Triple 4k Monitor Desk Setup for New Macbook Pro

[NaterTater]

Hello all,

 

I would like to create a thunderbolt 3 docking station of sorts that both my 15in Macbook Pro and wife's 13in Macbook Pro (no touchbar) could use, but I'm having difficulty figuring out something user friendly and aesthetically pleasing. Essentially, I would like to have three 4k monitors, power, and several USB devices all connect with two thunderbolt 3 plugs. I only have my laptop, a mouse, USB microphone, and USB MIDI keyboard so far, so I'm pretty much starting from scratch here. Budget is about $2,000. Use will be productivity focused with some very light gaming (Civ, Worms, Minecraft), so 60Hz is fine. 27in, VESA mounting, and Freesync are also desired if possible.

 

From my research, it looks like a single thunderbolt 3 cable can run up to 2 4k displays at 60Hz. Thus, my general plan is to dedicate one thunderbolt cable to two displays and the other to the third display and an external backup drive. Then I'd sprinkle my less data intensive USB devices throughout using either built in USB ports on the displays or a USB hub if necessary. Does that make sense?

 

A dock like the vertical Hengedock is attractive to get rid of cable clutter and transform it into a truly single plug and play solution. Although this model will not fit both Macbook sizes.

 

The Dell UltraSharp 27 4K display really caught my eye. (27in, 4k, IPS, HDR, VESA, bezel-less for $500!) However, they don't have thunderbolt 3 inputs. There exist some thunderbolt 3 to dual displayport adapters, however I'm not sure if they would A) charge my laptop from the display and B) limit USB performance of devices attached to the monitors' USB ports.

 

There doesn't seem to be any thunderbolt 3 monitors on the market right now that support daisy chaining and full 87 Watt charging, though both should be possible. I would like whatever accessories I buy to last 10 years since both 4k and thunderbolt 3 are forward-looking. The correct solution may be to wait a year or two until the right products come on the market.

 

Any input would be great! Is my general thought process correct? Am I way too soon to be attempting this type of setup? How should I distribute my USB devices? Are there any products you know of that would suit my needs? Would a thunderbolt 3 dock or an external graphics card enclosure be worth the high prices? Could I purchase one monitor now and complete the full setup later? What is the best VESA mount to use?

 

P.S. If you feel inclined to hate on my laptop choice, just read Macbook Pro as Razerblade Stealth 

[Crunchy Dragon]

3 minutes ago, NaterTater said:

P.S. If you feel inclined to hate on my laptop choice, just read Macbook Pro as Razerblade Stealth 

Razer Blades are crap lol. But they do have more I/O than a MacBook Pro

[Glenwing]

1 minute ago, NaterTater said:

Hello all,

 

I would like to create a thunderbolt 3 docking station of sorts that both my 15in Macbook Pro and wife's 13in Macbook Pro (no touchbar) could use, but I'm having difficulty figuring out something user friendly and aesthetically pleasing. Essentially, I would like to have three 4k monitors, power, and several USB devices all connect with two thunderbolt 3 plugs. I only have my laptop, a mouse, USB microphone, and USB MIDI keyboard so far, so I'm pretty much starting from scratch here. Budget is about $2,000. Use will be productivity focused with some very light gaming (Civ, Worms, Minecraft), so 60Hz is fine. 27in, VESA mounting, and Freesync are also desired if possible.

 

From my research, it looks like a single thunderbolt 3 cable can run up to 2 4k displays at 60Hz. Thus, my general plan is to dedicate one thunderbolt cable to two displays and the other to the third display and an external backup drive. Then I'd sprinkle my less data intensive USB devices throughout using either built in USB ports on the displays or a USB hub if necessary. Does that make sense?

 

A dock like the vertical Hengedock is attractive to get rid of cable clutter and transform it into a truly single plug and play solution. Although this model will not fit both Macbook sizes.

 

The Dell UltraSharp 27 4K display really caught my eye. (27in, 4k, IPS, HDR, VESA, bezel-less for $500!) However, they don't have thunderbolt 3 inputs. There exist some thunderbolt 3 to dual displayport adapters, however I'm not sure if they would A) charge my laptop from the display and B) limit USB performance of devices attached to the monitors' USB ports.

 

There doesn't seem to be any thunderbolt 3 monitors on the market right now that support daisy chaining and full 87 Watt charging, though both should be possible. I would like whatever accessories I buy to last 10 years since both 4k and thunderbolt 3 are forward-looking. The correct solution may be to wait a year or two until the right products come on the market.

 

Any input would be great! Is my general thought process correct? Am I way too soon to be attempting this type of setup? How should I distribute my USB devices? Are there any products you know of that would suit my needs? Would a thunderbolt 3 dock or an external graphics card enclosure be worth the high prices? Could I purchase one monitor now and complete the full setup later? What is the best VESA mount to use?

 

P.S. If you feel inclined to hate on my laptop choice, just read Macbook Pro as Razerblade Stealth 

Thunderbolt ports can support up to two 4K monitors, but doing so will disable video capability on the neighboring port because the MBP has Thunderbolt ports configured in pairs which share bandwidth. The third 4K display would need to be plugged into one of the Thunderbolt ports on the opposite side of the laptop as the other two monitors.

[m0k]

43 minutes ago, NaterTater said:

 

what about external GPUs? is it possible to run triple monitors off one of those with mac OS?

[NaterTater]

12 minutes ago, mok said:

what about external GPUs? is it possible to run triple monitors off one of those with mac OS?

I know the new MacOS High Sierra is supposed to support eGPUs, but I think I'd still be limited to two 4k displays due to the thunderbolt 3 bandwidth from laptop to eGPU.

[Glenwing]

4 minutes ago, NaterTater said:

I know the new MacOS High Sierra is supposed to support eGPUs, but I think I'd still be limited to two 4k displays due to the thunderbolt 3 bandwidth from laptop to eGPU.

If the monitors are being driven by an external GPU the images don't need to pass through the Thunderbolt 3 connection, so that would no longer be a limiting factor for resolution/number of monitors.

[NaterTater]

3 minutes ago, Glenwing said:

If the monitors are being driven by an external GPU the images don't need to pass through the Thunderbolt 3 connection, so that would no longer be a limiting factor for resolution/number of monitors.

Hmm, well then that does sound like an easy solution. Use one thunderbolt 3 port to run an eGPU which would run all three displays. Then use the other to run a USB hub. (Only considering two thunderbolt 3 ports in the limiting case of the 13" MBP no touchbar.)

 

eGPU enclosures are so expensive though.  Still this is the first workable solution, so thanks a lot!

[mikat]

3 minutes ago, NaterTater said:

Hmm, well then that does sound like an easy solution. Use one thunderbolt 3 port to run an eGPU which would run all three displays. Then use the other to run a USB hub. (Only considering two thunderbolt 3 ports in the limiting case of the 13" MBP no touchbar.)

 

eGPU enclosures are so expensive though.  Still this is the first workable solution, so thanks a lot!

the one snazzy labs uses in his VR video is $250 so with a 480/580 if you can find one it's a good option

 

[NaterTater]

Any suggestions on monitors, docks, usb hubs, vesa mounts, or general organization?

[NaterTater]

5 hours ago, mikat said:

the one snazzy labs uses in his VR video is $250 so with a 480/580 if you can find one it's a good option

 

Would the eGPU charge my macbook with the required 87 Watts?

[NaterTater]

15 hours ago, mikat said:

the one snazzy labs uses in his VR video is $250 so with a 480/580 if you can find one it's a good option

 

Would an AMD RX 580 run Minecraft and Civilization VI at 3x4k@60Hz or at least 4k@60Hz? I will only get 85% performance through the eGPU. My Macbook Pro has an AMD Radeon Pro 460 inside. Though desktop cards even of the same number should give much better performance right?

[William Payne]

Go on the Apple website and look at the displays they sell and see if they suit your needs. 

[mikat]

21 hours ago, NaterTater said:

Would an AMD RX 580 run Minecraft and Civilization VI at 3x4k@60Hz or at least 4k@60Hz? I will only get 85% performance through the eGPU. My Macbook Pro has an AMD Radeon Pro 460 inside. Though desktop cards even of the same number should give much better performance right?

Not really that much of a perf bump, radeon pro 460 is 1750, 460 is 1950 and 560 is 2400 GFLOPS

but the 80 series is way way better than the 60 series and if you're buying an expensive enclosure (relative to the GPU) you might as well go with the 80 series (if you have a lot of patience you could wait for the vega 56/64 to be in stock and for the imac pro to come out so there are vega drivers)

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

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMD_Radeon_500_series

about 3x as fast (5792 vs 1741 GFLOPS)

(RX Vega 56 is 8300 and RX Vega 64 is 10200 GFLOPS)

Minecraft is basically 90% cpu 10% gpu if you don't have any shaders (my 4790k with one 4k panel still does hundreds of FPS so 3x4k@60 should be fine.

I'm not so sure about civ 6 though, you'll have to look for benchmarks