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2 XDR Studio Displays workaround?

A

All Taken

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Hoping somebody can answer this:

I have an M5 Max which can handle 2 XDR 5K displays at 120Hz.

Partner has an M4 Pro which can't. It can do 2 XDR 5K at 60hz, however, trying to get the second display to show up requires workaround with dummy HDMI etc which is a faff.

Question is can a dock with dual TB5 like the Ivanky Fusion Ultra negate that? Would the fact it handles X displays on the chain somehow allow both displays at 60hz or is this wishful thinking until/if Apple allow 60Hz when connecting to 2 displays on a chip incapable of 2x 5K 120?

My thinking is the dock itself might negotiate 5k 60 for both displays when faced with a M series chip which can't do full fat 5K 120.

Appreciate any help.
 
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@All Taken
I can't answer for the Ivanky dual dock, but a Thunderbolt 4/5 dock doesn't negotiate anything of itself.
The TB protocol allows tunnelled PCIe or DP data passthrough directly to the devices, so that computer and device can negotiate the appropriate mode of operation.

Furthermore, if a high bandwidth device, like a 120Hz monitor, comes online first (when connected to a TB dock), then that device gets all the bandwidth, and a further monitor will end up running at a lower rate...

In this respect the problem is exactly the same as when multiple monitors are directly attached to the Mac.

However, there is possibly one circumstance that could improve matters?:
If you use TB's daisy-chain facility, and insert a TB3 (or TB4?) dock before each Studio XDR, then possibly both the monitors could be forced to connect at 60Hz?

The two TB3 docks (with each being connected to a Studio XDR display) could be connected to two output ports of a TB5 dock.

This is highly speculative, but the principle of inserting a 'bandwidth-limiting' device into a TB daisy-chain does provide a solution, when getting multiple monitors (of a previous-generation) to work together properly, when one is connecting first and starving the second one of bandwidth.
 
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PaulD-UK said:
@All Taken
I can't answer for the Ivanky dual dock, but a Thunderbolt 4/5 dock doesn't negotiate anything of itself.
The TB protocol allows tunnelled PCIe or DP data passthrough directly to the devices, so that computer and device can negotiate the appropriate mode of operation.

Furthermore, if a high bandwidth device, like a 120Hz monitor, comes online first (when connected to a TB dock), then that device gets all the bandwidth, and a further monitor will end up running at a lower rate...

In this respect the problem is exactly the same as when multiple monitors are directly attached to the Mac.

However, there is possibly one circumstance that could improve matters?:
If you use TB's daisy-chain facility, and insert a TB3 (or TB4?) dock before each Studio XDR, then possibly both the monitors could be forced to connect at 60Hz?

The two TB3 docks (with each being connected to a Studio XDR display) could be connected to two output ports of a TB5 dock.

This is highly speculative, but the principle of inserting a 'bandwidth-limiting' device into a TB daisy-chain does provide a solution, when getting multiple monitors (of a previous-generation) to work together properly, when one is connecting first and starving the second one of bandwidth.
Click to expand...
I try to use an apple TB3 cable (40gb ,100w) connect M4 PRO MacBook pro, the XDR work 5k 120hz. the second monitor (dell 4k 60hz) can not work.

I guess method use two TB3 docks doesn't work.
 
Connect using a USB-C cable (not Thunderbolt) to limit the displays to Thunderbolt 2 speed instead of Thunderbolt 3 speed?
 
I tried a variety of docks, cables etc to achieve this and couldn't get it to work with an M4 Pro Mini, or to resolve the issue with only being able to run a single XDR with an M5 MacBook Pro.

The HDMI workaround is the only thing I've seen so far which works.
 
All Taken said:
Partner has an M4 Pro which can't. It can do 2 XDR 5K at 60hz, however, trying to get the second display to show up requires workaround with dummy HDMI etc which is a faff.
Click to expand...
XDR displays daisy-chained first and then one attached to M4 Pro does not work?
 
PaulD-UK said:
If you use TB's daisy-chain facility, and insert a TB3 (or TB4?) dock before each Studio XDR, then possibly both the monitors could be forced to connect at 60Hz?
Click to expand...
Studio XDR will work in 5K@120 mode even through TB3 because DP1.4+DSC is enough for such a resolution.
All Taken said:
Appreciate any help.
Click to expand...
you can try USB4 20Gbit cables. 20 Gbit is not enough for 5K@120 but is totally enough for 5K@60 so this could resolve your problem.
UPD:
It wouldn't work because theoretically 5K@120 could be squeezed through 20 Gbit of Thunderbolt at 8bpp DSC but I'm not sure this monitor supports such compression profile so you still have some hope.
 
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All Taken said:
Hoping somebody can answer this:

I have an M5 Max which can handle 2 XDR 5K displays at 120Hz.

Partner has an M4 Pro which can't. It can do 2 XDR 5K at 60hz, however, trying to get the second display to show up requires workaround with dummy HDMI etc which is a faff.
Click to expand...
Did you try explicitly setting the first XDR display to 60Hz in Settings > Displays? Then connect the 2nd XDR display directly to the M4 Pro MBP?
 
All Taken said:
Hoping somebody can answer this:

I have an M5 Max which can handle 2 XDR 5K displays at 120Hz.

Partner has an M4 Pro which can't. It can do 2 XDR 5K at 60hz, however, trying to get the second display to show up requires workaround with dummy HDMI etc which is a faff.

Question is can a dock with dual TB5 like the Ivanky Fusion Ultra negate that? Would the fact it handles X displays on the chain somehow allow both displays at 60hz or is this wishful thinking until/if Apple allow 60Hz when connecting to 2 displays on a chip incapable of 2x 5K 120?

My thinking is the dock itself might negotiate 5k 60 for both displays when faced with a M series chip which can't do full fat 5K 120.

Appreciate any help.
Click to expand...
What's your HDMI workout; USB-C to HDMI into the MacBook?
 
thenewepic said:
You’ll need dummy 4K HDMI dongle. Connect it to the mac first, then connect first XDR, then unplug the HDMI dongle and connect second XDR.
Click to expand...
To confirm:

1. Plug a 4K HDMI cable into Macbook
2. Plug XDR #1 via USB-C
3. Unplug HDMI cable
4. Plug XDR #2 via USB-C

Will you have to do this every time I plug them up; I unplug my MacBook from my current displays daily?
 
thenewepic said:
not exactly. You need an HDMI dummy, not an HDMI cable.
But the sequence of steps is correct.

in this case you'll need to do these actions whenever you want to connect two XDRs.
Click to expand...
That seems very tedious. Fingers crossed my company just gives me the M5.
 
And remember it needs to be an M5 Pro chip in a laptop if you want two at any refresh rate. The normal M5 chip can't do it, either in Air or MBP form.

I don't understand why the misleading specs on the Apple tech specs pages (and contradictory info from their own support teams) hasn't been picked up by any of the tech press yet.
 
ascender said:
And remember it needs to be an M5 Pro chip in a laptop if you want two at any refresh rate. The normal M5 chip can't do it, either in Air or MBP form.

I don't understand why the misleading specs on the Apple tech specs pages (and contradictory info from their own support teams) hasn't been picked up by any of the tech press yet.
Click to expand...
I suspect because 1% of us are doing this and it hasn't triggered someone at Apple to test in house and update the docs. I hope this will grow as adoption of the displays becomes larger, but who knows.
 
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