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nanojava

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 23, 2020
4
0
First time posting here so good times everyone.

I have a mid-2015 15" mBP (with Radeon R9 M370X) 16GB-RAM 512GB-SSD.
On a daily basis am running the internal display (2880 x 1800) together with two 1920 x 1080 monitors.

Am holding plans to upgrade to 16" mBP 64GB-RAM (budge constraint), so I'll be upgrading the monitors first.
I have two monitor configuration in mind for my current machine until I had the budget for the new 16".
Question is, which option will work with all running at 60hz?

Option A:
  • 2 x 1440p/2k monitor (via active thunderbolt2 to DP / HDMI)
  • 1 x 2k (via HDMI to HDMI / DP via adapter)
  • 1 x 1080p (via USB 3.0 to HDMI / VGA)
  • 1 x 2880x1880 mBP internal display
Option B:
  • 1 x 4k monitor (via active thunderbolt2 to DP)
  • 1 x 2k monitor (via active thunberbolt2 to DP)
  • 1 x 2k monitor (via HDMI to DP)
Option C:
  • 2 x 1440p/2k monitor (via active thunderbolt2 to DP / HDMI)
  • 1 x 1080 (via HDMI to HDMI)
  • 1 x 1080p (via USB 3.0 to HDMI / VGA)
  • 1 x 2880x1880 mBP internal display
I didn't include an option D with 2 x 4k monitor (via active thunderbolt2 to DP) with the internal display as I prefer coding on a 2k monitor instead.
Any other monitor setup are welcomed above 3 x 1080p monitor with the internal display on.
 

pshufd

macrumors G3
Oct 24, 2013
8,932
13,705
New Hampshire
I have a 2015 with AMD and run 2XQHD (2560x1440) off of the Thunderbolt ports. I don't know the frequency. I also have a 2014 with Intel Integrated and run a 4K monitor off the HDMI port. I don't know what the refresh rate is. I run both in Clamshell mode but I can use the internal display if I want to with these configurations.
 

nanojava

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 23, 2020
4
0
Are those 2 x QHD monitors connected via DisplayPort from Thunderbolt? For the frequency, 30hz can do for me as programmer.

By any chance you tried connected all three monitors (2 x QHD via thunderbolt and the 4k via HMDI)? Were there any lags in inputs or pixelated screens? Can it still run with the internal display on or strictly clamshell mode?
 

pshufd

macrumors G3
Oct 24, 2013
8,932
13,705
New Hampshire
Are those 2 x QHD monitors connected via DisplayPort from Thunderbolt? For the frequency, 30hz can do for me as programmer.

By any chance you tried connected all three monitors (2 x QHD via thunderbolt and the 4k via HMDI)? Were there any lags in inputs or pixelated screens? Can it still run with the internal display on or strictly clamshell mode?

Yup, DisplayPort from Thunderbolt 2. I have not tried connecting all three monitors as that's not my use case.

I do not have any lag issues on either laptop but I don't do anything video-intensive. The most video-intensive thing that I do is YouTube videos. My development system is mostly character-cell terminal and emacs stuff, web browsing, email, slack. My financial stuff uses a lot of CPU and RAM but isn't a strain on video resources.

I have had lag issues in the past on Intel Integrated on the 2014 which is why my applications are split up on two laptops.
 

pshufd

macrumors G3
Oct 24, 2013
8,932
13,705
New Hampshire
Are you using passive or active adapters?

Can you give it a try? Maybe could work to your favor?

I do not know what passive or active adapters are.

My use case is that I use two separate networks so I have to partition machines and the monitors that go with them. One machine isn't powerful enough to run both sets of applications either.
 
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