Studio Displays: Daisy-Chain Two of Single M2Max MB Pro Tbolt Port?

It's my understanding that connections to 5K and 6K Thunderbolt monitors like the 27" Apple 5K Studio Display, the 27" LG UltraFine 5K Monitor, and the 32" Apple 6K Pro Display XDR involving using two DisplayPort sessions within a single Thunderbolt connection. Each carries data for half of the screen. There isn't anything left over to support another display.

With Thunderbolt displays that have resolutions of 4K or less, each display requires only one DisplayPort session – so daisy-chaining is possible if the monitors support it. However, most 4K monitors don't connect via Thunderbolt, and as far as I know, Macs do not support daisy-chaining of USB-C (DisplayPort) monitors.

With the way all of the standards keep evolving and changing, things could be very different in a few years, but this is my understanding of where things are in a practical sense, right now.

That’s not two Apple Studio Displays, though, unfortunately.

The Studio Display has to be connected to a computer's Thunderbolt port. The display has only one Thunderbolt port on the back, so when that is connected to your computer there is no place on the display to plug in another Thunderbolt display. It does have three non-Thunderbolt USB-C ports that can be used for USB devices, but not displays.

You can connect up to three Studio Displays to your M2-Max MacBook Pro, not daisy-chained, each using one Thunderbolt port on the computer. You can then connect up to nine USB devices to the ports on the back of the displays.

There are displays of resolutions 4K or lower, with two Thunderbolt ports, that can be daisy-chained, but nothing of higher resolution.

PythagorasOfSamos wrote:

For what it’s worth, I can drive the LG 4K from the USB-C port on my old (not the latest) iPad Pro .…

But if I reverse the monitors in the chain on my MacBook Pro, only the 5K works. Not the LG 4K at all.

Apple describes the downstream USB-C ports on the 5K Studio Display as

• "Three downstream USB-C ports (up to 10Gb/s) for connecting peripherals, storage, and networking"

Very likely, these ports support USB protocol, but not DisplayPort.

PythagorasOfSamos wrote:

An Apple studio display CAN be daisy chained provided that it is the last thunderbolt monitor on the chain.

I am typing this on an 2019 MacBook Pro with two Thunderbolt monitors, one is an Apple Studio display, driven from a single Thunderbolt 3 port.

There is a 4K LG Thunderbolt monitor connected to the MacBook Pro and then the Apple Studio display is daisy chained from the 4K LG display.

Its working fine and System Information > Hardware > Thunderbolt/USB4 lists both devices as "Up to 40Gb/s x1"

I am surprised that this works.

My understanding was that a Thunderbolt 3 connection could carry two DisplayPort sessions – each capable of providing all of the data needed to refresh a 4K display, or half of the data needed to refresh a 5K one.

If you are seeing a 4K signal on the LG monitor and a 5K signal on the Apple one, that would suggest that your Thunderbolt 3 connection is actually carrying three DisplayPort sessions.

Evertype wrote:

That’s not two Apple Studio Displays, though, unfortunately.

You'll probably have to wait a few years until there are new Macs and Studio Displays that support Thunderbolt 5.

Intel Newsroom – Intel Introduces Thunderbolt 5 Connectivity Standard

"… will provide up to three times more bandwidth compared with Thunderbolt 4."

80 Gbps bi-directional, or 120 Gbps with "Bandwidth Boost" (which presumably is a trick involving turning around some inbound lanes to support a higher uni-directional flow of data towards the monitor).

For what it’s worth, I can drive the LG 4K from the USB-C port on my old (not the latest) iPad Pro .…

But if I reverse the monitors in the chain on my MacBook Pro, only the 5K works. Not the LG 4K at all.

Daisy-chaining isn’t supported on the Studio Display, unfortunately.

An Apple studio display CAN be daisy chained provided that it is the last thunderbolt monitor on the chain.

I am typing this on an 2019 MacBook Pro with two Thunderbolt monitors, one is an Apple Studio display, driven from a single Thunderbolt 3 port.

There is a 4K LG Thunderbolt monitor connected to the MacBook Pro and then the Apple Studio display is daisy chained from the 4K LG display.

Its working fine and System Information > Hardware > Thunderbolt/USB4 lists both devices as "Up to 40Gb/s x1"

You’re welcome 👍😉

I cannot find this assertion in any document from Apple. Is there one?

True, but it debunks the statement that they cannot be daisy chained.