M3 MacBook Pro to Get Multi-Display Support With Software Update

[darngooddesign]

I live a life you could only dream of

LOL. No one is dreaming about your life.

 

[t0rqx]

Is that so? Couldn't possibly be that there were engineering nuances that they hadn't worked out yet at the time of M3's launch that prevented them from supporting it at the time.

There is literally ZERO reason for them to withhold a feature like this and then add it later. Zero. If they want to withhold it to create artificial segmentation, then you don't add it later. They simply hadn't worked it out yet on the M3 a few months ago, and they made sure it was ready by the time the M3 Air launched.

What are you even talking about. I am not sure if you are a fanboy or what not. But thats exactly what they did with this is unlocking feature.

 

[t0rqx]

It is NOT proof. It is possible that it didn't work smooth enough with software upon release to offer that. Proof would evidence of a deliberate internal plan to hose users. Proof is not because the are offering it now when they didn't until now.

This is Apple. Created an amazing SoC and they cannot figure out how to enable two external screen features?

 

[v0lume4]

Close the lid. Apple has an image of it like this in their marketing material for the M3 Air.

Shoot. My old 2010 13inch lived in clamshell more than half the time. Ideally, these laptops could be left open, screen off, if wanted. Windows lets you do this. But you're saying that isn't the case, huh?

 

[MrGimper]

This is Apple. Created an amazing SoC and they cannot figure out how to enable two external screen features?

And this is EXACTLY it. As they tell us all the time, only Apple as they make the software and hardware.

 

[applesed]

Can the M2 air get the software update too?

 

[Hoyboy]

It still exists on the Intel models. They didn't remove it.

It never existed on M series chips. They didn't remove it.

It existed on the old MacBook Air and was removed as a feature on the new MacBook Air

 

[Abazigal]

This is Apple. Created an amazing SoC and they cannot figure out how to enable two external screen features?

Life is all about compromises.

 

[chucker23n1]

It could be that the reason for hardware at all is to deal with nonsense like video copy protection.

Ugh, yeah.

 

[NT1440]

so they just discovered a "magical" and "courageous" way of enabling this? What a clown show ...

Or they worked on their algorithms to deal with the fact the the PCIe lanes simply aren’t there and did some firmware changes to allow an additional external display *when the internal one is disabled*.

But hey, the reality doesn’t matter so back to your hot take that has no technical information to provide….

 

[Spock]

I wonder how many lawyers are already thinking class action lawsuits for a software limitation.

 

[BeatCrazy]

Shoot. My old 2010 13inch lived in clamshell more than half the time. Ideally, these laptops could be left open, screen off, if wanted. Windows lets you do this. But you're saying that isn't the case, huh?

Apple is explicit:

• Close the MacBook Air lid to use a second external display with up to 5K resolution at 60Hz

MacBook Air 13- and 15-inch with M4 Chip - Tech Specs

See all technical specifications for the 13- and 15-inch MacBook Air with M4 chip.

www.apple.com

 

[t0rqx]

so they just discovered a "magical" and "courageous" way of enabling this? What a clown show ...

Exactly. Not the first time. Stagemanager was another stunt and enabling bluetooth 5.3 on another Mac.

 

[MacTwick]

my M1 Max can handle 2 displays as long as the mac is powered

Interesting, I can't get my M1 Pro MBP to work on two monitors with a single USB-C solution. Connected to a dock that does 96W passthrough. DisplayLink doesn't always work for me either even though the dock says it supports DisplayLink.

 

[Ethosik]

I hope you're joking as support for two external displays was already available for the M3 Pro MacBook Pros.

This is for the base M3. Which never supported this. M3 Pro does because it’s more advanced SoC with more capabilities.

 

[Ethosik]

This is good news. I wonder how this is done.

My understanding was that the non-Pro M SoCs had two display controllers, and two wires: on the Mac mini, both go straight to ports on the back, whereas on the MacBooks and iMac, one goes to the internal display, and the other to the ports.

Presumably, the M3 still only has two display controllers. But, perhaps they added a third wiring: one port is always connected, and either the internal display or the other port is connected. But for the fall MBP with M3 release, they hadn't finished the firmware in time to actually dynamically switch between the two whenever the lid closes or is opened.

This is probably why they took the time to address it in software. Probably was buggy. If you are in clamshell and have two monitors, what happens when you open the laptop? Was probably quite buggy for a while.

 

[NT1440]

I wonder how many lawyers are already thinking class action lawsuits for a software limitation.

Firmware. They’d be stupid to even try.

This is a technical compromise. All they’ve done is allow for the same signal to go through the screen OR another external.

 

[hans1972]

Called it! https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...-display.2409623/?post=32689909#post-32689909

The same holds true of M1/M2. It's still absolutely an artificial limitation on those platforms.

It's not an artificial limitation. Apple didn't add the software code to do it. It lacks support because of missing software.

 

[hans1972]

So ******, there no reason the M1 and M2 series chips shouldn't be able to do this either. In 2024 when laptops with docking stations is becoming the defacto setup for so many professionals (who truly only need an air in 99% of the cases) it was a super ****** thing to do.

So they weren't professional enough to buy a computer which support the number of display they would need...

 

[applesed]

Called it! https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...-display.2409623/?post=32689909#post-32689909

The same holds true of M1/M2. It's still absolutely an artificial limitation on those platforms.

So it’s possible in the M2 air??

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

Is that so? Couldn't possibly be that there were engineering nuances that they hadn't worked out yet at the time of M3's launch that prevented them from supporting it at the time.

There is literally ZERO reason for them to withhold a feature like this and then add it later. Zero. If they want to withhold it to create artificial segmentation, then you don't add it later. They simply hadn't worked it out yet on the M3 a few months ago, and they made sure it was ready by the time the M3 Air launched.

"Engineering nuances" not worked out? You're surely kidding...Apple MADE the M3 and M3 Pro and they're not that different. You think their chip engineers have been sitting around scratching their heads wondering how to do something as simple as this when it works on the almost same M3 Pro chip? If the M3 was designed to support 2 monitors from the beginning, then they know what they're doing.

Multiple monitor output from GPU has been around for decades. It ain't rocket science.

This sudden change of heart will have some meaty story behind it, i'm sure.

 

[hans1972]

Proofs that Apple is restricting features intentionally. Stagemanager 3.0.

It's not restricting features. It's about not adding code to support a feature which is known as lacking a feature.

 

[hans1972]

What!?
Really?

I kept getting told this "wasn't possible" for x/y/z technical reason

Regardless, great to see!

It's still 2 displays. Not possible to gain more than two physical display streams. The Mini is proof that 2 external displays were supported all the time in the hardware.

 

[darngooddesign]

So it’s possible in the M2 air??

We won’t know until someone does a hardware comparison between the chips.

 

[hans1972]

He didn't say it was mis-sold or falsely advertised, just that this feature should've been included from the start.

What was the point of locking out this feature if it was always going to be enabled in an update eventually?

Was there some kind of software hurdle they recently overcame? Or did they decide enabling this would increase sales of the M3 Air, and they would then have to enable it on the Pro as well to justify the difference in price?

Apple probably didn't implement the feature in software because no one specified it during the development of those Macs. It wasn't a requirement.

Probably Apple got a lot of feedback on supporting more monitors and thus decided to implement a workaround by adding code to support it.