You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Dual display for MacBook Pro M2 (2022) 13 inch

Hi, I am looking to use two 4K monitors with the MacBook Pro M2 (2022) 13 inch. However there are several conflicting advice about whether this is at all possible so just want to confirm - should I bother getting a docking station or try daisy chaining or are those alternatives not at all possible with this model and if I should just not bother about trying dual display with this model?

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 14.4

Posted on Nov 11, 2024 3:51 AM

Reply
3 replies

Nov 11, 2024 5:27 AM in response to vp144

Your Mac supports one external display with up to 6K resolution at 60Hz.


MacBook Pro (13-inch, M2, 2022) - Technical Specifications - Apple Support


There are docks that allow two displays as mirrors (showing the same thing, probably not what you want). There are docks that allow extended displays using software drivers (DisplayLink) that are generally suboptimal.


One workaround is to connect one external display and use a 4K TV that supports AirPlay2 for the other, and stream to the second extended desktop that way.


But your best bet may be to get a Mac that supports more displays. The M3 chip supports two with the lid closed, the M3 Pro, M4 and M4 Pro support two with the lid open.

Nov 13, 2024 7:48 PM in response to vp144

The Apple standard for its built-in hardware-accelerated displays, makes them suitable for full-motion video for production/display of cinema-quality video with NO dropped frames, and NO dropouts or partial-blank scan lines due to memory under-runs or other issues. This requires a hardware rasterizer/display-generator for each fully-accelerated display, supported by Huge memory bandwidth to refresh each display 60 or more times a second.


If you need more hardware-accelerated displays than the built-in and ONE external display, and an un-accelerated iPad if desired, you probably need a more capable computer.


MacBook Pro M3 (base) models with 14-in display supports the same ONE external display.


On the MacBook AIR M3 (base) models with 13-in or 15-in displays, you can close that lovely display you paid dearly for, and use the display generator for a second external display, INSTEAD OF (NOT in addition to) the Internal display.


M4 (plain) supports up to Two fully hardware-accelerated external displays (three for Mac mini)


If you are doing ONLY program listings, spreadsheets, stock quotes and other slow to change data, there are some other solutions, but they require you to make some strong compromises.

Dual display for MacBook Pro M2 (2022) 13 inch

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.