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MST Support but no support for daisy chaining?

For a while Apple supports MST (Use 4K displays and Ultra HD TVs with your Mac - Apple Support). Since this was supported, I was stupid enough to assume that daisy chaining would also work (part of the DisplayPort 1.2 specification). Seems I was wrong to assume that if you say you have Thunderbolt 2, that you also would support DisplayPort 1.2, which is part of the Thunderbolt 2 spec (https://thunderbolttechnology.net/sites/default/files/Driving%204K%20Workflows%2 0with%20Thunderbolt%202.pdf). And with that you would have MST not only for driving 4K displays, but also for driving multiple displays in a daisy chain (which is supported in the Thunderbolt Display setup).


I've a Windows/Linux desktop and my MacBook Pro and I hoped I would be able to use daisy chaining to switch display between the two by just switching 1 monitor. Unfortunately it seems apple does not allow for this (read: they didn't add this when they added the MST support). And daisy chaining is also very nice in keeping those rare thunderbolt ports available for other stuff then displays. Yes of course I should have bought a thunderbolt display, but since the hardware is capable of doing the daisy chaining (people have used bootcamp to prove that), why not add it to the drivers?


Is anyone aware of plans @ Apple about adding this to their drivers? After googling since it didn't work I found that many more are interested in seeing daisy chaining to work.


Some of the many related topics:
http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/189542/mbpr-2015-2-5ghz-i7-daisychainin g-2-dell-u2414h-61-screens

http://superuser.com/questions/228589/daisy-chainable-displayport-monitors/

Daisy chain Dell u2713h

DisplayPort 1.2 MST (Daisy Chaining) on 2013 MacBook Pros

Daisy chain two display port monitors (Dell U2913WM) to new Mac mini Thunderbolt?(This one is originally about Thunderbolt 1, which is not DisplayPort 1.2 compatible, but it shows for how long people want to use daisy chaining, and the last reply there is from Oct 15, 2015 9:26 AM)

Does the new Macbook Pro 15" (late 2013) supports 4K via Thunderbolt/Displayport?

http://gizmodo.com/i-think-my-next-computer-will-abandon-osx-for-windows-1-17149 40452

https://www.reddit.com/r/applehelp/comments/2qppmh/thunderboltmdp_daisy_chain_on _nonapple_monitors/

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013), OS X El Capitan (10.11.1)

Posted on Dec 3, 2015 6:33 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on May 30, 2017 2:40 AM

So they got back to me: "This option unfortunately is not supported in macOS and it is expected not to be working."


Original Answer in German: "Diese Option wird leider nicht von MacOS unterstützt und ist normal das es nicht funktioniert."

12 replies

Jan 19, 2017 11:51 AM in response to DelGurth

I got the new MacBook Pro 2016 (Radeon Pro 460) and wanted to connect my two monitors with a DisplayPort daisy-chain.

First issue: Apple doesn't offer any USB-C <-> Displayport adapter.


Fast forward 3 weeks:

Finally the third-party adapter arrives, but it doesn't work with macOS. Both external displays show the same image.
I installed boot camp and tried it, and it worked!


I called Apple about the issue and got connected to multiple experts which couldn't solve the issue. They contacted the apple technical support about this issue and I will hear back from them within the next few days.

Dec 9, 2016 12:25 AM in response to charlesrg

@Charlesrg


Actually with 4k display's I'm less amazed that it doesn't work. Since this cannot be achieved with "normal" DisplayPort 1.2 daisy chaining. The amount of bandwidth required is too much for 1 DisplayPort 1.2 stream.

And since the USB-C output ports on the LG 4K display are not Thunderbolt 3 ports, you are not really daisy chaining on the Thunderbolt 3 level. So indeed you will need 2 cables to your macbook to get this working.


To get 2 4k displays connected using 1 cable you will need something like:


https://www.startech.com/Cards-Adapters/Laptop-docking-stations/thunderbolt-3-la ptop-dock~TB3DK2DPW


And then you can connect 1 display using USB-C and one using DisplayPort. Or you need a monitor with thunderbolt 3 output.

MST Support but no support for daisy chaining?

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