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mac-jam

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 25, 2015
150
15
I have a Macbook Air M2 and 2 Apple Studio Displays. What do I need to drive both studio displays with the Macbook Air M2?
 
You could buy a 5K capable DisplayLink dock and there are some, for example this one:


But that one doesn't have TB3 input and to get 5K output you'll need to use both DisplayPorts on the thing so you'll need some adapters to do that. Maybe there's more appropriate ones you can hunt for yourself. Plus DisplayLink comes with a cost in the fact you're transmitting video over USB protocol so it eats up CPU cycles to do the compression, more so for higher resolutions and moving images.

If you've got the money to burn on $3000 worth of monitors what's another $2000 for a M2 Pro MacBook Pro that can actually use them?
 
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I've actually got Macbook Pro 14 M1 and Macbook Pro 16 M2 but prefer the Air M2 as my actually workload is light I just need to view multiple things at once for the line of work I am in. So wanted to get rid of the Pros and just keep the Air as it handles everything I throw at it besides the dual monitor issue.
 
I've actually got Macbook Pro 14 M1 and Macbook Pro 16 M2 but prefer the Air M2 as my actually workload is light I just need to view multiple things at once for the line of work I am in. So wanted to get rid of the Pros and just keep the Air as it handles everything I throw at it besides the dual monitor issue.

Solution: Sell the Pros and get a M2 Mac mini as your desktop computer. It is annoying that the MacBook Air can't drive 2 studio displays, but I see it as a portable / travel computer and view Apple's desktops as now the best solution for desktop work. You already have the most expensive portions of the setup (the screens).
 
I've actually got Macbook Pro 14 M1 and Macbook Pro 16 M2 but prefer the Air M2 as my actually workload is light I just need to view multiple things at once for the line of work I am in. So wanted to get rid of the Pros and just keep the Air as it handles everything I throw at it besides the dual monitor issue.

I am in the same boat with you wanting to connect my Air M2 and 2 Studio Displays. :(

Safe to say a hub won't make a difference, right?
 
can you please clarify - you managed to get MBA M2 working with 2 Studio Displays running at 5k 60hz?
 
just to confirm both monitors run at 5k 60hz? because I'm told that even with DisplayLink you're only able to get something like 5k 60hz + 4k 60hz...
 
that's amazing! thank you! can I check which dock you used to drive both Studio Displays? I see the recommended docks in that webpage supports only up to 4k.
 
image.jpg
I am not using a dock, I just plug the displays into both ports and run everything else off the ports on the Studio Display. You don’t get full TB4 speed but it works for me.
 
Like I said, plug both Studio Displays directly into each of the TB4 on the MBA, I use the hub built into the ASD and connect a USB3 hub and Time machine drive into that. With this setup I have 6 free USBC ports, 3 on each ASD. Works fine at TB3 speeds but I don’t need 40GBs
 
Like I said, plug both Studio Displays directly into each of the TB4 on the MBA, I use the hub built into the ASD and connect a USB3 hub and Time machine drive into that. With this setup I have 6 free USBC ports, 3 on each ASD. Works fine at TB3 speeds but I don’t need 40GBs
But this makes no sense because even Apple themselves say the M2 Air's only support a single external monitor. And the ASD doesn't support Displaylink. The other ports don't run at TB3 speeds either...
 
You seem to be in a logic loop. DisplayLink is not Apple, it is a 3rd party solution and it works fine in the ASD-MBA-ASD configuration with full 5K. If you only want to rely on "official Apple solutions" then you will not be running two displays on your MBA.
 
You seem to be in a logic loop. DisplayLink is not Apple, it is a 3rd party solution and it works fine in the ASD-MBA-ASD configuration with full 5K. If you only want to rely on "official Apple solutions" then you will not be running two displays on your MBA.
I'm not confused at all. You need some sort of dock/hub/adapter/device that supports DisplayLink. Even the article you linked talks about that. I'm trying to understand how you claim to be doing what you're doing because it makes no sense. You can't just plug in two monitors to a M1/M2 MBA and have it work. And no, installing the displaylink driver is not enough. You need hardware.
 
I agree, I do not think the Studio Display support Displaylink, so plugging in directly without a displaylink adapter in between should not work, even with drivers installed.
 
But it’s not plugged in directly… you can see in the photo the displaylink adapter.
 
Like I said, plug both Studio Displays directly into each of the TB4 on the MBA, I use the hub built into the ASD and connect a USB3 hub and Time machine drive into that. With this setup I have 6 free USBC ports, 3 on each ASD. Works fine at TB3 speeds but I don’t need 40GBs
Can you please clarify this statement?

The way you describe it, you plug Studio Display (1) directly into Thunderbolt Port (1), and then plug Studio Display (2) directly into Thunderbolt Port (2)—which shouldn't work on an Apple Silicon MacBook Air.

Can you instead describe what DisplayLink product you are using, and where in the chain it is being used? You must be doing something specific to get 5K @ 60Hz x 2 Studio Displays.
 
But it’s not plugged in directly… you can see in the photo the displaylink adapter.
They said both displays are plugged in directly to the Macbook. If you are referring to that white box on the photo, that cannot work as that is plugged in to a downstream port on the Studio Display. The input port is the rightmost one.
 
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