Which dock for a MacBook Pro with M4 Pro - Cannot use HP USB-C Dock G5

Hello,


I have recently purchased a new MacBook Pro with M4 Pro processor. Whilst I am very happy with it, one weird issue came up.


When I connect my MacBook to the Docks we have at work (HP USB-C Dock G5 with 2 1080p displays), the Mac only recognizes a single display and shows the same output on both monitors. I can connect to one via HDMI and that gives me two external displays, but over a single cable that does not work right.


Every other laptop around the office can output to two displays just fine. Just not the Mac. Which has already led to some funny comments about Apple wanting to do stuff in a special way.


Is this some DP Alt-Mode compatibility lacking in macOS?


And also, what dock should I get for at home? I have looked at the HP Thunderbolt Dock 120W G4 but after my experience with the HP USB-C Dock G5 I'm wary of what dock I should get. I'd like to connect two 1440p screens over DisplayPort, Ethernet and some USB-A ports.

MacBook Pro 14″, macOS 15.1

Posted on Nov 22, 2024 12:23 PM

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Posted on Nov 22, 2024 6:50 PM

the windows standard for displays is you hook up whatever you want, and if it works good enough for you, then great.


The Apple standard for its built-in hardware-accelerated displays, makes them suitable for full-motion video for production/display of cinema-quality video with NO dropped frames, and NO dropouts or partial-blank scan lines due to memory under-runs or other issues. This requires a hardware rasterizer/display-generator for each fully-accelerated display, supported by Huge memory bandwidth to refresh each display 60 or more times a second. 


Because USB-3 does not have enough bandwidth to support two 4K displays, Apple has decided it will NOT be supporting Multiple displays over USB using Multi Stream Transport (MST).


To support two displays on one cable on a Mac, the port, the cable, and the first device (Dock or Display) must all be genuine ThunderBoot. USB-3 has only half the data pathways, and that is just not good enough.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Nov 22, 2024 6:50 PM in response to nickbouwhuis

the windows standard for displays is you hook up whatever you want, and if it works good enough for you, then great.


The Apple standard for its built-in hardware-accelerated displays, makes them suitable for full-motion video for production/display of cinema-quality video with NO dropped frames, and NO dropouts or partial-blank scan lines due to memory under-runs or other issues. This requires a hardware rasterizer/display-generator for each fully-accelerated display, supported by Huge memory bandwidth to refresh each display 60 or more times a second. 


Because USB-3 does not have enough bandwidth to support two 4K displays, Apple has decided it will NOT be supporting Multiple displays over USB using Multi Stream Transport (MST).


To support two displays on one cable on a Mac, the port, the cable, and the first device (Dock or Display) must all be genuine ThunderBoot. USB-3 has only half the data pathways, and that is just not good enough.

Nov 23, 2024 1:54 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Grant Bennet-Alder wrote:

if two HDMi ports is your main requirement, and low cost in important, see if you can find this specific Mac-oriented ThunderBolt Dock from a Reseller in your region:

https:/https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/docks/owc-thunderbolt-3-mini-dock

This dock is bus powered and somewhat limited, but it is priced accordingly.


If the displays can take DisplayPort input, there's this:

Other World Computing – OWC Thunderbolt Dual DisplayPort Adapter

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Which dock for a MacBook Pro with M4 Pro - Cannot use HP USB-C Dock G5

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