MacBook Pro 13" M1 Dual Monitors using Dell D6000

You should try it out on an M1 MacBook, the implementation for this architecture actually works quite well and seems quite fast to me. Non DRM video and YouTube playback without dropped frames as far as I can tell and my experience has been excellent so far. What you state regarding displaylink is true in a conceptual sense with respect to how the technology operates, but there are caveats here to differentiate from what you may have experienced in the past on Wintel displaylink setups or even older Intel Macs; The M1 MacBooks have a unified memory architecture for RAM which is different compared to Intel models and also note that displaylink has a few different generations in chips too, the latest supports 4k but on their website I saw older devices that are limited to older USB speeds and 1080p. There's a few others that have tried out displaylink on an M1 Mac and their experiences and YouTube videos correlate strongly to what I have experienced performance wise.

I believe so yes - the dock will not pass through the display to the MB graphics, and so is using software drivers to run the display instead (which relies on display link). Better to get a non-display=link dock.

I dont have two dell monitors. But I have two acer monitors and can only use one of them with the pro 13 inch m1 chip. There are several videos on youtube showing a potential workaround using a displaylink adapter. I have ordered one and waiting to see if it works.

I think that what you are saying here is historically true. However, Apple's implementation for driving external displays on the M1 architecture is currently nothing short of dismal. Not only are there endless issues with driving displays reliably, alongside repeated crashes, incompatibilities with DisplayPort 1.4 and intermittent kernel panics, Apple itself has acknowledged unresolved issues and we are still waiting for a formal resolution.

For people within the M1 ecosystem, it is reasonable then to assert that the DisplayLink suite of products may actually be a superior option when compared to the issued faced by using Apple's own implementation.

I, historically, have been extremely critical of DisplayLink due to its noticeably inferior performance, however, as someone who has essentially lost the last two months of productivity due to Apple's disgusting excuse for a "standard for graphics performance" my only two options are to repurchase an Intel MacBook or use a third-party DisplayLink solution.

It is the best solution of a bad range of options, but still a solution.

The standard Apple uses is that display output should be PERFECT cinema quality, i.e, you could use that output for producing/showing major motion pictures at a cinema. ANY dropped frames or ANY partial scan-line dropouts due to underruns are completely unacceptable under that standard.

Under ideal conditions, DisplayLink displays may produce a picture that is pleasing enough for you, but still falls FAR short of what Apple uses as its standard.

That’s unfortunate. What setup/configuration are you trying, and not able, to get working?

I went in with my eyes open about having one external display option, but the M1 drives my 4K dell u3219k beautifully and displaylink with a dell d6000 gives me another monitor which I wasn’t expecting. I would usually like to run this other monitor in portrait, perhaps that will be provided in a future update.

so far I have had a month of great productivity with the M1 and will upgrade later in the year when the new one comes out.

New DisplayLink drivers were released on the 10th of December - have you tried them and is there any noticeable improvement?

https://www.displaylink.com/downloads/macos

On my M1 MBA, the HP Thunderbolt G2 (2UK37AA) did not seem to work.

However, the (old) USB-C Universal Dock (1MK33AA) seems to be doing the trick.

Am not sure if the firmware on the docks needs to be upgraded.

I would like to see some more data on these docks, as I do like them, in general.

Hi tmoldovan,

The dock has to be the HP Universal USB-C G2 displaylink dock, the part number is in my original post (P/N: 5TW13UT). This is not the same as the thunderbolt dock G2. The thunderbolt dock is a different technology and does not support displaylink, I know it's confusing since the USB-C and thunderbolt 3 connectors are physically the same. The displaylink dock also has specialized hardware/logic for video compression over USB-C (this is part of the displaylink solution along with Displaylink's driver software for MacOS/Windows). Also note that the HP USB-C G5 dock (5TW10AA) is not a displaylink dock either...it does not have the Displaylink chipset and thus will not work either.

have you used that HP dock with an M1 macbook?

The D6000 from Dell is also a usb-c displaylink dock and is fairly cheap on ebay. Going to take a punt, but my Mac doesn’t arrive for another two weeks 😔

i’m not sure what you are adding to the conversation that hasn’t already been said?

if you just need another display for information work and it works... even if it is media, then it’s up to the user to define what is acceptable.

Several users have suggested DisplayLink displays are "fine" without defining what "fine" means.

My post is intended to lay out what Apple considers their standard for graphics performance.

If that is obvious to you, you are very special.

The potential for displaylink to produce lower quality results isn't new information to the thread.

Did you just call yourself special?

Anyway, it's what mum tells me, so it must be true. 😁

@Miguelv13 - what version of the displaylink driver are you using? I'm on 1.2. Perhaps earlier versions don't support HDCP video?

Will the Belkin Thunderbolt mini doc station work or does the doc need to have specified displaylink ports? So far I'm having no luck with the Belkin and thought maybe it was because my second monitor was too old since displaylink is not picking it up. But perhaps I need a displaylink enabled doc station?