Combining Studio and Thunderbolt Displays

My M3 MBA ran into buggy performance (MacOS 15.01) when I tried daisy-chained them both, I have to use this: with Studio Display (direct connected to MBA) and Thunderbolt Display (TB port -> TB hub --> TB display) -- I used 2 TB ports for both.. However, I am not sure in MB Pro's situation.

Msheahan wrote:

Thank you v helpful. But what if I connected each display to a separate USB-C port on the MBP?

If you connect a 27" Apple Studio Display to one of the Thunderbolt ports on your Mac, and the 27" Thunderbolt Display to another (using an Apple Thunderbolt 3-to-2 adapter), that should work.

You indicated that your Mac is a 14" MacBook Pro with a M3 Pro chip. MBPs with that chip have three TB4 ports and a HDMI port, and the ability to drive up to two external displays with a resolution of up to 6K each. These two will fill your quota of two – so you'll need to leave the HDMI port open, and use the third USB-C / Thunderbolt port only for data.

MacBook Pro (14-inch, M3 Pro or M3 Max, Nov 2023) - Technical Specifications - Apple Support

I do not think it would be possible to daisy-chain these displays.

The 27" Apple 5K Studio Display has no daisy-chaining ports. Its downstream USB-C ports carry USB but do not carry Thunderbolt.

The old 27" Thunderbolt Display has a Thunderbolt daisy-chaining port, but this is a Thunderbolt 1 port ("up to 10 Gbps"), not a Thunderbolt 3 one ("up to 40 Gbps"). If you set up chain that looked like

Mac -- TB3-to-TB2 adapter -- 2.5K TB Display -- TB2-to-TB3 adapter -- 5K Studio Display

there would not be enough bandwidth between the Mac and the Studio Display for the latter to work well (if at all).

That leaves connecting a Thunderbolt dock/hub with two or more downstream Thunderbolt ports to the Mac, then connecting the Studio Display to one downstream port and the (TB3-to-TB2 adapter + Thunderbolt Display) to the other. Even this might be "iffy" given how much bandwidth the 5K Studio Display will consume all by itself.

That's what I indicated earlier -- use 2 separated TB ports for each monitor.

I tried again to daisy chain both monitors last night:

M3 Macbook Air (clam shell mode) --> TB2/3 adapter --> TB display --> Used the additional TB 1/2 port on TB display (TB 2 cable) --> another TB 2/3 adapter --> Studio Display. (Yes, I do have few TB 2--> TB 3 adapters.)

With MacOS 15.1, the screen on TB Display would flicker and NO image on Studio Display (similar to MacOS 15.01). The Apple USB keyboard (connect to TB display) will not work with this daisy-chain set up.

I suspect the signal can not reach to Studio Display (requires much higher bandwidth that TB display might be the bottleneck).

Even I removed the connection between TB display and Studio Display, the TB display still flickered.

Until I detached all the connections from MacBook Air, rebooted -- The MacBook Air finally acted normal and I can connect to TB display along without any issue.

That's my "buggy" experience when I tried to "daisy chain" these 2 monitors.

The only way to make these 2 work simultaneously: 2 displays connected to 2 laptop's 2 TB ports - however, I have one TB dock to host either TB display or Studio Display.

Best