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May 11th, 2020 12:00

U2419H, MacBook Pro, capable of doing Daisy Chaining?

I'm trying to do daisy chaining with two U2419H monitors. It just mirror two screens instead extending, Anyone knows what's going on?

I did enabled MST on first monitor. The only thing i'm not seeing is the option to "Enable DisplayPort 1.2" but I am assuming U2419H is on 1.4 by default.

Connected to MacBook Pro 2018 using Type C to DP (In) to first Monitor, DP (Out) from first monitor to DP (In) Second monitor.

8 Posts

May 11th, 2020 12:00

@jphughan  Ugghh MacBook.

Do you think it would be same thing if one buy U2520D (it's a USB C type) monitor and on the page it shows Daisy chain as one of the feature. Unless it's not going to work with MacBook Pro again. That would be sad.

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14K Posts

May 11th, 2020 12:00

@SnapGeeko  I forgot to add that if you want to connect both displays to your system through a single port without getting a full docking station, you could look at a Thunderbolt 3 to Dual DisplayPort adapter, such as the Plugable TBT3-DP2X-83.  That adapter would allow you to run dual displays up to 4K 60 Hz each, because as I mentioned above, in this case the Mac will be using Thunderbolt to interface with the adapter and will assign a full DisplayPort interface to each output on the adapter.  Just make sure you do NOT get the older TBT3-DP2X (without the 83), because that older version used a Thunderbolt chipset that for some reason Macs were never compatible with, even though that adapter works fine with Windows PCs.

UPDATE: Corrected the model from "81" to "83".

8 Posts

May 11th, 2020 12:00

@jphughan Sounds good. Thanks for detailed response.

4 Operator

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14K Posts

May 11th, 2020 12:00

Older displays used "DP 1.2" as their name for MST, but if you have an MST option there wouldn't be a separate "DP 1.2" option.  That said, I don't think the U2419H supports DP 1.4, though I may be mistaken.  Anyhow, to my knowledge, macOS itself still does not support DisplayPort MST.  There are many threads across several forums with many complaints about this spanning several years.  Mirrored output is what you get when you connect a daisy chain to a system that doesn't support MST.

The only way to run multiple displays from a single output on a Mac is to use a solution that relies on Thunderbolt, because that allows the system to send two independent DisplayPort interfaces from the GPU through that single Thunderbolt link, and then macOS allocates one full interface to each display.  But even there you can only run two displays from a single port that way, whereas on a PC you could run 3+ displays from a single Thunderbolt link, depending on the resolutions and refresh rates of the displays involved.

4 Operator

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14K Posts

May 11th, 2020 12:00

@SnapGeeko  If the system doesn't support MST, then you'd have the same result with any daisy chain setup you attempted, regardless of which displays you used.  Daisy chain support being listed on a display just means it has a DisplayPort output in order to connect another display and that it supports DisplayPort MST on its input in order to facilitate that.  But if the source system itself doesn't support sending a DisplayPort MST signal, then you can't use MST even if everything else in the chain would support it.

Take a look at the TB3 to Dual DP adapter I mentioned in my second reply.  It's not cheap, but if you really want to avoid having to use two ports on your system to connect your two displays, then an adapter like that is basically your only option unless you want to spend even more on a full docking station.  There are equivalent TB3 to Dual DP adapters made by Sonnet, OWC, and StarTech if any of those might be cheaper (or more available these days), but make sure they specifically claim support for Macs, because again some of them might use old Thunderbolt chipsets that Apple essentially rendered PC-only.  And make sure you do NOT get a DisplayPort MST hub.  They look very similar, and they might be tempting because they'd be less expensive, but they would NOT work because they rely on this exact same MST technology that a daisy chain does.  MST hubs allow people to take advantage of DisplayPort MST's "multiple displays from a single output" capability without needing displays have a DisplayPort output to build a daisy chain "directly" -- but the fact that they rely on regular DisplayPort MST rather than Thunderbolt 3 means they won't solve your problem.  It also means they can't tap into as much display bandwidth as a TB3 to Dual DP adapter can -- although they do work with non-Thunderbolt systems, which is of course handy for people who don't have Thunderbolt systems.

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