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This has been a big one for me in regards to pulling the trigger on an M1 (and I need something new for work very soon). I found a whole bunch of YouTube video

This has been a big one for me in regards to pulling the trigger on an M1 (and I need something new for work very soon). I found a whole bunch of YouTube videos of people using DisplayLink adapters such as various docks from Targus or smaller single adapters from StarTech (brands likely don't matter but this happens to what people are testing in these videos). They all show good results. Comments all say "DisplayLink is faking it and it's gross" but the people making these videos say "Sure, but it's not gross. It's working almost perfectly." Anyone here have any experience or thoughts on this? I'm not gaming or needing to do high level graphics or video editing on a 2nd or 3rd display. Just basic dev stuff and window management.

Trun222 6y ago
I have the new MacBook Air and am able to run two 1080p monitors just fine. I use the same adapter for gaming with my HP omen as well. It looks great. (StarTech)
statico 6y ago
I bought the StarTech dual 4K DisplayLink adapater after watching one of those videos. I use it to power a second 4K monitor with my M1 MacBook Air running lid-closed. I have a 1080p gaming monitor as my primary connected to a Elgato dock via DisplayPort. DisplayLink is definitely suboptimial, but it's the only option. There is noticable input lag (my guess is around 100ms) that makes mouse and keyboard input feel sluggish. Showing a moving image on the screen pegs the DisplayLink Manager process to 100% of one core while it's playing. DisplayLink does not currently support rotation on Big Sur, though it probably will in the future. However, the image itself is pixel-perfect, so it's fine for secondary apps like chat or monitoring.
- rbosinger 6y ago
  Thanks for the answer! > There is noticeable input lag (my guess is around 100ms) that makes mouse and keyboard input feel sluggish. That's interesting to hear. In some of these videos (and additional Reddit/YouTube comments on them) it seemed like a lot of people would say "yeah but it will have lag" and the person making the video would claim that it doesn't seem to while dragging windows all over the place in their videos. The rotation seems to be a problem across the board though. These things are difficult to dissect. It could be that there is lag for these other guys, but they aren't the type to notice. Or maybe they didn't get lag because of some detail in their set-up that differed from yours. Oh well. I don't even have two monitors right now and probably don't really have enough room for a second one. I had hoped to get one this year though. Maybe I'll get the M1 and just keep working with the one monitor. If I decide it's time for an upgrade maybe I can go the route discussed elsewhere in this thread and get an ultrawide, or a single 40+ inch 4k. EDIT: Video example of what I'm talking about: No lag with a displaylink second display on the 2020 M1 MacBook Pro! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1J3lSZfrko https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1J3lSZfrko He's not typing anything though. But for this guy it generally _looks_ like it's close to behaving like a normal second monitor. But then here's this thread complaining that a particular dock, with 4k displays, is super laggy: https://support.displaylink.com/forums/287786-displaylink-feature-suggestions/suggestions/41175478-fix-drivers-about-screen-lag-when-using-external-4 https://support.displaylink.com/forums/287786-displaylink-fe...

Trun222 6y ago

I have the new MacBook Air and am able to run two 1080p monitors just fine. I use the same adapter for gaming with my HP omen as well. It looks great. (StarTech)

statico 6y ago

I bought the StarTech dual 4K DisplayLink adapater after watching one of those videos. I use it to power a second 4K monitor with my M1 MacBook Air running lid-closed. I have a 1080p gaming monitor as my primary connected to a Elgato dock via DisplayPort. DisplayLink is definitely suboptimial, but it's the only option. There is noticable input lag (my guess is around 100ms) that makes mouse and keyboard input feel sluggish. Showing a moving image on the screen pegs the DisplayLink Manager process to 100% of one core while it's playing. DisplayLink does not currently support rotation on Big Sur, though it probably will in the future. However, the image itself is pixel-perfect, so it's fine for secondary apps like chat or monitoring.

rbosinger 6y ago
Thanks for the answer! > There is noticeable input lag (my guess is around 100ms) that makes mouse and keyboard input feel sluggish. That's interesting to hear. In some of these videos (and additional Reddit/YouTube comments on them) it seemed like a lot of people would say "yeah but it will have lag" and the person making the video would claim that it doesn't seem to while dragging windows all over the place in their videos. The rotation seems to be a problem across the board though. These things are difficult to dissect. It could be that there is lag for these other guys, but they aren't the type to notice. Or maybe they didn't get lag because of some detail in their set-up that differed from yours. Oh well. I don't even have two monitors right now and probably don't really have enough room for a second one. I had hoped to get one this year though. Maybe I'll get the M1 and just keep working with the one monitor. If I decide it's time for an upgrade maybe I can go the route discussed elsewhere in this thread and get an ultrawide, or a single 40+ inch 4k. EDIT: Video example of what I'm talking about: No lag with a displaylink second display on the 2020 M1 MacBook Pro! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1J3lSZfrko https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1J3lSZfrko He's not typing anything though. But for this guy it generally _looks_ like it's close to behaving like a normal second monitor. But then here's this thread complaining that a particular dock, with 4k displays, is super laggy: https://support.displaylink.com/forums/287786-displaylink-feature-suggestions/suggestions/41175478-fix-drivers-about-screen-lag-when-using-external-4 https://support.displaylink.com/forums/287786-displaylink-fe...