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DisplayLink Manager Updated With Native Support for M1 Macs and More
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Probably. But you should already have the ability to connect a display to the Thunderbolt ports of the M1 MBP so I wouldn't bother with DisplayLink.
The Samsung G7 is a DisplayPort 1.4 display, but the CalDigit only supports DisplayPort 1.2 but that shouldn't matter for 120Hz but you should try without the CalDigit especially if you want to see 240Hz (but you have no control of the included timings on M1 Macs).
Is that your only monitor hooked up to your M1?
If so, from what I know that should work fine. I have 2 monitors working out of my M1 mini, but realize you can only do 1 display out of the notebooks, so again you should be fine I would think.
The only suggestion I could provide is to maybe try swapping out the Displayport cable (You do mean DisplayPort, not DisplayLink (as is in this thread), right? Lots of different TB docks out there, I don't have one but from what I've heard, Calldigit seems to be a good manufacturer so I'd assume it should work. Maybe someone else here could give better advice that has a Caldigit dock.
flopticalcube
macrumors G4
It's a 27" LG Ultrafine 5k, bought 1.5 years ago as new. It works just like it did with an MBP16, from full 5k (unusably small) to all scaled resolutions.
H3LL5P4WN
macrumors 68040
I don't have any way to hook a monitor up to my MBP without the TS3+. And I specifically bought the G7 to use since it has two DP connections (one for my gaming rig and one for my MBP).
It's the only monitor I have, period. lol.
I have swapped the DP cable from the one that came with the G7 to a 1.4 cable I bought specifically for this set up (it came in a two pack, so the other one goes to my PC).
I have seen a previous thread stating that some users haven't been able to connect an external display to their variety of Macs sine Big Sur 11.1. I guess I'm one of those lucky few.
itsphilgeorge
macrumors regular
Thanks.
Can you see if you still have a resolution for scaling available above 3008 pixels? I think on your MBP16 you would have had "Looks like 3200".
phrehdd
Contributor
Thanks for the response. Let me get your take on this -
"DisplayLink Manager is a new way to enable your DisplayLink dock, adapter or monitor on macOS platforms. It's an application that combines our latest driver with features that streamline the setup of mutliple displays up to 4K."
I made bold what is of interest. This is why I asked about an adapter cable. TB/USB-C to DisplayPort cable. If the above is read to mean it would work with software on the M1 controlling the monitor, wouldn't this suffice?
flopticalcube
macrumors G4
Only if the monitor explicitly supports DisplayLink. They are usually very small monitors. There are some on the DisplayLink product page.
H3LL5P4WN
macrumors 68040
On a whim, I connected my MBP to this HP USB-C dock we have for imaging laptops. I plugged in a Display Port to VGA adapter, connected that to one of our KVMs (showing that there's a lot in the signal chain).
...the MBP output to the garbo monitor on the KVM, even identified the model number.
...the MBP output to the garbo monitor on the KVM, even identified the model number.
I think you'd be way better off just going straight from your TB port to DisplayPort (Not DisplayLink). I guess if you aren't seeing any performance issues or lags on the ext monitor, things work. But if using only 1 external monitor, is there a reason you didn't just use the native graphics on your Mac through TB directly to your monitor, without having to use DisplayLink inbetween?
I've tried this cable out on my M1 and it works great. Like you said though there are some problems for some people with ext monitors, so the only way to know is to just try. Have you tried using something like this cable?
USB C to DisplayPort Cable for Home Office (4K@60Hz, 2K@165Hz), uni Sturdy Aluminum DisplayPort to USB C Cable [Thunderbolt 3 Compatible] with MacBook Pro, MacBook Air/iPad Pro 2020/2018, XPS 15/13
(Amazon looong titles)
That would send the video signal out of your mac natively, without the need for software and a much slower interface (USB for DisplayLink). It should work, unless it doesn't?
I'm not sure what to make about what you said about plugging into the USB-C dock and the DP to VGA. Did you just use VGA because that's the only available port you had on it? Or was there some other reason.
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To followup on my last post. I'm just saying that you're using only a single external monitor, which is supported and should work natively with your M1. Instead though right now you're sending your video signal over a much slower USB connection and using DisplayLink as a middleman.
I don't have any experience with DisplayLink, other people have said on here that it works pretty well. But it's still going to be much much slower and at least some type of CPU draw on your Mac in the background to process and send that data. And I'm not sure how or why people would be using DisplayLink when connecting just a single external monitor (because you shouldn't have to, it's supported natively by your Mac, you just need an adapter from Thunderbolt to whatever your display has, like DisplayPort)
I think DisplayLink makes sense for adding either more than 1 display to either M1 portable, or more than 2 displays for the M1 Mini. But using it to drive your sole external display doesn't seem like the best way to get the most out of your Mac and might at least be worth a shot with using a cable, especially if you can just return it and try seeing if you see any performance improvements without using DisplayLink.
It would be interesting to here how it goes if you're open to trying it.
The only other reason it sounds like, from others here, for using DisplayLink on your monitor is possibly because you're running things through a KVM switch setup and just need to use DL in there to make what you have, work?
I'd also be interested to hear any other reasons why you're using DL that I'm missing. Everyone's setup and needs are different & I'd be curious to know yours.
I don't have any experience with DisplayLink, other people have said on here that it works pretty well. But it's still going to be much much slower and at least some type of CPU draw on your Mac in the background to process and send that data. And I'm not sure how or why people would be using DisplayLink when connecting just a single external monitor (because you shouldn't have to, it's supported natively by your Mac, you just need an adapter from Thunderbolt to whatever your display has, like DisplayPort)
I think DisplayLink makes sense for adding either more than 1 display to either M1 portable, or more than 2 displays for the M1 Mini. But using it to drive your sole external display doesn't seem like the best way to get the most out of your Mac and might at least be worth a shot with using a cable, especially if you can just return it and try seeing if you see any performance improvements without using DisplayLink.
It would be interesting to here how it goes if you're open to trying it.
The only other reason it sounds like, from others here, for using DisplayLink on your monitor is possibly because you're running things through a KVM switch setup and just need to use DL in there to make what you have, work?
I'd also be interested to hear any other reasons why you're using DL that I'm missing. Everyone's setup and needs are different & I'd be curious to know yours.
H3LL5P4WN
macrumors 68040
While I feel like I'm hijacking this thread, I am at my wits' end trying to get my home setup to work. And I asked in this thread because I thought that the new DisplayLink software would maybe be the silver bullet. So I apologize for that first and foremost.
My home setup is as follows:
M1 MBP -Thunderbolt-> TS3+ -DisplayPort-> Samsung G7 (along with Ethernet and a couple drives connected to USB-A). The G7 is 2K@240hz G-Sync.
I brought my MBP into work today and on a whim connected it to our PC reimaging station, which when configured for laptops, is as follows:
laptop -USB-C cable-> hp USB-C Dock -DisplayPort Adapter-> -VGA cable-> enterprise KVM switch -VGA-> monitor. This monitor is just some generic hp office monitor, so it probably only tops out at 60hz.
I mention this specifically because there's adapters and way more in the signal chain that could cause problems, yet the MBP sees and identifies this monitor, but my home setup doesn't work despite being simpler. The goal is to just have one cable connecting to my dock and then poof, I've got a desktop setup.
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phrehdd
Contributor
Thanks much (though it is sadly not the news I wanted to hear). All I want to do is connect a Mac Mini M1 via USBC to DisplayPort on my BenQ PD2700u and enjoy 4k@60. Seems M1 and some monitors don't play well together (yet). Again thanks and appreciate your time and fast response.
Considering that there are a ton of 4k USB-C monitors out there, why do you think USB-C would be a bottleneck? 5 Gbit/s bandwidth is plenty fast for transferring the video signal many times over. The connection type seems like a non-issue.
So, maybe it's the image processing that can't keep up, or will make the computer crawl? Well, the DisplayLink process uses between 2...6 % of CPU for normal operation, a drop in a bucket.
What about when pushing a lot of pixels? Right now I'm running two 4k YouTube/Safari full-screen videos on two different DisplayLink monitors. The CPU usage is at 80...90%, out of 800 percent. Now, 80/800 isn't zero, but it really doesn't change the user experience in any perceivable way, tons of headroom still left, and the playback is flawless. This also has zero issues with power, because we're always in a docked scenario in this context.
Keep in mind that DisplayLink isn't just software, it's also a chip inside the dock. I don't have the details of what that chip does, but whatever it is, it's quite good at it, based on the numbers and the subjective experience.
What about gaming? It would be the GPU that does the work then, if the game knows how to use the GPU. As far as I can tell from the numbers, DisplayLink is just the final step of an already-rendered output, the end of a long video pipeline. The game doesn't think of DisplayLink as a "GPU". I can spin Google Earth in 3D just the same in all 3 monitors. No difference, all 60 FPS or so, completely free of lag or tearing.
So, if it doesn't make a difference for the internal GPU, barely makes a dent on the internal CPU, and USB-C isn't a bottleneck, where is the specific performance use case people should really be worried about? Because after almost 3 months I haven't seen any issues with performance or stability. My previous eGPU setup was both less stable and less convenient in comparison.
You are right about this: if people just need one external monitor, DisplayLink is redundant/waste in that scenario. I too use it for ext monitors 2 and 3 only. But without it I probably couldn't have adopted M1 as quickly as I did, so I really am quite happy there was a workaround with very few compromises attached. It doesn't work "pretty well", it works "really well".
All of your post makes perfect sense. And it's great to hear it performs so well, as I am not currently a DisplayLink user. But after reading through this thread and hearing that it performs well, I think I'm going to try it for a 3rd monitor.
You also make sense when you talked about all of the graphics happening before it even hits the DisplayLink chain, I hadn't thought of it that way.
For this thread though, I see that phrehdd is trying to just make a working, minimal setup. Minimal cables, just making things work as simple as possible and to get the home BenQ monitor to finally work (which is strange that it doesn't due to things working at his work setup with another monitor, yet more adapters in between). I wish I had a better answer to help but I'm not sure what else to try.
Maybe it's worth trying to contact BenQ and see if they've heard (or will admit) any issues from others that are having that same issue? If you do get a fix, please let us know.
CBird
macrumors newbie
I have an LG 32UN500 sitting to my right that is purring right along at 4K60 out of my M1 13" MacBook Pro
Reading through your posts in the thread, I couldn't tell whether you had actually tried a USB Type C to DP cable yet, or if you were saying it didn't play well together based on the information in the thread, which can be quite confusing given people freely mixing DisplayLink and DisplayPort.
I've seen some people try to clarify it, but just to recap in case you haven't tried yet:
- Yes, this should work. You'll just need a DisplayPort 1.4 to USB Type C cable like this one: Amazon.com: USB C to DisplayPort Cable for Home Office (4K@60Hz, 2K@165Hz), uni Sturdy Aluminum DisplayPort to USB C Cable [Thunderbolt 3 Compatible] with MacBook Pro, MacBook Air/iPad Pro 2020/2018, XPS 15/13: Computers & Accessories
- No, you don't need DisplayLink software, adapters, or special DisplayLink monitors to drive a single
- Since the signal is DisplayPort all the way through, you need to make sure your monitor is set in its settings to communicate using the 1.4 version of the DisplayPort protocol. Your particular monitor has a setting to "talk" DisplayPort 1.1 or 1.4. If it's set to 1.1, it will only talk 1.1, but 1.1 cannot handle 4K60, and you'll be limited to the resolution / refresh rates you can use (4k @ 30 or 2K @ 60). 1.4 can handle 4K60, however. Go into the On Screen Display on the monitor's menu, and go into System -> DisplayPort. Make sure the setting is set to 1.4.
Once you have the setting in the monitor's menu set to 1.4, connect up the USB-C port on the Mini to the DisplayPort on the monitor using a USB-C to DisplayPort 1.4 cable such as the one above. You should then be able to switch the monitor to the DisplayPort input and set it up in the Mac display settings to output 4K60.
Having said all that, if you _have_ tried that and it isn't working, you're positive that your cable is a DisplayPort 1.4 Alt Mode certified USB-C to DisplayPort cable, and you've verified the monitor's setting is set to DisplayPort 1.4 mode, you might be running into the issues Big Sur has been having with external monitors: Some Users Having External Display Connection Issues With macOS Big Sur 11.1 and 11.2 - MacRumors. There's discussion in the thread on that article that the Big Sur 11.3 beta 2 released last week has fixed the issues for at least one person experiencing them, so you may want to join the Apple Beta Software Program and upgrade to 11.3 b2.
(Edit notes: had accidentally typed DisplayLink instead of DisplayPort in one sentence above. Case in point; even when you know the difference, the two are extremely easy to get confused, which has led to a lot of the confusion in this thread. The DisplayLink product really is named way too similarly to the completely separate DisplayPort specification!)
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itsphilgeorge
macrumors regular
Good points.
Be aware - there are some issues with the DisplayLink software working well with the 11.3 Beta's. Perhaps try the most stable combination beforehand.
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For people who need DisplayLink (to drive 3+ monitors on an M1 Mini or 2+ monitors on an M1 MB / MBP), agreed - I've also seen people discussing issues on DisplayLink with 11.3 (though ironically 11.3 seems to fix native HDMI and DisplayPort, so people who really need DisplayLink for monitors beyond what's natively supported should stick to 11.2, while people using native HDMI or DisplayPort over USB-C Alt Mode connections may need to upgrade to 11.3).
The particular poster I was referring to is trying to drive one single 4K60 monitor on DisplayPort, so there's no need for DisplayLink, and that incompatibility wouldn't apply to them.
The most stable solution for them should be the one that is native with no conversion involved, which is going to be native graphics out of the GPU using USB-C Alt Mode to get native DisplayPort output, without DisplayLink technology being part of the stack at all.
That is supposed to natively work on 11.2 (and actually reportedly did on 11.1), but due to the bugs with external monitors on 11.2 (both HDMI and DisplayPort), they may need to go to 11.3 beta or wait for 11.3 final for Apple to fix native external monitors in general before it works as expected.
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flopticalcube
macrumors G4
Considering that driving multiple monitors on M1 devices is now front page on displaylink.com, hopefully for their sake, Apple fixes the 11.3 issues.
It's really disappointing that this is an issue at all. I have to imagine at least some of Apple's thousands of employees are using M1 Minis, and some would have run into this before it made it to the public. When you sell a product that literally doesn't have an internal monitor, and has to use external monitors, one of the core pieces of functionality needs to be broad compatibility and reliability with external monitors.
If Nvidia can afford to test hundreds of monitors with rigor with their releases for G-sync compatibility (LTT did a video on the testing process some time ago, and it's intense), I don't see what Apple's excuse is when they have a much larger market cap and far more employees.
(To be clear, I'm not expecting Apple to test DisplayLink products. That's a third party technology and not on Apple to test. I'm criticizing the lack of testing for DisplayPort and HDMI external compatibility that's plaguing 11.2, given those are standard technologies and, beyond that, the seemingly afterthought nature of external monitors in Apple products in general.)
I am using 2 displays on my M1 Mini, not through DisplayLink (yet) though unless I decide to get that 3rd monitor up. I guess I'm one of the luckier ones that haven't had too many display issues, until a few days ago. Things had actually worked pretty well for me with v11-11.2, but it looks like now with the 11.2.1 update, I am seeing the dreaded pink-squares. They aren't there very often, but I never saw them before. But even now, they aren't shown all the time, when they are they are small and many of them. Just sizable pink squares that I'd say are software related at some level because every time I've seen them, they cling onto something like only inside of the scrollbar area, or clinging onto one specific part of a UI element.
Just to say again so there's no confusion, I'm running both of my monitors natively -- I'm not using DisplayLink at all (no devices, no drivers installed, nothing). I am using the cable I linked to in this thread previously for TB -> DisplayPort; and then another TB -> DVI-D (I know, I'm old) which uses an adapter I finally found (let me know if there's anyone trying to drive a dual-link DVI monitor and want a working adapter and I'll find the link to the one I got). That is DVI-D to my ACD 30" monitor.
Hopefully with the next OS update, they'll finally have some of these things nailed down. Though from the sound of things now, before and with the current beta -- it may cause some of our setups to break, while fixing others.
Again, hopefully they'll be able to find a permanent end-all fix very soon.
Just to say again so there's no confusion, I'm running both of my monitors natively -- I'm not using DisplayLink at all (no devices, no drivers installed, nothing). I am using the cable I linked to in this thread previously for TB -> DisplayPort; and then another TB -> DVI-D (I know, I'm old) which uses an adapter I finally found (let me know if there's anyone trying to drive a dual-link DVI monitor and want a working adapter and I'll find the link to the one I got). That is DVI-D to my ACD 30" monitor.
Hopefully with the next OS update, they'll finally have some of these things nailed down. Though from the sound of things now, before and with the current beta -- it may cause some of our setups to break, while fixing others.
Again, hopefully they'll be able to find a permanent end-all fix very soon.
newtonjesus90
macrumors newbie
I have MBP 13 M1 so its connect to LG ultrafine 5k Direct TB3 and I want to connect a Samsung 32 4k with its got HDMI and DP
oh I got beta Big Sur 11.3
can you tell me best dock station to work together
with Close lid
I did a lot research and I'm trying to fine a way to run it
thanks
itsphilgeorge
macrumors regular
Agreed.
I only want to drive a single monitor via Thunderbolt 3 and cannot reliably do so.
Unfortunately, I had to explore DisplayLink just to try and get a stable and minimally functional solution. I was unsuccessful.
I'm going to purchase an XDR Display to do my own testing and return it once done. Hopefully, by then we are closer to a fix.