a Radeon 5700) would cost nearly as much as the entry-level M1 Mac Mini.
A thought just occurred to me.. A workaround for connecting 4+ monitors to previous TB3 equipped Macs has been to use an eGPU, though in this case the breakout box and GPU (say a Radeon 5700) would cost nearly as much as the entry-level M1 Mac Mini.
There is no eGPU support on the M1 Apple Silicon Macs.
I’ve just made the leap into Apple and upgraded my 4 year old £300 8g windows Acer running two MSi monitors. I decided to go for the biggest and best with the new new £1700 M1 and 16g and now discover it only supports one monitor ! I don’t know the technicalities but that is stupid! Have I bought a pup? Is there anyway round this will the add it as a “feature” later ? Any advice welcome
I’ve just made the leap into Apple and upgraded my 4 year old £300 8g windows Acer running two MSi monitors. I decided to go for the biggest and best with the new new £1700 M1 and 16g and now discover it only supports one monitor ! I don’t know the technicalities but that is stupid! Have I bought a pup? Is there anyway round this will the add it as a “feature” later ? Any advice welcome
I’ve just made the leap into Apple and upgraded my 4 year old £300 8g windows Acer running two MSi monitors. I decided to go for the biggest and best with the new new £1700 M1 and 16g and now discover it only supports one monitor ! I don’t know the technicalities but that is stupid! Have I bought a pup? Is there anyway round this will the add it as a “feature” later ? Any advice welcome
You might also try contacting Matrox about M1 compatibility on their DualHead2Go product.
(The 14" & 16" M1 Pro and M1 Max MacBooks support two or three external monitors, but they are a fair bit more expensive than the 13" M1.)
PS: You are posting to a one year old discussion -- I just happened to see a notification that a post was added. You may not get very many other responses here.
Comments
I was planning to purchase either a 4K or 5K main monitor and then flank it with 2x HD monitors mounted in portrait mode AS WELL as utilising the MacBook Pro 13” screen.
I know the MBP 13” doesn’t seem to be a genuine Pro as the 2x TB port versions never were but I didn’t even consider connecting multiple monitors would be an issue coz I thought all those shitty limitations were in the past, especially considering that I’m only intending to connect one very high res display and two ‘old ones’.
#BadApple in regards to monitor support ☹️
EDIT: Ok so I did forget about the potential of an eGPU sorting this issue out for me but I really rather was hoping to avoid this as Thunderbolt equipment is generally more expensive and I was keep to put my money towards a nice LG Thunderbolt or USB-C Display that also has docking features/USB ports etc.
I really think I might have to bite the bullet and then buy again in 12 months or 18 months time when the Apple Silicon MacBook I wanted/expected actually comes out.
Difficult? No. These SoCs are extremely powerful and what Apple does not want happening is sales of "higher-end" models dropping like a rock. One possible way of making sure that doesn't happen is by limiting these systems in other areas, such as RAM and/or expandability. More than likely these limitations will remain until SoCs for higher-end models are available.
I tend to think that if Apple wants to take their time with this transition, we won't see expandability until the M2. But if they're truly interested in getting on ASAP we could very well see more expandability in the "M1X". If I had to guess, I'd say they limited the M1 to 8 PCI lanes. The M1X could be increased to 12 lanes giving it an extra 4GB/s of throughput. which doesn't seem like a lot, but would be enough to support two more Thunderbolt ports and at least a 3rd display.
https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/11/10/apple-silicon-m1-macs-do-not-support-egpus
Case in point - this is the first full macOS update in a long time that didn't break the DisplayMate drivers at launch, sometimes for months.
At launch, Sidecar did not work on iPhones. We haven't tested it in a long while, though, but I have no reason to believe that it works now.
https://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/how-connect-two-or-more-external-displays-apple-silicon-m1-mac-3799794/
You might also try contacting Matrox about M1 compatibility on their DualHead2Go product.
(The 14" & 16" M1 Pro and M1 Max MacBooks support two or three external monitors, but they are a fair bit more expensive than the 13" M1.)
PS: You are posting to a one year old discussion -- I just happened to see a notification that a post was added. You may not get very many other responses here.