3 ms·

This would be great in theory. In practice, major devices are hamstrung, like Apple not supporting MST which would enable monitor daisy-chaining.

sephamorr 5y ago
Apple neglecting MST is so frustrating. My MacBook Pro could do MST with no trouble in Boot Camp which adds insult to the injury.
rektide 5y ago
apple is a joke & it's just shocking how bad the m1 chip in particular is at display output. I'm expecting new models to do much much much better but it's so weird seeing a company who has focused for decades on high quality rendering have such a very weak incompetent gpu chip. it can do a lot of math but it's actual capabilities are extremely extremely limited. that was very unexpected for me.
- zamadatix 5y ago
  The M1 is the first iPad SoC to be used in their consumer laptop/desktop models - I'm not particularly shocked it only supports 2 displays. It was never meant to and didn't replace serious rendering workstations with high core counts and dedicated GPUs. As you say hopefully the next models can expand into that space but I'm not bewildered it didn't go from iPad to replacing rendering workstations with 3 displays in one generation. After all if you still want a MacBook with more than 16 GB of RAM they'll still sell you an Intel model anyways.
  - sdflhasjd 5y ago
    It's not surprising the M1 isn't great when it comes to external displays, but it's a little disappointing that Apple puts it in a laptop with such "Pro" branding and price.
deergomoo 5y ago
You could daisy-chain the old Thunderbolt Display, was that using a different technology?
- shellac 5y ago
  There is (of course!) more than one way to pass multiple display streams through thunderbolt. MST (multi-stream transport) is a DisplayPort thing, which Windows uses. So you have DisplayPort over thunderbolt, and (presumably?) the multiple displays are opaque to thunderbolt. I've used this with thunderbolt/usb3 hubs that understand MST. On Macs, however, they use thunderbolt's own ability to have multiple devices. You need to look carefully for hubs that support this instead. Or at least this is my very limited understanding, born of utter bafflement with our work docking stations. I post this mostly in order infuriate somebody with actual knowledge. Please set me straight.

sephamorr 5y ago

Apple neglecting MST is so frustrating. My MacBook Pro could do MST with no trouble in Boot Camp which adds insult to the injury.

rektide 5y ago

apple is a joke & it's just shocking how bad the m1 chip in particular is at display output. I'm expecting new models to do much much much better but it's so weird seeing a company who has focused for decades on high quality rendering have such a very weak incompetent gpu chip. it can do a lot of math but it's actual capabilities are extremely extremely limited. that was very unexpected for me.

zamadatix 5y ago
The M1 is the first iPad SoC to be used in their consumer laptop/desktop models - I'm not particularly shocked it only supports 2 displays. It was never meant to and didn't replace serious rendering workstations with high core counts and dedicated GPUs. As you say hopefully the next models can expand into that space but I'm not bewildered it didn't go from iPad to replacing rendering workstations with 3 displays in one generation. After all if you still want a MacBook with more than 16 GB of RAM they'll still sell you an Intel model anyways.
- sdflhasjd 5y ago
  It's not surprising the M1 isn't great when it comes to external displays, but it's a little disappointing that Apple puts it in a laptop with such "Pro" branding and price.

deergomoo 5y ago

You could daisy-chain the old Thunderbolt Display, was that using a different technology?

shellac 5y ago
There is (of course!) more than one way to pass multiple display streams through thunderbolt. MST (multi-stream transport) is a DisplayPort thing, which Windows uses. So you have DisplayPort over thunderbolt, and (presumably?) the multiple displays are opaque to thunderbolt. I've used this with thunderbolt/usb3 hubs that understand MST. On Macs, however, they use thunderbolt's own ability to have multiple devices. You need to look carefully for hubs that support this instead. Or at least this is my very limited understanding, born of utter bafflement with our work docking stations. I post this mostly in order infuriate somebody with actual knowledge. Please set me straight.