There is a limitation on the number of external thunderbolt monitors that Macs can support. To get around this limitation you can use a Dell D3100 Docking Station to add an additional 3 external monitors. The Dell D3100 dock uses USB3 so you need a free USB port either on your Mac or from another docking station. Install the DisplayLink Mac drivers and you are good-to-go with additional external monitors
MacBook Pro 14″, macOS 12.2
Correct, I am aware that the different chips support a different amount of monitors and I should have titled this thread differently. Besides that, the point of this thread is if you use the correct type of docking station like the Dell D3100, you can add additional external monitors beyond what the chipset supports. Apple's documentation states you cannot add additional monitors via a docking station beyond the number supported by the chip, and that is just not correct. Apple support asked me to post this information to help others in the community as they were not aware of this capability. So whether you are running an intel chip, M1, M1 Pro, M1 Max etc, you can add additional monitors via this docking station beyond the number supported by the chip and it works very well.
Correct, I am aware that the different chips support a different amount of monitors and I should have titled this thread differently. Besides that, the point of this thread is if you use the correct type of docking station like the Dell D3100, you can add additional external monitors beyond what the chipset supports. Apple's documentation states you cannot add additional monitors via a docking station beyond the number supported by the chip, and that is just not correct. Apple support asked me to post this information to help others in the community as they were not aware of this capability. So whether you are running an intel chip, M1, M1 Pro, M1 Max etc, you can add additional monitors via this docking station beyond the number supported by the chip and it works very well.
I have a brand new Macbook pro with a M1 Pro processor and have 2 USB-C monitors hooked directly up to thunderbolt ports and then I have the Dell D3100 dock with 2 additional monitors hooked up and it works great. The monitors work off the DisplayPort software so they wouldn't be great for high speed gaming etc but work flawlessly for work docs and internet etc. I haven't noticed any slowness running 4 external monitors + built-in display.
Being that the additional displays through the dock are using DisplayLink drivers and are not natively run, the performance is diminished some but for most use-cases it works perfectly. Like I mentioned gaming and intense video might not be ideal for this situation but for many people that just need more screen real-estate for general apps, there is no performance problems or issues.
If you are talking about the M1 Mac, your solution will not work well. The M1 chip Mac can only support 1 external display. Your solution would cause poor resolution/speed.
Yes you can add additional monitors using a docking station, but that does not increase the number of external displays supported natively, the quality is diminished as you add monitors beyond the number natively supported..
The M1 Pro Chip is different from the M1 chip. The M1 Max supports even more external displays than the M1 Pro.
Check the specs for each M1 Chip type.
Thanks for posting the tip.
SOLUTION: Add more than 2 external monitors to your Mac
