Daisy Chaining 27" LG Displays (2 or 3 of them) with M1 Max silicon. Can it be done?

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Daisy Chaining 27" LG Displays (2 or 3 of them) with M1 Max silicon. Can it be done?

Hi Apple Community,

So, like most of us, I am very impressed with the MacBook Pro M1 Pro and Max silicon and have decided to purchase a 14" MacBook Pro with Max silicon, upgraded RAM, and storage.

As I am a professional designer that also dabbles in photography my ideal setup would be to have 3 x LG 27" displays running on this new machine... thing is apple stores can't give me a straight answer on how to achieve this. Can I run one thunderbolt cable out of the T4 port into the T3 port of the LG display and then daisy chain to the next display and then again to the 3rd one OR do I have to use all 3 Thunderbolt ports to run the 3 different 27" LG displays?

I don't really want to run 3 cables to 3 displays as I will have no ports for external backup SSD drives and other peripherals and the constant plugging and unplugging of cables is counterproductive.

So, does anyone know the answer to my question, hopefully, someone that has tried and tested this?

thanks in advance.

George (2p8)

Brisbane, Australia

Posted on Nov 9, 2021 7:30 PM

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Answer 1

Nov 10, 2021 5:33 PM in response to 2p8

"a modern display's worth" of data fills most display cables. (for HDMI, it fills earlier than some others). So to get two displays off one cable, you need to have a data "pPipe" that has two data pathways, each at least the size of a Display's worth of data.

ThunderBolt is such a data "pipe". You CAN run ThunderBolt to one Thunderbolt Display, then have it use ThunderBolt (or any other connection that display supports) to drive a second (but NOT a third) display.

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Answer 2

ShannonM1

Community Specialist

Nov 10, 2021 1:37 PM in response to 2p8

Hello 2p8,

We understand that you're trying to connect multiple displays to your Mac. Each display needs to be connected right to the Mac, as outlined at the following article:

Use one or more external displays with your Mac

In regards to M1 Macs, it further states, "For Mac computers with the Apple M1 Chip: You can connect a single external display to your Mac. Docks don’t increase the number of displays you can connect. On a Mac mini with M1 chip, you can connect a second display to the HDMI port."

Thanks for using Apple Support Communities!

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Answer 3

2p8 Author

Level 1

5 points

Nov 10, 2021 5:11 PM in response to ShannonM1

Ok thank you Apple support.

I was hoping you could daisy chain the displays but understand now that each display must be connected directly to the laptop or machine in question.

thank you.

George

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Daisy Chaining 27" LG Displays (2 or 3 of them) with M1 Max silicon. Can it be done?

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