Comments on: My MacBook Pro Retina Running 3 External Monitors (& Could Do 4, 5….)

By: Venkat

Venkat — Sat, 08 Dec 2012 10:41:10 +0000

Also.

Will the PLP format be respected by parallels running windows 7?

Thanks
Venkat

By: Venkat

Venkat — Sat, 08 Dec 2012 10:12:51 +0000

Will this setup work with all 3 monitors being u2711?
Can I get all three at the max 2560x resolution? Can I also get 3 u2711 in PLP format like you have above? If I get an external keyboard and mouse will the setup work with the MBP closed?
Thanks

By: Danny Sullivan

Danny Sullivan — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 19:43:37 +0000

David, be sure you have the latest drivers from the DisplayLink site. That can make a difference.

By: David

David — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 07:10:18 +0000

Hi there, excellent setup, I’m working on getting the same thing up and running and have had an external monitor connected via the diamond adapter and working well for a while. Today though I tried to rotate the monitor for the first time and the whole system completely sh* itself and froze up when I selected the orientation through my Mac preferences. Any ideas? Thanks

By: Dimo

Dimo — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 16:01:59 +0000

I ran my rMBP with 2 external screens without a problem (using the thunderbolt ports), and as far as I know you can use the HDMI port up to at least 1920×1200.

See this post:
http://blog.macsales.com/14241-macbook-pro-15-with-retina-display-can-run-3-external-displays

As far as UI Lag – there is no major lag when using external displays, but the internal retina display runs about as smooth as my Macbook Pro from 2010, if not worse, which is why I sold mine and bought one of the older non-retina macbooks instead. UI lag is something I just can’t work with.

Whether it’s software or hardware, the retina display is just not ready for primetime.

By: Leonardo Wood

Leonardo Wood — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 16:37:59 +0000

Thanks for sharing your setup Danny,

I have been searching for ways on how to do this and gave up, and then I saw your link on DIYThemes which lead me right to your setup, gonna get my 13in MAC Pro hooked up

By: Karthik

Karthik — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 19:50:48 +0000

Matt,

I think it’s the total resolution size. Might have over done it.
1) 1x 2560×1440 (DELL U2711)
2) 2x 1900×1200 (DELL UM2412)
3) 1x 1680×1050 (MBPROr)

It works for the most part, and then every couple days it will crash. Yesterday it crashed twice. The MBPROr temperature for the the GPU hovers between 60-69 Celsius. I turned off switching mode

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 12:17:03 +0000

I'm running a total of 4 monitors, 3 external and laptop screen, on my rMBP (2.6 GHz, 16 GB RAM). 2 of the external monitors are connected via Thunderbolt to DVI (1920x1200 and 1024x1280 rotated). The other external monitor is connected via HDMI to DVI (1024x1280 rotated). Not sure if the below ASCII will work, but here is an external link to the configuration I'm running:


+----------+                  +----------+
|          |+----------------+|          |
|          ||                ||          |
|          ||                ||          |
|1024x1280 ||   1920x1200    || 1024x1280|
|          ||                ||          |
|          ||                ||          |
|          |+----------------+|          |
+----------+   +----------+   +----------+
               |          |
               |Best 4 rMB|
               |          |
               +----------+

With this configuration I'm not having any errors or crash reports.

By: Karthik

Karthik — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 04:53:10 +0000

Running 3 external + MBPROr display(2 1900×1200 and 1 2560×1600 – which is pretty impressive in itself) monitors right off the MBPROr does causes crashes via thunderbolt & dvi. The crash reports point to the graphics card.

The best way to pursuit multiple monitors is Danny’s way with usb adapter cards.

Thanks for your blog Danny

By: Partituras De Piano

Partituras De Piano — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 03:09:43 +0000

Great Post !! I <3 MAC !!!