mac studio m4 max three 144hz 4k monitor

farchanjo wrote:

Thanks for reply!

it’s very confused to me. Why M4 Max MPB could connect 3 monitors 4k 144hz and max studio cannot? Does not make any sense.

I do not see any promise that you can connect three 144 Hz monitors to a M4 Max MacBook Pro. Here are the Technical Specifications.

MacBook Pro (14-inch, M4 Pro or M4 Max, 2024) - Tech Specs - Apple Support

MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2024) - Tech Specs - Apple Support

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M4 Max

Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display at 1 billion colors and:

• Up to four external displays: Up to three external displays with 6K resolution at 60Hz over Thunderbolt and one external display with up to 4K resolution at 144Hz over HDMI
• Up to three external displays: Up to two external displays with 6K resolution at 60Hz over Thunderbolt and one external display with up to 8K resolution at 60Hz or one external display with 4K resolution at 240Hz over HDMI

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This Support article also mentions support for up to four external displays – but only mentions the ability to use a refresh rate in excess of 60 Hz for one of those four displays.

Use an external display with your MacBook Pro - Apple Support

If the M4 Max MBPs can drive three 4K monitors at a refresh rate of 144 Hz each, this is something that would go above and beyond promises in Support documents and Technical Specifications..

see "Display Support" at > Mac Studio - Technical Specifications - Apple

as per the spec's, it looks like only the M3 Ultra supports multiple 144Hz displays.

as of May 10 2025

the support articles > Connect a display to Mac Studio - Apple Support

and > How many displays can be connected to Mac Studio - Apple Support

have not been updated to reflect the new M4 and M3 Ultra Mac Studio models.

Yes I agree that the "Display Support"spec's are not very clear.

For example: the M4 MacBook Pro models, pretty much say's the same thing as the Mac Studio.

see > MacBook Pro (14-inch, M4, 2024) - Tech Specs - Apple Support

and MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2024) - Tech Specs - Apple Support

At this point, I suggest that you contact Apple Support or go to your local Apple Store and ask.

Contact - How to Contact Us - Apple

Find Locations

farchanjo wrote:

They have a connect monitor support page and there is specified for M4 Max MacBook Pro for three monitors for 4k 144hz.

Take a look:

How many displays can be connected to MacBook Pro - Apple Support

If they say it there, you should be able to count on it, with respect to those machines. But Apple doesn't make any such promise on the other pages, including on the Technical Specifications page – the obvious place to look.

There is a Mac Studio version:

How many displays can be connected to Mac Studio - Apple Support

However, it has a "Published Date" of "October 11, 2023" and lacks entries for current Mac Studios. Maybe you should use the link for contacting Apple Support on the bottom of that page.

The Mac supports DisplayPort over Thunderbolt using standard DisplayPort data rates when using a Thunderbolt to DisplayPort adapter/cable, PROVIDED the cable is SHORT (under 0.5 meter on the ThunderBolt side AND under 1 meter on the DisplayPort side)

The tables in this article:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DisplayPort

suggest that ThunderBolt-3 and higher supports DisplayPort HBR3 transmission protocol, with an overall maximum data rate of 25.92 Gbits/sec. This fits happily inside Thunderbolt's Overall 40 G bits/sec OUTBOUND, by momentarily "turning around" the inbound data pathways into outbound data pathways to support this Display Data.

Two sets of tables (one for 8 bits/color, one for 10 bits/color) later in that article lay out what fits inside that HBR3 envelope.

For 8-bits/color 4K supports up to 120 Hz refresh rate readily

For 10 bits/color 4K supports up to 98 Hz refresh with a tiny modification.

Slightly higher may be possible when using Display Stream Compression DSC, which is not quite lossless.

It is likely that slightly higher data rates can be supported when the Display has a Direct Thunderbolt input.

<<How do you connect this to a studio display? >>

You don't. The studio display uses up ALL the bandwidth available on its thunderbolt port, and has nothing to pass along to another display. To a low speed peripheral, perhaps.

see posting directed at the original author

I'm doing a hijack :)

I have a 5k monitor that needs dual displayports inputs to get 5k.

How do you connect this to a studio display? you need 2x TB->DP cables?