MacBook M1: Up to five external displays with a DisplayLink adapter

The new MacBook Air and MacBook Pro 13 “with the M1 chip can only handle a single external display, half as much as their predecessors with Intel processors. As in the great days, however, DisplayLink adapters can bypass this. limit, and use up to five external displays.

While the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro 13 “with Intel processors could handle up to two external displays, the new models have to make do with a single monitor, as we have been able to verify. In return, the graphics circuit of the M1 chip not only supports 4K60 and 5K60 displays, but also 6K60 displays like ProDisplay XDR.

This limitation seems to be due to electrical and energy considerations more than to the capabilities of the M1 chip. Indeed, the new MacBook Air and MacBook Pro 13 “can handle up to five screens with a little trick and a lot of hardware. The trick is to use the DisplayLink standard to connect the screens via USB.

And the material? A Thunderbolt docking station, first, since these portable machines only have two ports. DisplayLink adapters, then, except to have compatible monitors. With his CalDigit TS3 Plus station and a bunch of adapters, Youtuber Ruslan Tulupov has connected his 4K TV and four screens.

The machines do not flinch: performance is « super » in Final Cut Pro, waking up is instantaneous, viewing is fluid. The limit does not come from the M1 chip, but from the Thunderbolt standard, whose bandwidth prevents the use of the five screens in 4K60. As proof, on the Mac mini, the HDMI port even allows you to add a sixth screen!

More realistically, a small multi-port DisplayLink adapter allows the use of two 4K60 displays. Even though these experiments show that DisplayLink drivers are compatible with macOS Big Sur and M1 machines, DisplayLink promises they will be improved. ” in the next weeks “.