3 Monitor Setup (Macbook Pro 13" with Touchbar)

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3 Monitor Setup (Macbook Pro 13" with Touchbar)

Greetings to all!

I need a little help. I don't know if I'm being thick or it's just not possible but I figure I'd ask.

I have a 13" Macbook Pro with Touchbar. It's running Sierra 10.12.5. I have 3 monitors, 2x Dell E2211H (DVI) and 1x Asus MX27AQ (HDMI). I also have a Caldigit dock. I'm not able to drive all three monitors. The Asus monitor is driven via the Caldigit dock which is connected via USB-C. One of the two Dells is connected via DVI to USB-C to direct to the Mac. I have tried to connect the 3rd monitor in various ways (DVI to Display Port via Caldigit (Error msg on Dell about timing that I wasn't able to solve), DVI to USB-C via the Caldigit (No good) and DVI to USB-C direct to the Mac (No Good).

This is nothing short of maddening. If you have any tips or suggestions, please let me know. If there is a different piece of hardware that people know work with this setup, please let me know. I'm not above purchasing my way out of this issue but I would think that 3 monitors to 3 ports on the Mac would work.

Thanks for your help!

Tom

MacBook Pro TouchBar and Touch ID, macOS Sierra (10.12.5)

Posted on Jun 26, 2017 5:52 AM

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Answer 1

Jun 26, 2017 9:23 AM in response to tearl42

According to the tech specs, your Mac supports up to two external displays:

Video Support

Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display at millions of colors and:

One display with 5120-by-2880 resolution at 60Hz at over a billion colors

Up to two displays with 4096-by-2304 resolution at 60Hz at millions of colors

Up to two displays with 3840-by-2160 resolution at 60Hz at over a billion colors

Thunderbolt 3 digital video output

Native DisplayPort output over USB‑C

VGA, HDMI, and Thunderbolt 2 output supported using adapters (sold separately)

from:

MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2017, Four Thunderbolt 3 Ports) - Technical Specifications

(the 2016 model has very similar specs)

So if you would like to use three displays, one of them will have to be the built-in display.

You could add a USB display adapter, but it will be so slow to update that mouse tracking will be troublesome.

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Answer 2

Jun 27, 2017 7:44 AM in response to tearl42

The 15-in 2016 model has dual graphics and shows this:

Video Support

Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display at millions of colors and:

Up to two displays with 5120-by-2880 resolution at 60Hz at over a billion colors

Up to four displays with 4096-by-2304 resolution at 60Hz at over a billion colors

Thunderbolt 3 digital video output

Native DisplayPort output over USB‑C

VGA, HDMI, and Thunderbolt 2 output supported using adapters (sold separately)

from:

MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2016) - Technical Specifications

the 2017 is comparable, but it is stated slightly differently:

Video Support

Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display at millions of colors and:

Up to two displays with 5120-by-2880 resolution at 60Hz at over a billion colors

Up to four displays with 4096-by-2304 resolution at 60Hz at millions of colors

Up to four displays with 3840-by-2160 resolution at 60Hz at over a billion colors

Thunderbolt 3 digital video output

Native DisplayPort output over USB‑C

VGA, HDMI, and Thunderbolt 2 output supported using adapters (sold separately)

the model with 512GB SSD has 4GB Video RAM

from:

MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2017) - Technical Specifications

.

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