Can I run 2 4K Displays on my late 2015 MBP w/an AMD Radeon R9?

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Can I run 2 4K Displays on my late 2015 MBP w/an AMD Radeon R9?

Alright, so I have a brand new late 2015 MacBook Pro 15" with the AMD Radeon R9, and I am going to get some monitors for them. The ones that I am looking at are UHD (4K) SST monitors and I want to be able to run both of them at 60 Hertz. They will be plugged into both of the two Thunderbolt 2 ports (one monitor for each port). Will this work? (I have checked many different sources and they all give me different answers.)

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X El Capitan (10.11.2)

Posted on Jan 15, 2016 10:09 PM

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Answer 1

CarlAVII

Community Specialist

Jan 17, 2016 7:34 AM in response to mabmac20

Hello mabmac20,

This particular model of MacBook Pro does support up to 5120 x 2880 resolution at 60Hz, but only on a single external display, and only when connected via DisplayPort.

Thunderbolt digital video output

Native Mini DisplayPort output

DVI, VGA, dual-link DVI, and HDMI output supported using Mini DisplayPort adapters (sold separately)

Support for up to 5120-by-2880 resolution at 60Hz on a single external display (model with AMD Radeon R9 M370X only)

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015) - Technical Specifications
https://support.apple.com/kb/SP719

All my best.

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Answer 2

mabmac20 Author

Level 1

15 points

Jan 17, 2016 3:59 PM in response to CarlAVII

So, i can't run 2 4k displays at 60 hertz, right? but is it possible to run one of them at 30Hz and the other at 60Hz?

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Answer 3

mabmac20 Author

Level 1

15 points

Jan 17, 2016 4:03 PM in response to CarlAVII

Dual display and video mirroring: Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display and up to 3840 by 2160 pixels on up to two external displays, both at millions of colors.

So i saw this on one of the support pages and it was what I was looking for, but how fast is it 30Hz or 60Hz?

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Answer 4

CarlAVII

Community Specialist

Jan 18, 2016 8:20 AM in response to mabmac20

mabmac20,

Thank you for using the Apple Support Community. Due to the nature of your issue or question you may find more information by using another one of Apple's support resources - https://getsupport.apple.com/GetproductgroupList.action.

All my best.

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Answer 5

mabmac20 Author

Level 1

15 points

Jan 19, 2016 2:05 PM in response to CarlAVII

ok, i looked and it didn't really help me, i just need a straight answer, can i or can i not run dual 4k displays on my mac at 60Hz?

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Answer 6

OGELTHORPE

Level 9

57,329 points

Jan 19, 2016 3:29 PM in response to mabmac20

According to this article you can, but with certain limitations:

http://www.imore.com/using-multiple-4k-displays-your-macbook-pro

Ciao.

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Answer 7

mabmac20 Author

Level 1

15 points

Jan 21, 2016 10:56 AM in response to OGELTHORPE

yes, i did see that, but i also saw this one article that said that you can run 2 4k displays at 60Hz if the displays are SingleStreamTransport (SST) in the article that you looked at, the monitors were MultiStreamTransport (MST)

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Answer 8

mabmac20 Author

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15 points

Jan 21, 2016 10:58 AM in response to mabmac20

this is the link https://m.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/3ba7ib/can_you_run_dual_4k_monitors_on_a_2 015_macbook/

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Answer 9

mabmac20 Author

Level 1

15 points

Jan 22, 2016 6:41 AM in response to OGELTHORPE

i also saw this one article and it said:

15" Mid 2014 or Later: This model can drive up to two 4K displays at 60Hz with the NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M. The Mid 2015 15" MacBook Pro with AMD Radeon R9 M370X graphics can also drive one 5K display connected with two Thunderbolt cables.

so does this mean that the older graphics card can run two 4k displays at 60hz and the AMD can't?

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Answer 10

OGELTHORPE

Level 9

57,329 points

Jan 22, 2016 7:08 AM in response to mabmac20

I think that your best option is to contact Apple support and get a definitive answer from them. It has been my observation that when running hardware, a newer Mac can do anything and older ones, plus occasionally more. I doubt that your MBP will not be able to run 2 4k monitors but I do not have a 2015 MBP nor two 2k monitors to test.

Ciao.

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Answer 11

Courcoul

Level 6

18,684 points

Jan 22, 2016 8:54 AM in response to OGELTHORPE

Besides the how-to-connect (two DVI or HDMI to Thunderbolt dongles, one on the default HDMI port and a dongle?) the top-end 15"/2.5GHz MBP only has 2GB of dedicated VRAM for the Radeon GPU. Supposing 32bit color depth, how many frame buffers will there fit in the VRAM? If you want fluid animation, there needs to be at least two, with more better. So, width x height x depth and you do the math.

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