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I have a Mid 2012 13" MacBook Pro (MD102B/A). It has 1x Mini Display / Thunderbolt Port and 2x USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports.

At my desk I need a bigger setup, so I connect the MacBook Pro to a 24" monitor using a Mini DisplayPort to HDMI adapter.

I wish to add a second 24" monitor to my setup, so that I have 2x external monitors plus my 13" MacBook Pro screen all in the use at once. I want to use each monitor as a separate extended display, not as mirrored displays.

I have done this in the past about 4 years ago when connecting a Mac mini to 3 screens and I have used the HDMI out, Thunderbolt out, plus a USB to HDMI adapter, but the USB to HDMI adaptor made the 3rd screen quite laggy.

Is there a more up to date way to do this using a Thunderbolt splitter or hub? I have found a few online including a Belkin one and a couple made by StarTech but wondered if they where going to work with the MacBook Pro. I don't believe my MacBook Pro has the most up to date Thunderbolt, although it does have 1 GB of dedicated GPU.

sam
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  • And asked/answered here and here and here as well. – Allan May 26 '18 at 15:20
  • @Allan - I would say its not a duplicate as the other examples above are older questions and answers related to using the USB external graphics card route, which i mentioned in the original question as not being the solution i was looking for. My question is related to achieving the solution via the mini display port / thunderbolt port. Based on that can we un mark the question as duplicate. – sam May 26 '18 at 15:30
  • just to circle back to your comment.... The question is still the same - you want multiple monitors. You can't just hang monitors off a machine without having graphics adapters. Your MBP can only support itself and a mDP connection and you either get that with a eGPU in a TB enclosure (expensive and obsolete for your TB1 setup) or a USB adapter. A dock doesn't do this. – Allan May 26 '18 at 19:09
  • @Allan I thought the way it would work is that the 1x thunderbolt / mDP port on the MBP would have enough bandwidth to deliver video signal for 2 screens and that the hub was just allowing me to split that across multiple screens. (Similar to how a USB hub allows you to gain extra USB ports.) Just so i understand dose each additional screen add load to the GPU and if so dose Apple hard limit the GPU load, by capping the quantity of screens attached – sam May 27 '18 at 11:50
  • @Allan similarly ive been looking at the Dell display i have and it supports daisy chaining a second display through it, although the screens can support it will it be the limitation of my MBP that will stop it having 2x extended displays – sam May 27 '18 at 12:38
  • DisplayPort bandwidth is one thing, graphics chip support is something else. It's not so much "Apple allows" or they "cap" it's just a limitation of the hardware. If you want more monitors, you need more graphics chips. A USB graphics adapter off loads some of that your CPU (not efficient, but it works). If you think about it in PC's to get multiple monitors you add video cards (some support two out of the box). You want 5 monitors, you need 5 cards. Same thing on a Mac, except the PCI bus (where you plug the cards) is on the Thunderbolt port. – Allan May 27 '18 at 15:25
  • @Allan ah ok, would it work then if i used 2x external displays and closed my laptop display so that in total 2x displays where being used. This way i could have 2x 24" monitors attached. – sam May 28 '18 at 13:55

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You can daisy-chain 2 Apple Thunderbolt Displays. If the first is an Apple Thunderbolt Display, you might be able to do MiniDisplay Port to HDMI off that display to a third-party HDMI monitor.

8None1
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  • Thanks, do you know if the feature is available on a non Apple display eg a Dell or Samsung ? – sam May 26 '18 at 13:33
  • If the first device is a true thunderbolt device, it's own tb ports present the same bus to downstream devices. I don't know if any 3rd party displays are true TB displays. We do it with multiple Apple TB displays. Any setups with Dell displays are using a docking hub and some HDMI. – 8None1 May 27 '18 at 15:31
  • Remember to accept the eventual best answer ;) – 8None1 May 27 '18 at 15:31