How do I set up dual screens with MacBooks using Thunderbolt or a new docking station?

Feab123 wrote:

do I have to connect the screens directly with Thunderbolt (with two cables to the laptop)? Which would mean buying new screens as well..

Apple likes to call the ports Thunderbolt ports, because Thunderbolt is an optional, high-end, desirable feature. But they are actually multi-purpose USB-C ports that support

• Traditional USB
• USB4 (up to 40 Gb/s)
• DisplayPort Alt Mode
• Thunderbolt

Most displays and adapters do not need or understand Thunderbolt. They use the DisplayPort Alt Mode "blade". You can get adapters and adapter cables that go from USB-C to just about anything: DisplayPort, Mini DisplayPort, HDMI, DVI, even VGA. Apple doesn't carry many, but on sites like Amazon's, they are a dime a dozen.

Getting a Thunderbolt dock involved means that the Mac and dock speak Thunderbolt to each other – but it does not mean that everything plugged into the dock has to speak Thunderbolt.

So you don't need to buy new screens just because your Macs have Thunderbolt 3/4/5 ports and your screens only have, say, HDMI ones.

Even if a Mac has the ability to support multiple USB-C or Thunderbolt displays, a Mac wants to see a Thunderbolt connection – with its wide "data highway" – before sending two signals over one link. A Mac that supports multiple displays and is using a Thunderbolt dock can typically drive two 4K displays, or one 5K/6K display, off that dock. A Mac that is using a plain USB-C dock will only drive one display off that dock.

Some new Macs support Thunderbolt 5 and DisplayPort 2.1 – and the rules might be different for them. But these are the rules that are well-established for Macs with Thunderbolt 3 and 4.

As far as how you would connect two displays to a Thunderbolt dock, this depends on the dock.

Some docks bring out dedicated DisplayPort or HDMI ports. Some allow you to connect displays or adapters – including plain USB-C (DisplayPort) displays or adapters – to their Thunderbolt daisy-chaining ports, or to their downstream Thunderbolt ports (if they have the ability to split one Thunderbolt chain into several).

Three long-time vendors of Thunderbolt gear for Macs are Other World Computing (MacSales), SonnetTech, and CalDigit. Their descriptions of their docks are generally pretty clear, and if you still had questions, those vendors would probably be able to understand and give accurate answers to pre-sales questions.

If those Dell Thunderbolt docks support connecting more than two displays (as some do), there might be only certain combinations of two outputs that will work well with Macs.

For instance, if a dock has two HDMI ports and also supports attachment of a USB-C or Thunderbolt display to a Thunderbolt daisy-chaining port, you might need to connect one display to a HDMI port, and the other to the daisy-chaining port by way of a USB-C to HDMI adapter. Check Dell’s online documentation and support articles for details.