No luck connectiong two external monitors to my Macbook Pro

Rebekahd7165 wrote:

Well, that's helpful! I feel silly. Is there any way, 3rd party connectors will allow it?

The specs are correct, if that’s what you’re asking.

M1 integrated graphics can drive a total of two displays, based on the announced Macs. One internal and one external on the laptops, two external on the mini.

Or alternatively, would I need a different Macbook, which one?

Check the tech specs. Here’s the MacBook Pro 16” 2019, with support for up to four external displays.

MacBook Pro 13” M1 2020 supports one external monitor, not two.

Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display at millions of colors and:

• One external display with up to 6K resolution at 60Hz

Thunderbolt 3 digital video output

• Native DisplayPort output over USB-C
• VGA, HDMI, DVI, and Thunderbolt 2 output supported using adapters (sold separately)

From: https://support.apple.com/kb/SP824?locale=en_US

"Video Support 

Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display at millions of colors and: 

• One external display with up to 6K resolution at 60Hz"

I'm no expert ... noticed there's info. on this topic from Apple support:

Use multiple displays with your MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2020, Four Thunderbolt 3 ports)

You can connect up to two 4K displays, one 5K display, or one 6K display using the four Thunderbolt 3 ports on your MacBook Pro.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211192

Hope this helps

DisplayLink technology creates a "fake" display buffer in RAM, sends the data out over a slower interface to a stunt box with DisplayLink custom chips that put that data back onto a "legacy" interface. It is not a true "accelerated" display, and it suffers from lagging.

It may be acceptable for a second display showing slow-to-change data such as computer program listings, stock quotes, or spreadsheets, but NOT for full motion Video, not for Video editing, and absolutely not for gaming. Mouse-tracking on that display can lag, and can make you feel queasy.

In a pinch, it may even play Internet videos without (as one user put it) "too many dropped frames".

This is in stark contrast to the Apple standard for its built-in hardware-accelerated displays, which are suitable for production/display of cinema-quality video with NO dropped frames, and NO dropouts or partial-blank scan lines due to memory under-runs or other issues.

--------

It is really nice to know that you can use a DisplayLink display if you MUST have an additional display for some of the types of data I mentioned. But that is NOT the same as the computer supporting a second, built-in, Hardware-accelerated display.

These displays depend on DisplayLink software, and are at the whim of Apple when they make MacOS changes. There have been cases where MacOS changes completely Borked DisplayLink software, and it took some time for them to recover.

--------

I think the Big Surprise for a lot of Hub/Dock buyers is that they thought they were getting a "real" display, but actually got a DisplayLink "fake" Display. If you got what you expected in every case, I would not use such pejorative terms to describe DisplayLink.

It is possible to use DisplayLink software and a USB-to-HDMI connector to attach additional external monitors. See this YouTube video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq_FyjcAULA