- How many external monitors?
- What exact Mac do you have? That affects the total number of monitors the Mac can directly support before you would need DisplayLink adapters.
Apple Silicon Macbook Pro with
- M1, M2, M3 CPU supports 1 external monitor directly
- M1 Pro, M2 Pro, M3 Pro supports 2 external monitors directly
- M1 Max, M2 Max, M3 Max supports at least 3, and depending on pixel density maybe 4 external monitors directly.
The 14" and 16" Macbook Pros all have an HDMI port on the right side. Which will handle 1 monitor.
Any USB-C dock can take the DisplayPort signal over USB3 and drive a single monitor without DisplayLink software and adapters.
A Thunderbolt dock can support as many monitors as the Mac directly supports, assuming the Thunderbolt dock has ports for the monitors.
Once you want to drive more monitors than the Mac directly supports (see above list), then you would need DisplayLink adapters and software.
If you have having system panics, then I would look to see if it is the DisplayLink software.
NOTE: The monitor itself should not really matter. I've used several different monitors (DELL, Samsung, Acer) via the HDMI port, or Thunderbolt dock, or USB-C adapters, or an inexpensive USB-C dock. But I have not used DisplayLink software and adapters, so I cannot speak to how well it works on Sonoma. I am currently driving 2 external 4K monitors via a Thunderbolt dock (DELL 32" 4K and Acer 28" 4K), plus my 14" MacBook Pro (M1 Pro CPU) laptop display.
