You should check eBay as well, if you can find a lightly owned GPU you’ll save hundreds of dollars. Gamers upgrade their graphics cards every few years when new games come out so there are a ton of them on eBay and the pricing is competitive.

Hey James, am I right to say that once I have plugged in thunderbolt from Mac mini to my eGPU and from eGPU extending 2 hdmi + 2 dp to 4 monitors (HDMI), I would in theory be able to see all the frames coming up ? at the moment my issue is I only have one screen lighting up from my eGPU – is there a setting somewhere that I need to do pls?

After chatting with another Apple Senior Advisor (Courtney), she told me she is very confident that this will still not work, and it won’t add another display since the hardware is still limited to 3. She also said that eGPU is not supported by Apple since it’s modifying the hardware and something that Apple cannot recommend (Wait, what? Apple supports eGPUs and even sells them in their stores: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208544)

Hey Frank! Thanks for the kind words. It depends on the resolution of those monitors, iMacs have graphics limitations of their own.

The screens in the past, (when I was using Display-link hubs), treated each screen as it’s own desktop, and apart from VLC player geometry wall splitting the file into 4 separate windows, I don’t know a good mapping/ screen split software? Any recommendations? Thanks!

This one has me stumped. It may be the adapters themselves. Are they all the same adapters? Active or passive adapters? Are all 3 monitors identical? Have you tried switching adapters between the monitors and does that same monitor turn on?

Hi James Great research mate I was just wondering if this GF card would work ok with a late 2014 Mac mini. VisionTek 7750 Eye 6 2GB DDR5 PCI Express Graphics Card Installed in the Razer Core X Chroma: Thunderbolt 3 External Graphics Enclosure (eGPU) for Windows 10 and Mac with RGB Chroma Lighting?

If you are noticing your screen flickering, this may be your power management feature trying to switch back and forth between your onboard and eGPU. The latest Mac update removed this option from the “Energy Saver” settings for some reason, so you’ll need to open Terminal and type in this command:

This is a fantastic guide and thank you so much for continuing to update the post! Apple GPUs are becoming the bottleneck for a lot of my work, so it’s great to hear about your success with an eGPU. Please do keep us updated if anything changes in the future! Thanks again 🙂

I’d imagine wiping the computer and downgrading to Mojave isn’t high on your priority list so this seems like the way to go.

It depends on the resolution of your displays as well. I know Big Sur is having some issues with eGPUs too, so you’d want to do some more research there.

Each 4k display uses ~14 GBps, so when you do the math, 2 or 3 would work fine depending on the refresh rate, but 4 would exceed bandwidth.

What version of MacOS do you have, and what is the graphics card? You can see if your card is supported on your specific OS on Apple’s eGPU support page.

idea: connect Sonnett RX560 Puck to MBA’s TB; then connect 3 displays (DP-to-USB-C) + 1 display (HDMI-toUSB-C, or if need be HDMI-to-DP and DP-to-USB-C)

I also hope Apple trains its employees better on Apple-supported options to add additional displays since they all had no clue about eGPUs or Airplay. One senior advisor even told me over the phone that the info I was requesting on adding a 4th monitor was confidential; I wish I was making this up. Apple sells eGPUs in their store, and the manager told me that I wasn’t able to add a 4th display as well when the solution to my problem was 10 feet away on the shelf.

Hi Bleaker! Sorry for the late reply, had to overhaul my comments system, Disqus Comments is the worst. You should be able to use both the integrated GPU as well as an eGPU, though I don’t see why you’d want to, unless it’s a hack to run extra screens. The card in an eGPU is likely going to be way more powerful than the one in your Mac Mini, so if possible you should put a supported card with enough HDMI ports so that you don’t have to use the onboard one.

Thanks for the post. I am willing to buy a Mac mini. Will I be able to add three 4k display (2 from type c port) and 1 from HDMI ?

I’m not sure about 5k compatibility, but I know the Mac Mini can only support 1 of them. Not sure how many the RX cards can support, but in theory, it can handle all 4.

Also I don’t see the boot screen when I boot, either. It’s a bit annoying actually, but it takes about 1-2 minutes for the displays to turn on sometimes and then I see the login screen.

hi I have a 2018 Mac mini . I use 3 mont 2 are hooked up usbC and one hooked up hdmi to Sony tv 900h (new tv) everything worked fine for months now my hdmi out port on my Mac mini stop sending a signal it shows up on my my displays but not on the 900h ? I miss it bad ..hdmi cables have been tested any thoughts called apple no help

Great post. I am trying to add a third external monitor to my iMac (late 2014) with and Intel Core i7 and AMD Radeon R9 M295X. It has two thunderbolt 2 “mini displayports”. I have a few external hard drives hooked up to it which both allow daisy chaining (one is thunderbolt 2, the other thunderbolt 3/USB-C). There would be four screens total which would include the iMac itself as being one of them. Any advice is appreciated. This has been driving me nuts not being able to get an answer. So far your page is the closest I’ve gotten on the whole damn Internet!

It looks like eGPUs are being detected on the M1 at the time of writing, but they aren’t supported. The speculation is that a future software update will enable eGPU support.

I own 3 27″ Monitors and for the most basic stuff it worked great, but more often than not one of the 3 monitors would always disconnect after I woke up the Mac Mini from sleep. It got to be so annoying that I ended up setting the computer to never sleep.

That being said, you should be able to run 4 extra monitors with a single graphics card. You won’t have to buy three RX480’s unless you want to run 12 displays, and yes that will get quite expensive. From what it sounds like, you need one eGPU enclosure and a supported ATI graphics card with 4 HDMI ports.

The 2018 Mac Mini showed great promise after going 4 years without an update. It features four Thunderbolt 3 ports and an HDMI port, and according to Apple, up to “two 4K displays, and a third on the HDMI port”.

Hey Caleb! Sorry about that, please check again – it was my caching plugin playing tricks with YouTube embeds. Thanks for pointing it out, and I’m glad it helped!

Hey Miguel, the new M1 doesn’t have eGPU support yet. It seems that Thunderbolt is detecting them, but there’s no support with Big Sur yet.

You can read more on the new M1 and eGPU support here: https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/11/22/apple-silicon-m1-mac-detection-of-thunderbolt-3-egpu-gives-hope-for-future-support

I kept my MacBook Pro for portability, but moved all my music production to a PC and I run my 3 monitors on DisplayPort with no issues, and no Ableton crashes.

James, thanks for your response – it suggests that using 2 of those Pucks would be a better way to go: 1 per TB port, and then 2 displays per Puck, via bidirectional DP-to-C cables. No HDMI-to-C asymmetry for the 4th display then, either.

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Thanks Brian! Sorry for the ultra late reply, I was having some issues with my comments system. Yes, those RX cards usually have 4 HDMI ports (check before buying), which will enable you to use 4 screens per eGPU enclosure. I don’t see why you wouldnt be able to use 2 extras plugged directly into the Mac Mini, as long as they arent 5k screens. Apple says it supports up to one 5k screen, two 4k screens, or three 1080p screens. If your 6 displays are under 5k resolution, this setup will work for you.

If this helped you, or if you have questions or comments, please leave me a message below! I do my best to respond to each and every comment.

Hey James. Everything came in but it didn’t work. I have a 2013 Mac Pro. Desktop Version I am running MacOS big sur. The breakaway box powers on and the computer sees it under system report > thunderbolt However the graphics card does not turn on. If I restart the computer or plug it into a different thunderbolt, the fans momentiarily turn on and then they turn off. its the amd xox radeon rx 580 its which shows that it works on the apple website I believe so everything should be working fine? the only thing I can think of is im using a thunderbolt 2 to thunderbolt 3 adapter to plug in the sonnet box into my Mac Pro since my pro does not have usb C. but if the convertor didn’t work im not sure the Mac would recognize it so im thinking maybe its the video card? any help would be appreciated my friend

hey James, any idea about the new M1? I bought one, Mac mini, and it only allows you to use two screens. Very disappointed with apple.

Hi James, What an absolute legend! Thank you for the box and the YouTube link was a great find also! I’ll let you know how it goes…. I’ll be running MacBook Pro 2017, just brought with RX480 and Sonnet GPU550. Displaying to 4 x 4K UHD Samsung 55″ TV’s, (2×2).

I hope this helped someone who is looking to add 4 or more displays to their 2018 or 2019 Mac. These new chipsets have a shamefully low limit for monitors. Heck, the old 2012 Macbook Pro was capable of more.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/VisionTek-7750-DDR5-Express-Graphics/dp/B00C7EPSVS/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=visiontek+radeon+7750+2gb+gddr5&qid=1599510621&sr=8-3

Hi, I have a 5k iMac that already has a built in graphics card. I really need it to connect to more than 2 external displays, but it just won’t. Do I need to get an eGPU to get this to work, even though it already has a built-in graphics card? I feel like since it already has one built-in, I should be able to run more than just 2 external displays.

James – Thanks for the info, and am running 3 extended screens from my 2018 13″ MacBook Pro….looking for 3 External extended Screen..4 with my display (non AirPlay) Don’t know much about Graphics cards….your comment about getting enough HDMI ports so that I don’t have to use those onboard hit home. Maybe I am looking in the wrong place but the most HDMI ports I have found on a single card is two and that was on the ASUS ROG Strix GeForce GTX 1650 which only had 3.5 Stars for $185. Not sure I want to buy 3 x RX480 and a eGPU on top of that. Do you know of any Cards with 3-4 HDMI Ports (Not Switch) another option? I could as you did go with the 3xDisplay Ports, but would rather not if possible.

However, the new Mac Mini seems to have a hardware limitation that, despite having plenty of power and bandwidth to power 4 displays, will not allow a 4th display to work, even with docks or an externally powered dual display option. This is most likely a hardware or macOS limitation.

If you have the means for 2 external displays and a current-gen iMac, I don’t see the harm in getting an eGPU. It will be far more powerful than your eGPU, and you can switch your primary graphics card to your external one so that you can enjoy the performance increase in your applications.

Everything is working but the mac only recognizes three screens in display preferences. What settings do I need to do to?

Hey Kole! Run a Google search for “Set up some displays for mirroring and others for an extended desktop” and you’ll land on Apple’s site, they run you through how to do this 🙂

The other issue I ran into was Ableton Live 10 crashing, also after waking up the computer from the displays going black. It never crashed when not-using the eGPU.

This tells your computer to set your “Automatic Graphic Switching” to 0 (off), and the “-a” value means to apply it to all situations; plugged in, battery, etc. Since the Mac Mini doesn’t have a battery the -a value will ensure it never tries automatically switching your display source on you. No more screen flickering!

I have the exact same issues with my MacBook Pro 15″ 2018 Retina, so whatever the heck that is, it resulted in me returning the Mac Mini and selling my eGPU and videocard, and giving up altogether on ever running more than 2 monitors on a Mac. (Similar issues experienced with the infamous Mac Pro 2013 ash tray).

Hi James. Great info. If I follow your guide and purchase the enclosure and RX 480 graphic card will I then be able to connect 5 or 6 monitors to a mac mini 2019 ? or is it ‘only’ 4 monitors? 4 on the RX 480 and 2 on the mac mini or ? Thanks in advance

However, unlike the iMac, Mac Pro, and Macbook Pro, these four Thunderbolt 3 ports won’t all work for your displays like you think they will.

Hey great post! I have an older desktop pc w/ a Rx 480 as well and the mac mini option w/ the egpu seems like a pretty solid option to get into the mac ecosystem without spending 2k+. I also have the 2018 macbook pro laptop so could even plug that in to the egpu from time to time as well if needed. I’ve also been looking at SSD enclosures on amazon which can be under $10 so i can use my desktop pc’s internal ssd’s as external portable drives. So excited to downsize and go w/ a more minimalist approach. I use the macbook pro for dj’ing and i’m looking for a main computer to drive 3 or 4 1440p displays and even take advantage of freesync from amd. would love to see more pics of your setup if you get min. thanks again!

If they are 1080p screens, you could run 7 screens, 4 in the eGPU and 3 from your Mac Mini. If they are 4k screens, you could run 6 screens, 4 in the eGPU and 2 from your Mac Mini.

• Are there any other Thunderbolt 2 ports being utilized? If so, try unplugging those. • How many displays do you have? What is the resolution of those displays? • I’m assuming you’re on the latest version of Big Sur? • Your displays are all plugged into the eGPU, I’m assuming? • Are your adapters Apple brand or third party?

I have a 2018 mac mini, 3.2ghz i7. I was planning on running 4, 4k screens on it (but the screens would only be used at ~1440p, Mostly just for putting up stock charts not super GPU intensive.The main reason I looking at this is just be because my charting software is slow(but not unusable) on 3 screens.

setGpu, a project started by “mayankk2308” from Atlanta Georgia, can help you automatically modify all of your apps to prefer using your eGPU instead of your onboard graphics. You can find that here.

Why that is the case is beyond me, but I hope they fix this soon. I had a nightmare of a time getting multiple monitors working on the machine I’m on now and almost returned it to the store before I found the eGPU route.

If you’re on the latest version of MacOS, it’s possible that this specific card is no longer supported. I stayed on Mojave after hearing Catalina horror stories from friend who works at Apple.

I have a Mac mini (2018) 3.2 GHz 6-Core Intel Core i7 16 GB 2667 MHz DDR4 Intel UHD Graphics 630 1536 MB connected to a Dell U3011 and two Dell P2014H displays vertically on either side.

Bottom line, the only way to properly add three 4K displays on the Mac Mini or Macbook Pro without any lag is with an eGPU. Airplay or a USB video card will technically add a third display but the quality and refresh rate will be terrible.

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looking to get a newer model imac and I want to extend to 3 additional display monitors. Im not looking to do a picture split between all 4, I want to use them as extended screens, so I can move windows to different screens. Like my studio console center, my outgear modules of the studio moved to a side screen and use other displays for other applications. and also gain some computing power. My current imac is a 2010, 21.5 inch, 3.06 Ghz, intel core i3 with 16 GB 1333 Mhz DDR3

It seems as long as it’s a Thunderbolt 3 equipped iMac with High Sierra or later, you can use an eGPU. Make sure to refer to the Apple support page before buying an eGPU so you’re purchasing the correct card and enclosure for your operating system.

I am building new system for customer. It is 27″ iMac + Sonnet 550W eGPU + AsRock RX5700XT. (3 x DP + HDMI port) I have problem using more than 3 monitors on RX5700XT card. I can use 2 x DP + HDMI, but not 3 x DP. (DP to HDMI cables used for 2 monitors) Do you know about any limitation on this ?

Did you update your Mac recently? Try to pinpoint when it stopped working and if you did anything before that, like updates, new software, etc.

Hey Bryan, thanks for the comment 🙂 two of the pics from my setup are in this post, one is of the back of the eGPU with the 4 HDMI ports and the other is of my desk with those four screens. If you want a picture of the eGPU enclosure or any other part of that setup send me an email through my homepage and I’ll do what I can!

I can’t believe it. It all works. You saved me time. You saved me heart break. Bless you’re beautiful soul. You are a prime example of human perfection

It’s worth mentioning since you’re using adapters to Thunderbolt 2 that the TB2 bus is capable of 20gbps (TB3 is 40gbps). Your average 4K monitor uses around 14-15 GBps, so if you’re using multiple 4K displays, you may exceed the bandwidth capabilities of that bus.

After chatting with 9 different Apple employees (5 on chat, 2 in-person visits, and 2 over the phone), I’ve been told that it is not possible to run more than 3 screens on the Mac Mini, even with adapters or hardware.

The new 2020 M1 Mac Mini has been released and does not yet support eGPUs for multiple displays. It seems that they are detected when plugged in, but MacOS Big Sur does not yet support it.

Much of the commentary above is inconsistent with my everyday experience. I have a 2018 Mac mini, the mid-level version with a 3GHz 6-core Intel Core i5 processor, and I run a trio of 4K@60Hz displays right outta the box. In my case, each of the three displays is a Dell P2416Q. The first runs straight off the HDMI port, and the other two are via DisplayPort from a couple of the TB3/USB3 ports. I’m pretty sure it helps that I run them all at native 4K resolution, rather than using scaling, because scaling eats up a whole lot more video RAM, and things can get a bit flaky if I try it. It may also help that I’ve installed 32 GB of system RAM. But yeah, 3x4K@60 running fine here.

James, This is amazing information, thank for documenting all the details so meticulously with multiple updates!! I tried searching the internet for solutions one whole afternoon on how to add additional monitors to my MacBook pro but wasn’t convinced it could be done. Your post gives me the confidence for me to try it. Thanks again! Cheers

I’m not a fan of USB video cards for their performance limitations, but these little USB cards seem pretty mighty for casual use. If you’re using your displays for any sort of high-performance graphics or if slight stutters are completely unacceptable, this may not be the best option for you. Something to consider nevertheless.

setGpu now supports Mojave! I just tried it and it worked great. If it helped you, make sure you donate to his project as your donations make things like this possible.

I believe the 2014 iMac can only run two 4k displays, so if those displays are 4k you may already be at your limit. An eGPU would allow you to run extra displays, though, if you wanted to go that route.

What is the maximum amount of diaplays with one eGpu? I would guess 4 from egpu and 2 from Mac Mini. I am running 1080p. I am running pro presenter at my church.

Well, it depends on the resolution of those displays. If they are 5k displays, then I believe that is the maximum that the built-in card is able to handle.

It’s a bummer that upgrading to new hardware or the latest OS can nuke your compatibility. I haven’t updated to Catalina or Big Sur yet, I’ve heard too many horror stories and I rely on my Mac for work. Can’t afford to have half of my displays go dark if they decide to stop supporting them.

I was going over this page : (Published Date: March 20, 2020) https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT208544 and considering the BlackMagic.

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At those resolutions, the only way to accomplish this would be by purchasing an eGPU. The resolutions on those displays are too high for the built-in graphics chip to handle. If they were all 1080p, you could use all three displays without issues, but these are 50 inch TVs (presumably 4k or 5k).

you are a God send if this works. I had 2 monitors on my 2013 Mac Pro. Went and got 2 more monitors and bolted them into the wall. Plugged them in and was shocked all 4 didn’t work and I haven’t found a solution yet. Just found this article and ordering the XFX radeon rx 580 and the sonnet egfx breakaway box. the radeon has 1 HDMI port and 3 display ports. im assuming I just need a display port to HDMI adapter and I should be all set? you are a hero my friend.

Thanks for the helpful info and tutos. I have a mini 2018 with the best processor, 32mb ram. Big sur. I am running 3 screens but it’s not enought. If i use a sonnet 550 and lets say a RX 5700 would it theorically allow me to have a monitor on each of the card slots AND on the HDMI + one of the native TB3 ports of the mini? Ideally id wish 6 monitors total. For now. Most probably 1080 and 1044UW but who knows what the future would bring.

Hi James, thanks for sharing information. I’m running my Mac mini 2018 and considering buying an eGPU. I’m wondering can I set one display using the integrated GPU, while another one using the eGPU? Or all the displays have to use the same GPU?

Hi James So I’ve bought everything and setup and connected to my Mac mini the graphics card showed up in the top bar for about 20 seconds and then disappeared I’ve been doing some reading but there’s not much making sense. Is there anything I will need to do for the eGPU to start working correctly so I can then plug all my monitors in. And I ended up getting a RX 580 8gb card in the end as I’m only going to use 4 x 32” monitors now. Thanks in advance for any help.

“If you’ve installed macOS Catalina 10.15.1 or later, you can use these graphics cards that are based on the AMD Navi RDNA architecture. Recommended graphics cards include the AMD Radeon RX 5700, AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT, and AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 50th Anniversary.”

Hey JM! Happy it helped. I don’t have any experience with the Blackmagic eGPU. I haven’t heard of a card that can support more than 4 monitors out of the box – heck, finding one that has more than 2 is a little tough. As far as my workspace, I’m not able to stretch out a single OS window to multiple screens. If you put a window in-between two screens it will show on one and the other monitor will be missing the other half, you have to choose one I guess. I’m not sure if you can change this, but if you can I’d love to know.

So, since I have a spare RX580 graphics card lying around, I bought a Sonnet eGPU Breakaway Box, which is an enclosure that is Apple compatible and recommended on their website. If you’re interested, you can buy it here; I’m not taking affiliate commissions or anything: https://amazon.com/gp/product/B0764J5QVD/

My only concern would be exceeding the bandwidth capabilities of Thunderbolt 3. It supports up to 40 GBps, and the Sonnett boxes run off a single TB3 plug.

I can’t seem to find an answer anywhere. Would i be able to run 4 monitors on a Mac Mini and the Blackmagic GPU in the Apple Store? 2 monitors in the eGPU, 2 in the Mac Mini? Or 3+1, ect?

USB 3.0 to Display worked (VGA mycase J5CREATE), this would be the cheapest solution but of course it’s emulated and eGPU approach is still the best but costly

Indeed, it works, but the slow screen refresh and overall laginess was too much for me to bear. I was fortunate to have an extra graphics card lying around, it would have been very expensive to buy both the enclosure and the card together. Wish I knew this before buying the Mac Mini, but at least I have it working now.

#Hey Dan, I haven’t tried this card specifically but if it’s on Apple’s eGPU page as a supported card, I would think it would be compatible!

Effective support ensures equipment longevity, minimizes downtime, and maintains safety compliance, ultimately Empowering Better Care by contributing to more efficient healthcare systems and better patient outcomes.

The eGPU enclosure that I linked above came in the mail, and I was able to hook up all four of my displays to my RX580. It worked perfectly out of the box; no drivers or configuration needed, just plug and play. They are lightning-fast and the eGPU only uses one Thunderbolt 3 port.

Hi Santosh! Out of the box you’ll be able to add only two 4K displays, whether it be from the HDMI port or Thunderbolt 2 ports. All 5 video ports share the same graphic card limitation unfortunately.

I figured out that I can connect the 4th display with AirPlay and an Apple TV. This isn’t the most ideal solution, but it technically connects the 4th monitor and works fine. There’s a very slight cursor lag, but over ethernet, it’s much faster.

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If you’re using 1080p monitors like me, you should be just fine (only ~4-5 gbps per monitor, 4 monitors should be possible).

So, I started looking into the possibility of upgrading the graphics; by using an eGPU, which is fully supported by macOS Mojave.

Also in your current setup are you able to use all monitors as 1 graphic workspace i.e: an OS window that is displayed across all or more than one monitor?

The U3011 has a res of 2560×1600 and the 20’s 900×1600. Both 20’s are connected via Thunderbolt w/adapters and the 30 is via HDMI. Problem is I can only get 1920×1200 on the 30 where I used to get 2560×1600 when connected to just a single 20 monitor.

The amount of power it consumes is a factor as well for me. I tried to look up the external USB video card you mentioned in above comments. I didnt really understand if those cards would be sufficient for my needs, and also where they are sold or how much they cost approximately. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Even in the video that I embedded in my post, this guy is using 3 plugged into an eGPU, and then 3 more using external USB video cards which are a little laggy.

This is perfect timing for me! Thanks for the detailed post. I can’t seem to see the embedded YT link – wondered if you could link it down here somewhere?

I’ve tried many different options; different docks, different adapters, different monitors, different resolutions; the max number of displays is always forced to 3, and there’s not a whole lot anyone can do about that according to Apple.

I wouldn’t expect this to work out of the box. If your performance needs are low, perhaps you could set up one of the displays with an external USB video card like in the video I embedded.

I’m seeing multiple people on forums that have a TB2 Mac Pro like yours, using Apple’s TB2>TB3 adapter, a Sonnet Breakaway box, and a supported AMD cards. Some of them did it using a script called PurgeWrangler, which you might want to try.

I honestly can’t say. For the price of the Blackmagic GPU, why not get a more powerful card where you can (without question) run 4 or more displays? It would cost less, and these graphics cards have 4 HDMI ports instead of 1.

Personally, since this is an older TB2 Mac, I’d try using PurgeWrangler. You can always uninstall it if it doesn’t work out.

Thanks for your kind words! All is working well on my end. Having an eGPU isn’t a perfect solution (it takes longer to boot up and restarting the eGPU results in black screens for several minutes), but I’m happy with the setup and back to work 🙂

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Hey Danny! Yes that’s correct, that setup would work well. I haven’t personally tried this with DP > HDMI adapters but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work the same way.

Thanks for the great help! I have an additional question. I am connecting the 4th monitor to my mac mini but I want the apple tv display to mirror one of my other screens. I am having hard time. When i go to change the mirror settings it does not allow me to move them seperately and just mirrors all of them. Any help would be great!

I’ll do my best to update this post when MacOS Big Sur updates and adds back the eGPU functionality. Why they released it without eGPU compatibility in the first place is beyond me – it seems that the best beta users are ordinary folks like us who rely on their Mac for their job. Update your Mac Mini with caution until Apple figures out this multiple monitor thing.

Over the past few years, Macs have been a little tricky to add multiple monitors to. Whether you have limited ports on the new MacBook Pro or onboard graphics limitations with the Mac Mini, you start to run into issues as soon as you want to add more than a few displays to your new Apple computer.

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Many graphics cards have 4 HDMI ports but if you’re going the eGPU route it’s essential you read the Apple website for supported eGPUs with MacOS. You can’t throw any card in there – there’s a select few ATI cards that are compatible currently and that GeForce card wouldn’t be compatible.

Hey Justin! I was able to run three 1080p displays but haven’t had any experience running 4k yet. It makes no sense why four 1080p’s wouldn’t work but three 4k displays would, must just be a limitation of the chipset. Thank you for sharing with the others.

The RX 5700 is a much stronger card, so if you’re on the latest version of Catalina, I’d recommend returning the RX 580 and upgrading to the RX 5700.

If I were you I’d try out one of those USB starlink cards. If you like the performance, then order a handful more and get your 6 displays up and running 🙂

This is a limitation of the built in graphics chip – to accomplish what you’re looking to do, you’d need an external GPU to accomplish those resolutions. The built in chip isn’t powerful enough.

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I’ve been Googling this all week and found that this 3 display limitation is actually due to the Intel graphics chipset (Intel UHD Graphics 630), and not a software or Thunderbolt 3 limitation like Apple support suggested.

Despite 9 different Apple employees telling me that I can’t add a 4th display to my Mac, I’m now very confident that I will be able to do so, and that anyone else looking to do so can either do it by setting up a separate AirPlay display by connecting it to an Apple TV (ever-so-slight cursor lag but great with movies and cheapest option) or an eGPU (expensive but best performance). If you were so inclined, you can hypothetically connect many displays with this method. Here’s my desk with 4 displays working; I guess I did the impossible, even though this was supported by Apple all along!

https://www.sonnetstore.com/products/egfx-breakaway-puck-560 https://dancharblog.wordpress.com/2020/05/10/bi-directional-usbc-dp-cables/

Hi Danny! I would check Apple’s list of supported cards and buy one of the cards that’s on the list: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208544

Thankfully, I saw this guy’s video, where he was able to run six 4K monitors off of a single Macbook Pro Thunderbolt port and an eGPU:

What year model can inch me up to run the main unit plus 3 additional extended screens? Ive had poor luck with adapters and switches, they seem to only marginally work. 1 extra screen is fine, add others and its stop start etc…

If you want to get 6 screens at some point, I’d just use those USB 3 video cards linked in the last post. It doesn’t make as much sense to upgrade to a eGPU if you’re just going to add 2 more displays later – at some point, you’ll probably want those USB cards.

In the past, I’ve used docks like the Belkin ThunderBolt dock and the Elgato Thunderbolt dock to add an extra display to my PC.

If you’ve already upgraded to Catalina or Big Sur and are looking to add multiple displays with an eGPU, make sure you read the official Apple.com support page (link) to confirm that your card and your enclosure are both compatible with your operating system. They are updating this page very frequently now and it is subject to change.

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