Lower-End Apple Silicon Macs With 10-Core M4 Chip to Fully Support Two External Displays

[levko123]

So will the low-end chips support four 4K screens connected via 2 daisy-chains like the Intel I9 could from 2019?

 

[Zdigital2015]

If one disconnects the iMac internal display ribbon cable then would one be able to use two external 1024x768 15" LCDs?

Your comment is about 20 years too late.

 

[bleakend]

What does your cabling situation look like?

I'm on an M2 Pro and can drive my 3840x2160 display at 240hz HDR no problems. I'm using USB-C though.

HDMI. Could that be the issue?

 

[Saturn1217]

Hopefully Apple keeps the ability to switch between the external and internal display by closing the lid with this update. 3 external displays with the lid closed would be perfect.

 

[GMShadow]

Although some people might use it, I think that a great majority of iMac users will never use the external display support.

Probably but it doesn’t cost Apple any extra in this case - the newer Display Engines were added for the iPads and MBPs, and the iMac gets the trickle down benefits.

 

[satchmo]

Apple literally said last year with the M3 iMac launch that they felt 24" was the sweet spot between the 21" and 27" models and that they had no intention of making a larger iMac. Given that Apple rarely comments on future products I would call that a big signal to stop waiting.

Also, if a new 27” 5K iMac does resurface, my guess is it won’t be cheap. Those days are over.

It’s kind of mind bogging that the 2015 iMac 27 was only $1799. The price slowly crept up to $2299 by 2020.

 

[mdriftmeyer]

M4 having 4 Performance cores and up to 6 efficiency cores versus the M2 Pro with 8 Performance and 4 efficiency in my Mac mini makes me glad I chose the Mac mini M2 Pro.

 

[TheDrakeMan]

What about iMacs? I have the M3 iMac completely speced out and it’s insane that it doesn’t support more than 1 external monitor natively without an adaptor. A desktop should be a computer that supports multiple monitors. The external adaptor isn’t even good for it, since I lose audio and video control when it’s connected. Can’t even use it unless I seriously need another monitor for a task I’m working on.

 

[Tagbert]

I use 2 external displays and the 2020 MacBook Air M1 screen using display link. Works perfectly. Albeit not at 8K!

Yes, but Displaylink is splitting one display stream into two monitors using external hardware. From the display controller standpoint, it looks more like one display.

 

[steve09090]

Yes, but Displaylink is splitting one display stream into two monitors using external hardware. From the display controller standpoint, it looks more like one display.

That’s very true. For me it means I can use 2 external monitors. I’m focussing on what I can see and not what the hardware limitations are.

I’ll leave that to those who worry about the hardware than the experience.

 

[svish]

Good to see this change on the M4 Macs.

 

[Cervisia]

Wow, such an amazing upgrade. I'm sure Tim is excited to see what we will create with this exciting new feature.

 

[Marco Klobas]

Only with the lid closed

 

[benwiggy]

Having two much larger displays either side of a 24" iMac is going to be a weird workflow.

 

[Mrkevinfinnerty]

Beautiful. No ports aswell.

 

[JippaLippa]

This M4 is bringing a lot of juicy improvements!

 

[sonyboy]

Meanwhile, my M2 Pro Mac mini that used to get 144hz on 3360x1890 could only do 120hz with macOS 15.0 & 15.0.1. When I updated to 15.1 earlier, I noticed that it dropped to 100hz for the same scaling option. Somewhere along the way in macOS 14, the external monitor (Dell G3223Q) started turning on when I wake it, going to a blank screen immediately after and then taking around 10s to come back on with the login page. It still happens for waking (before entering password) & rebooting (after entering password).

Hope they work on their external monitor support properly before trying to add the ability for more external monitors.

I have the same issue, after updating to macOS 15.1 my Mac Studio M1 Max can no longer output 144Hz with 48-144Hz VRR at 3008x1692 or 3200x1800, now only works at 1080p, 1440p or native 4K.

Same setup as before, Dell G3223Q, connected via Displayport 1.4 and is currently capped at 120Hz and without VRR, this is just rubbish.

 

[Stenik]

Are there any good 8K 32" or larger that I could use for programming?

Dell UltraSharp 32 8K Monitor - UP3218K​

 

[bleakend]

I have the same issue, after updating to macOS 15.1 my Mac Studio M1 Max can no longer output 144Hz with 48-144Hz VRR at 3008x1692 or 3200x1800, now only works at 1080p, 1440p or native 4K.

Same setup as before, Dell G3223Q, connected via Displayport 1.4 and is currently capped at 120Hz and without VRR, this is just rubbish.

Same, only 3 out of the 5 available scaling options have the full 48-144hz and VRR options. Unfortunately, the text at those 3 are either too big or too small for my viewing distance, which I would think is typical for a 32" display.

I think that all this is indicative of Apple trying to phase external display support out and eventually push for their own OLED/microLED Studio Display replacement. I really like the way the studio display looks, but the specs for the price are horrible. However, if I had known that I would be running into such issues with the G3223Q, I would probably have spent the extra cash on the SD. Still a horrible value prop, though.

 

[nothingtoseehere]

Finally.