Has anyone successfully ran 4 displays on a Mac Pro 2013 using every Thunderbolt port? I have a Thunderbolt Display, two Philips 4K 28" displays and a small HDMI Samsung that I use only for webcam display. It works, most of the time but I have had to try different ports and making sure the bus is not overloaded. Any tips on this are greatly appreciated.
Here's my rig, obfuscated:
Mac Pro, macOS High Sierra (10.13.1)
To use more than TWO "legacy" displays (read: other than DisplayPort family or direct ThunderBolt) you must use ACTIVE adapters for any beyond two. The built-in HDMI counts as one of your "free" two if you connect anything to it.
Yes, you do need to move your highest resolution displays (especially "legacy" displays) to different ThunderBolt busses. But ThunderBolt and DisplayPort displays send only the changed data -- once the picture is not changing, the cable goes quiet.
My Philips 4k have displayport. My Thunderbolt is obviously TB2. And then the HDMI.
With the 4ks using displayport, they do or don't require a separate bus? Meaning is 4k per bus the max? I've tried all different configs and they seem to work but every once in a while my Lacie D2 Tbolt2 or GDrive Tbolt3 converted to Tbolt2 drop.
Yes, that is printed and hung on my wall. It's more of a "bible" than an article for Mac Pro users. I do appreciate your input. I thought I was pushing this box over it's limits but it seems I'm within spec.
Ya, that is a different issue actually and 10.13.1 seems to have solved it. I also think I had a bad drive. It was as if the cable or drive got hot and then just unmounted. I replaced it and now it "seems" to be fine. It was bulletproof pre-High Sierra but .1 seems to be the remedy so far. Thanks Grant!
This article is the "company line":
Use multiple displays with your Mac Pro (Late 2013) - Apple Support
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Issues with external drive dropping out seem to be correlated with Sleep. Some drives do not wake properly when sleep is involved, and it is not clear whether that is regular sleep or deep sleep.
4 Displays on Mac Pro 2013
