Macbook Air M2 and 2 Apple Studio Displays

I have a Macbook Air M2 and 2 Apple Studio Displays. What do I need to drive both studio displays with the Macbook Air M2?

The M2 Air officially only supports one external display. You would have to utilize something like Displaylink, although I’m not sure it would support the studio displays.

mac-jam said:

I have a Macbook Air M2 and 2 Apple Studio Displays. What do I need to drive both studio displays with the Macbook Air M2?

A second MacBook Air.

jdb8167 said:

A second MacBook Air.

Helpful.

You could buy a 5K capable DisplayLink dock and there are some, for example this one: But that one doesn't have TB3 input and to get 5K output you'll need to use both DisplayPorts on the thing so you'll need some adapters to do that. Maybe there's more appropriate ones you can hunt for yourself. Plus DisplayLink comes with a cost in the fact you're transmitting video over USB protocol so it eats up CPU cycles to do the compression, more so for higher resolutions and moving images.

If you've got the money to burn on $3000 worth of monitors what's another $2000 for a M2 Pro MacBook Pro that can actually use them?

I've actually got Macbook Pro 14 M1 and Macbook Pro 16 M2 but prefer the Air M2 as my actually workload is light I just need to view multiple things at once for the line of work I am in. So wanted to get rid of the Pros and just keep the Air as it handles everything I throw at it besides the dual monitor issue.

mac-jam said:

I've actually got Macbook Pro 14 M1 and Macbook Pro 16 M2 but prefer the Air M2 as my actually workload is light I just need to view multiple things at once for the line of work I am in. So wanted to get rid of the Pros and just keep the Air as it handles everything I throw at it besides the dual monitor issue.

Solution: Sell the Pros and get a M2 Mac mini as your desktop computer. It is annoying that the MacBook Air can't drive 2 studio displays, but I see it as a portable / travel computer and view Apple's desktops as now the best solution for desktop work. You already have the most expensive portions of the setup (the screens).

mac-jam said:

I've actually got Macbook Pro 14 M1 and Macbook Pro 16 M2 but prefer the Air M2 as my actually workload is light I just need to view multiple things at once for the line of work I am in. So wanted to get rid of the Pros and just keep the Air as it handles everything I throw at it besides the dual monitor issue.

I am in the same boat with you wanting to connect my Air M2 and 2 Studio Displays.

Safe to say a hub won't make a difference, right?

mac-jam said:

I have a Macbook Air M2 and 2 Apple Studio Displays. What do I need to drive both studio displays with the Macbook Air M2?

I got it to work with MBA M2 and DisplayLink - all ports work as well.

can you please clarify - you managed to get MBA M2 working with 2 Studio Displays running at 5k 60hz?

I installed Display Link and plugged them in the TB4 ports - it was was pretty straightforward.

This is basically what I did, but for a M2.

just to confirm both monitors run at 5k 60hz? because I'm told that even with DisplayLink you're only able to get something like 5k 60hz + 4k 60hz...

Yes, and all ports work.

that's amazing! thank you! can I check which dock you used to drive both Studio Displays? I see the recommended docks in that webpage supports only up to 4k.

I am not using a dock, I just plug the displays into both ports and run everything else off the ports on the Studio Display. You don’t get full TB4 speed but it works for me.

jknorwood said:

View attachment 2251333 I am not using a dock, I just plug the displays into both ports and run everything else off the ports on the Studio Display. You don’t get full TB4 speed but it works for me.

Then what's handling DisplayLink? You need some sort of supported hub or dock. Are you sure you actually have an M2 MBA and not an M2 Pro MBP?

Like I said, plug both Studio Displays directly into each of the TB4 on the MBA, I use the hub built into the ASD and connect a USB3 hub and Time machine drive into that. With this setup I have 6 free USBC ports, 3 on each ASD. Works fine at TB3 speeds but I don’t need 40GBs

jknorwood said:

Like I said, plug both Studio Displays directly into each of the TB4 on the MBA, I use the hub built into the ASD and connect a USB3 hub and Time machine drive into that. With this setup I have 6 free USBC ports, 3 on each ASD. Works fine at TB3 speeds but I don’t need 40GBs

But this makes no sense because even Apple themselves say the M2 Air's only support a single external monitor. And the ASD doesn't support Displaylink. The other ports don't run at TB3 speeds either...

You seem to be in a logic loop. DisplayLink is not Apple, it is a 3rd party solution and it works fine in the ASD-MBA-ASD configuration with full 5K. If you only want to rely on "official Apple solutions" then you will not be running two displays on your MBA.

jknorwood said:

You seem to be in a logic loop. DisplayLink is not Apple, it is a 3rd party solution and it works fine in the ASD-MBA-ASD configuration with full 5K. If you only want to rely on "official Apple solutions" then you will not be running two displays on your MBA.

I'm not confused at all. You need some sort of dock/hub/adapter/device that supports DisplayLink. Even the article you linked talks about that. I'm trying to understand how you claim to be doing what you're doing because it makes no sense. You can't just plug in two monitors to a M1/M2 MBA and have it work. And no, installing the displaylink driver is not enough. You need hardware.

I agree, I do not think the Studio Display support Displaylink, so plugging in directly without a displaylink adapter in between should not work, even with drivers installed.

But it’s not plugged in directly… you can see in the photo the displaylink adapter.

jknorwood said:

Like I said, plug both Studio Displays directly into each of the TB4 on the MBA, I use the hub built into the ASD and connect a USB3 hub and Time machine drive into that. With this setup I have 6 free USBC ports, 3 on each ASD. Works fine at TB3 speeds but I don’t need 40GBs

Can you please clarify this statement?

The way you describe it, you plug Studio Display (1) directly into Thunderbolt Port (1), and then plug Studio Display (2) directly into Thunderbolt Port (2)—which shouldn't work on an Apple Silicon MacBook Air.

Can you instead describe what DisplayLink product you are using, and where in the chain it is being used? You must be doing something specific to get 5K @ 60Hz x 2 Studio Displays.

hg.wells said:

But it’s not plugged in directly… you can see in the photo the displaylink adapter.

They said both displays are plugged in directly to the Macbook. If you are referring to that white box on the photo, that cannot work as that is plugged in to a downstream port on the Studio Display. The input port is the rightmost one.

it appears dual studio display on MBA is still a dream!