can I connect 3 monitors for 3 displays out?

I have successfully connected 3 external displays (while also using my MacBook laptop screen as a 4th monitor). I have a 13 “ 2020 MacBook Pro with 4 thunderbolt 3 ports and with an i7 quad core 2.3ghz processor, 16gb memory running the latest version of Catalina OS for reference.

I am connecting 3 external displays via a usb-c to 4 hdmi hub made by j5create. The model for the hub is: JCA366. The 3 monitors are all connected via hdmi into this hub. The hub has an ability to plug in a 4th hdmi but I have not tried a 4th external monitor (as I don’t own one) but I potentially could do 4 external displays as per the hub’s capability allows for 4 external monitors if your computer meets their specifications (which mine does).

The external monitors are 1080p (not 4K). Two are dell and one is lg.

I figured I would share as it doesn’t seem that anyone has found a solution to this to connect more than 2 external displays to a 2020 MacBook Pro that is 13” (the 16” MacBook Pro clearly supports up to 4 external monitors).

I hope that helps.

That device uses DisplayLink technology. This creates an un-acclerated screen buffer in main RAM, and sends the data out to the display using a slower medium. Then special chips in the stunt-box re-create a regular Display interface.

The display created falls short of full-motion video, and using a mouse with that screen may seem laggy. You MUST update the software when you update MacOS.

For spreadsheets, stock quotes, program listing and other slow-changing stuff, it can be cost effective.

I have not witnessed a lag with the mouse. I am not using it to watch movies on multiple screens nor for gaming so I can’t speak to that but I am using it for sophisticated market data via a vpn to my office (so I am running Bloomberg amongst several office software apps including excel that feeds data via an API). I just got this working today so I can repost if I notice performance issues in the future but for now, I am ecstatic to find a solution for this computer. Apple was not able to offer a solution as they don’t support more than 2 externals on a 13 inch. If you need 100% performance or 4K on 4 screens, I would get the 16 inch MacBook Pro. But that was too big for my needs.

if you have a 13” MacBook Pro, that’s correct. That Mac supports up to two external displays at 4K. The 16” MacBook Pro supports up to four external displays.

Can you have separate desktops on each of the four displays (internal and three external)? Or do some of the displays show the same screen?

Yes, if you choose the use as separate display setting, all screens will be a separate display. So make sure it is not mirroring.