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13" MBA (mid-2013) & 2 external displays

M

mobydick01

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 13, 2011
44
0
I have 2 AOC Q2963PM monitors, daisy-chained to my 13" MBA (mid-2013) as follows:

MBA Thunderbolt ==> cable (mini-DisplayPort to DisplayPort ) ==> AOC #1 DisplayPort (In) ==> AOC #1 DisplayPort (Out) ==> cable (DisplayPort to DisplayPort) ==> AOC #2 DisplayPort (In)

PROBLEM: While both external monitors seem to be working, they are mirroring each other. (They are not mirroring what is on my MBA's screen.)

How might I set this up so that each of my 3 screens (1 MBA and 2 AOCs) acts independently?

Thanks.
 
Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

I thought perhaps my cables were bad, but I've tried with several different cables, all DP 1.2 compatible. Both my monitors have "DP 1.2 Daisy Chain" selected.

Is this perhaps a imitation of the MBA video output? I've searched online and others do not seem to have any issues driving two external monitors from their MBAs, but perhaps my 30" monitors are too large??
 
You can only drive one external screen on the 2013 MBA. This has been discussed here in the forum at length. If you need two screens, AFAIK the only option would be to get a USB video adapter and connect one monitor to it. Have never used one of these, but I gather there is some latency that might be unacceptable for certain applications.

You can drive two Apple Thunderbolt montiors from the MBA however. I have also read that if you daisy chain another thunderbolt peripheral (like a disk) to an Apple Thunderbolt Display, you can then use a regular displayport monitor as a second screen.

The video cards have been updated in newer model MBAs. I don't know, perhaps they can drive two screens directly. The MBP can drive two screens because it has two thunderbolt ports. But I have a 2013 MBA, and it can't do that. I looked into this back in 2013 since I do some video editing and it would be nice to have two external screens.
 
Last edited:
Ok thanks.

My other computer -- 2015 rMBP -- is not here, but I'm curious if it will perhaps support the DP daisy-chaining, or will I need a second mini-DP cable for that?
 
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