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Connecting to the Mac Mini M1

I have two older 27” Thunderbolt 2 displays that are perfectly good. I have the adapter to connect one of the monitors to the Thunderbolt 3 port on the Mini, but is there any way to ALSO connect the other display so I have two displays running? I read that only one of the Thunderbolt ports can be used to connect a monitor?

Posted on May 11, 2021 12:43 PM

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Posted on May 11, 2021 8:40 PM

There is no way to use two Thunderbolt displays with the M1 Mac mini. To use two displays on the M1 Mac mini, one must use the HDMI port, and there is no way to run a Thunderbolt display from HDMI.


Mac mini (M1, 2020) - Technical specifications

"Simultaneously supports up to two displays:

One display with up to 6K resolution at 60Hz connected via Thunderbolt and one display with up to 4K resolution at 60Hz connected via HDMI 2.0"

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May 11, 2021 8:40 PM in response to RJ1950

There is no way to use two Thunderbolt displays with the M1 Mac mini. To use two displays on the M1 Mac mini, one must use the HDMI port, and there is no way to run a Thunderbolt display from HDMI.


Mac mini (M1, 2020) - Technical specifications

"Simultaneously supports up to two displays:

One display with up to 6K resolution at 60Hz connected via Thunderbolt and one display with up to 4K resolution at 60Hz connected via HDMI 2.0"

Jun 11, 2021 11:32 PM in response to AdeMorgan

It's not because of the Thunderbolt 2 to 3 adapter. It's just that the M1 Macs do not support more than one Thunderbolt display. For example the LG UltraFine 4K Display

LG UltraFine 4K Display - Apple

has two Thunderbolt 3 ports and you can daisy-chain two from one Thunderbolt 3 port on a 2018 Intel Mac min with no adapters, but you can connect only one to a M1 Mac mini.


It's a limitation of the M1 chip. It can support two displays but has only enough circuitry to format one video stream to work on a shared USB/Thunderbolt bus. Such a bus has to be able to handle multiple data formats simultaneously bidirectionally. The video has to be formatted into labelled data packets. The second video stream from a M1 chip is just raw video data which can be used for a builtin display on a MacBook, iPad Pro, or iMac or a Mac mini's HDMI port.


This is a regression from Intel Macs that can handle more than one Thunderbolt display, but the M1 is just the first of Apple's CPU/Graphics chips. It it not suiltible for replacing all Intel Macs, so Apple still sells non-M1 Macs. Buy one of those if you need two Thunderbolt displays, or wait for Apple to coime out with more chips.

Jun 12, 2021 5:39 AM in response to Malcolm J. Rayfield

So, I just bought a Mac mini 2020 and my two display options are a 27" Dell with DVI cable and a LG 32" with HDMI...

I don't have an DVI adapter yet so for now I hooked up the LG using the HDMI port.

Neither of my monitors are 4K. Is it more advantageous to use the Thunderbolt port if you only use 1 monitor?

Also, if you use 2 monitors is one port better suited for the better monitor?

Connecting to the Mac Mini M1

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