Sonnet Launches Thunderbolt 3 to Dual DisplayPort Adapter Compatible With Mac

Perhaps, but this seems to come up often in even the Thunderbolt threads, and some of the warnings don't make it clear.

DisplayPort has its own standard ("DisplayPort Hub") that lets you drive two independent displays off a single DisplayPort stream. Regular USB-C (without thunderbolt) only carries a single (4-lane) DisplayPort stream so "DP Hub" is the only way a USB-C hub can support dual displays. Unfortunately, MacOS doesn't support this - you just get the same display mirrored. Even when supported, with DisplayPort 1.2 this can't support dual 4k displays at 60Hz.

Thunderbolt carries two separate DisplayPort streams (4 "virtual" lanes each) encoded into the thunderbolt signal. So, you've always been able to daisy chain displays using Thunderbolt. However, Thunderbolt 1 and 2 had the restriction that you could only extract one DisplayPort stream per thunderbolt peripheral - so each display had to be attached to a separate Thunderbolt device (or be a Thunderbolt display). So, you couldn't daisy-chain a DisplayPort device direct from a TB display, but if you chained a TB dock or disc drive between them, it worked. If you see a TB1/2 dock with dual display outputs, its probably relying on "DP Hub" and won't work on a Mac.

TB 3 peripherals, however, can use both DP streams in the same device - TB3 needs this to be able to run a 5k display, which needs two DP1.2 streams. It also makes dual-display devices possible. The give-away is that these devices can support dual 4k displays at 60Hz - impossible with a single DP1.2 stream.

So, yeah, one big reason to pay for a TB3 dock over a cheaper USB-C dock is if you're using 4k displays. Even though a USB-C dock can support a single 4k display @ 60Hz, that uses up all the high-speed wires will throttle any other devices on the dock to USB2 speed.

Can anyone confirm that it supports 2560*1440? I can’t see it mentioned on their website.

I meant to write 2560x1600. It's not listed, but I've reached out to Sonnet to see if 2560x1440 is supported too.

that it does support 5120 x 28830…

it's just that portrait-mode29K is not that commonly used in apps these days :rolleyes:

I need a mac pro.

Perhaps, but this seems to come up often in even the Thunderbolt threads, and some of the warnings don't make it clear.

http://caldigit.com/usb-3-1-usb-c-dock/faq.asp#Video



(I have a Thunderbolt 3 dock I use with Windows at my desk, and a 12" rMB for personal use, so it's not like I'm completely in the dark here regarding the differences). :D

It does look like even Caldigit's TB3 dock does allow for extended displays so, carry on...

http://www.caldigit.com/thunderbolt-3-dock/Dual-Monitor/

Yup, it's always worth warning people in TB threads NOT to purchase a very similar but much less capable USB-C dock instead (because of the much lower price)
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What no 480p for svideo?

actually. not a single TB3 dock, not even even 300-400 USD ones, support analogue SD video out. Get a decent converter (it won't be cheap...)