Daisy chaining two monitors via Thunderbolt 4 and DisplayPort

Question

Level 1

6 points

Daisy chaining two monitors via Thunderbolt 4 and DisplayPort

I'm trying to connect two Samsung monitors with Display Port MST and USB-C to M1 MacBook Pro, daisy chaining the two monitors via Display Port. When I connect the first monitor via USB, the OS recognises both monitors as being separate and allows me to change their settings, however the the second external monitor only shows mirror feed from the first monitor, even though it is set as extended display in the settings.

I previously had this setup connected to a Windows PC and it worked correctly with the same settings on the monitors.

Posted on Dec 9, 2021 1:07 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Best reply

Grant Bennet-Alder

Level 10

127,081 points

Dec 10, 2021 5:24 PM in response to milcz

You can only support daisy-chaining from a Mac over a genuine ThunderBolt cable to a genuine Thunderbolt Display as your first display. (The second display can be connected to any supported display-type port on the first display.)

The reason is that ThunderBolt cables are twice as wide as most other display cables. On other cables, one 4K display at billions of colors saturates the cable, so there is no more room for an entire other display's data. Those other cables are already full at one display.

Reply

Answer 2

jdo_apple

Community Specialist

Dec 10, 2021 1:36 PM in response to milcz

Hello milcz! Thank you for participating in the Apple Support Communities.

We understand that you want to connect two Samsung monitors to your MacBook Pro. We'd like to look into this with you to see how we can help.

Apple provides the following resources to help with setting up external monitors for your Mac:

Make it a great day!

Reply

Answer 3

milcz Author

Level 1

6 points

Dec 10, 2021 2:30 PM in response to jdo_apple

Those resources are not helpful.

I don't have a multiport adapter. The first monitor is connected to MBP via USB-C, then the second monitor is connected to the first one via DisplayPort output which is set to MST. Does that simply mean that OSX still doesn't properly support MST?

Reply

Answer 4

Dec 10, 2021 5:17 PM in response to milcz

Hello milcz !

It appears that multi-stream transport (MST) is not supported by macOS. You can use the following resource to check the technical specifications for your Mac to see what’s supported when it comes to external displays: Tech Specs

Cheers!

Reply

Daisy chaining two monitors via Thunderbolt 4 and DisplayPort

Similar questions