While Displaylink docks aren’t exactly a new piece of tech, they have somewhat resurfaced in terms of popularity with the recent release of Apple Silicon powered laptops. As the M1-M3 series of chips have severe limitations when it comes to external display support, the usage of a Displaylink dock becomes mandatory for multi monitor setups.
That being said, it’s not all sunshine and roses here. Displaylink has a few technical limitations, and the feature is in no way the same as running a display natively which makes it a less than ideal solution.
How to Set Up a Displaylink Dock With macOS
Setting up a Displaylink dock with macOS is rather simple. Simply make sure you have the official macOS version of the Displaylink driver installed first, and then connect your dock to the Mac (along with peripherals and video outputs).
Once all permissions have been enabled, the monitors should be automatically detected and run as if they were natively attached to the host system. You can even set the resolution, scale and refresh rates from the Display section of the macOS system menus.
Limitations and Quirks
Displaylink docks aren’t particularly cheap, and have a ton of limitations to go along with them. For starters, Displaylink is a USB video signal, and not something that is routed straight from the host Mac.
This means that the rendering is done by the Displaylink specific hardware and software, which makes it a lot less performant when compared to a native video output (either via HDMI or DP-Alt mode from USB-C).
In my testing, the difference is pretty negligible on 1080p resolutions, although stretching the display resolution to higher variants and non standard aspect ratios (such as 21:9, ultrawide) does induce a certain level of ‘lag’ to the video output.
To be clear, there isn’t any stutter, it’s just that the video output feels jittery and not as smooth/responsive (as opposed to a native video out).
Displaylink is also a very CPU intensive protocol, so make sure to have your Mac plugged into a power source when trying to drive displays through the dock for an extended period of time.
Still Recommended to Try Out
Displaylink isn’t perfect but its still a viable solution for those wishing to get over hard limits imposed by macOS on their hardware. This is especially useful for the M1 and M2 series of Macbook Airs, which cap out at one external display.
The M3 Air on the other hand, can drive two external displays, but with the lid closed which is quite cumbersome. If you do have an M4 or newer chip, you should be free of these limitations, and likely won’t need a Displaylink dock.
Until then, Displaylink is a perfectly viable alternative for most folks.
