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M3 MacBook Air Supports Up to Two External Displays With Lid Closed
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hovscorpion12
macrumors 68040
I take it back. Sorry. I figured Apple kept the dual fans layout for all Pro models.
Blackstick
macrumors 68000
hovscorpion12
macrumors 68040
Now that you mention it, yeah. Maybe TB4 docks could alleviate it, but there’s a 50/50 chance.
theres still the rumor that the Magic Keyboard is going aluminum and thick. Possibly additional ports.
the copium + hopium is insane.
fenderbass146
macrumors 68000
About time, struggling to see why this is anything to do with hardware. The same chips M1, M2, Mac Min's support dual. The MacBooks should have always been able to to and it would have squashed many gripes.
Does Stage Manger move the home screen with dock to an external display if you turn off the internal screen?
Assuming the ability to switch from the internal display output to an external display output was added via hardware and isn't in the older models (Mac Mini's are different, they don't have an internal display).
But hopefully now that they've figured this out, they can extend it to ALL their laptops.
It is equally annoying to a pro user with a triple display setup forced to buy a MxMax laptop just to support all my external displays (when my old Intel MBP worked fine with this setup). If the M4Pro did the same trick (3 external display support with the internal display closed) I'd be all set. Fingers crossed (but knowing apple they don't think anyone could ever need more than 2 external displays so we'll see).
sw1tcher
macrumors 604
Was about to post the same thing.
A "Pro" laptop that can only support 1 external display *and* comes with 8GB memory.
The M3 MacBook Pro is such an odd duck in the product line up. It doesn't make sense except to get people to buy an M3 Pro or M3 Max MacBook Pro.
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zorinlynx
macrumors G3
Why is it that Apple Silicon Macs have weird display restrictions that Intel Macs never had? Here we are on the third revision and you still can't use as many displays on this laptop with the lid open as you could with the last Intel Macbook Pros.
M3 Die Shot suggests display engines take up nearly the same area as P-cores
According to the M3 annotated die shot images, it appears that each display engine is nearly as large (edit: even larger) in terms of area taken on the die as a P-core , excluding its L2 cache. Of course, this is only a fairly loose way of measuring transistor counts between the two (transistor...
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anshuvorty
macrumors 68040
So, the hypothesis was that the reason Apple limited dual external monitor support to the Mx Pro line of chips was because Apple could easily upsell their customers from the Mx chips to the Mx Pro chips. Now, with the M3 in the MBA, there is no significant reason to upgrade to the Mx Pro, other than the need for the raw horsepower in these more powerful chips.
I thought Apple would never do something like this because it ultimately impacts their bottom line...their profit margins.
Apple actually doing something that is pro-consumer, would you look at that....
Now, the only other issue that base memory configuration - 8 GB is still criminal....
I thought Apple would never do something like this because it ultimately impacts their bottom line...their profit margins.
Apple actually doing something that is pro-consumer, would you look at that....
Now, the only other issue that base memory configuration - 8 GB is still criminal....
snipr125
macrumors 68030
Yep, and Apple now also offer the base M3 MBP with 16GB but with 1TB SSD at £2,099 as pre built option. I mean who would buy this, when you can just get the base M3 Pro for the same price (and extra 2GB RAM and more cores, fans and extra TB port). Apple have basically sort of screwed over the M3 MBP.
The M1/M2/M3 have always supported two monitors, period. To make two external monitors work, Apple has to essentially shut down the built-in monitor, which is what the Mac minis haven’t had to do all along since they’re headless. If you’re someone who likes having his laptop open, nothing has changed, but if you’re in the habit of closing it up, this is a definite benefit. I’m one who does not ever use clamshell mode, so this wouldn’t affect me if I were to buy one, which I’m not,
Until now, the base M# chip MacBooks have not supported a second external display with the lid closed. Its not even something related to the M3 chip since the 14” M3 MBP only supports one external display with the lid closed.
This seems like an arbitrary thing, suggesting that once again Cupertino dictates how you WILL use their products that WE pay for and supposedly 'own'.
I’m curious if this can be implemented later in software for the M3 MBP. I don’t know the answer to this since they could have included hardware that could shut off the internal monitor. Or i could see this feature as being done wholly in software and could potentially be brought to the MBP as well. BTW, I never thought Apple was trying to upsell by limiting monitor support since the Mac mini was always able to support two external monitors due to it being a headless computer. I figured it was a technical issue, which it was. When you have only two display controllers built into the M-series base chips, they can only support two monitors, period. Only with these new models you can close the lid to essentially turn it into a Mac mini.
Anyone who finds this to be an issue should get an M3 Pro or M3 Max anyway.
The M3 Air supports two displays which are on. Apple isn’t telling you how to use your laptop, they are telling you what your laptop is capable of; its like accusing Apple of telling you how to use a drive because you can’t put a 1TB file on a 512Gb drive.
The Internet: Apple should give the MBA dual external display support.
Apple: Here’s dual external display support.
Also the Internet: Why doesn't it have triple display support.
Apple is literally giving people what they asked for and people are still complaining. LOL
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It’s not arbitrary. The M-series base chips have two display controllers built into them, so they can only support two displays, period. If the clamshell is open, that counts as one of the two. It’s not hard to understand. This is why the base Mac mini was always able to support two external monitors because it’s headless and doesn’t have to support a built-in. If they tried to get three screens working simultaneously it wouldn’t work.
Only with Apple do they get criticized for giving the user more flexibility.
Unless there has been a hardware change, I hope Apple brings this to the M3 MBP which only supports one external display in clamshell mode.
Yep, I indicated in another thread that this could be an internal hardware switch, like a KVM, that allows the M3 to control a different display. If this is what they did, the M3 MBP is probably out of luck. If they did the KVM switch in software, then it would be possible. We’ll find out if the feature is brought over in a subsequent macOS release. It’d be nice if they could.
fenderbass146
macrumors 68000
That still doesn't explain at all why prior Macbooks could not support dual monitors when closed. They are no different then a Mac MiniM3 Die Shot suggests display engines take up nearly the same area as P-cores
According to the M3 annotated die shot images, it appears that each display engine is nearly as large (edit: even larger) in terms of area taken on the die as a P-core , excluding its L2 cache. Of course, this is only a fairly loose way of measuring transistor counts between the two (transistor...
