StarTech.com USB 3.0 to Dual DisplayPort Adapter 4K 60Hz
StarTech.com USB 3.0 to Dual DisplayPort Adapter 4K 60Hz, DisplayLink Certified, Video Converter with External Graphics Card – Mac & PC (USB32DP24K60)
| Dimensions: | 15.49 x 14.22 x 3.05 cm; 72.57 Grams |
| Model: | USB32DP24K60 |
| Manufacture: | StarTech.com |
| Dimensions: | 15.49 x 14.22 x 3.05 cm; 72.57 Grams |
I can finally connect more than 1 external monitor to my 2020 M1 MacBook Pro (known hardware limitation) for my work and this has significantly increased my productivity. I love this adapter!!!
Un prodotto fantastico che vale ogni singolo centesimo, ho collegato due monitor in ESTENSIONE ad un pc vecchio di 5 anni (qui ero titubante perch pensavo che non avrebbe retto) e funziona tutto benissimo. Super consigliato
This product surprised me as so many articles about the M1 macs say they are limited to 1 outboard motor. Glad to know this is available. Works a treat for me.
Due to the hardware limitation of the M1/M2 equipped Macs (not including M1/M2 Pro and M1/M2 Max), you cannot add more than a single monitor via DP alt mode (doesn’t matter what combination of adapters or docks). Fortunately via software adapters such as this one (DisplayLink) or others (SiliconMotion’s InstantView), you can bypass the hardware limitations for displays of any computer (Mac or PC) and add as many additional monitors as your machine can handle. In particular, I was looking for a DisplayLink adapter as it can handle up to a 4K 60Hz output whereas InstantView is capped at 30Hz. Additionally, DisplayLink has had more industry presence for longer so I decided to go with that. StarTech is also a long time industry vendor so that’s a plus as well.
In testing the adapter was able to consistently hit 60Hz. Only quirks when using it on a Mac include a message on the login screen saying “your screen is being observed” and some DRM issues preventing playback of videos on some websites (workarounds exist) but the benefits outweigh the cons on this one.
One added bonus is that it DOES work via a USB 2.0 with 4K output, but the refresh rate will not be 60Hz – in testing it’s what you would expect from a 30Hz output, more than enough for static images or spreadsheets. In my case, I just have Microsoft Teams on the secondary display.
L’appareil fait trs trs bien son job.
J’ai eu besoin de joindre le SAV technique car l’appareil ne semblait pas dtect. SAV facile joindre, trs l’coute, trs sympa, rapide et efficace : c’tait juste une autorisation cocher sur mon mac. Je suis hyper satisfait de l’appareil et du vendeur !!!
Would recommend the Startech display port to anybody stuck with an underpowered corp issued lap top that they are trying to pair with an Ultrwide monitor or high def monitor – completely game changing right out of the box. I bought a Dell 34″ ultrawide to use primarily for work with a corp issued Lenovo Thinkpad – the ultrwide replaced a 27″ standard monitor. I plugged in the monitor and it was basically worthless. On top of that my corp issued laptop blocks .exe files. Awesome. I read countless articles and youtube videos and nothing worked. Finally a gamer friend of mine suggested an external GPU which can run well into the 100s but that is when I found the Startech Display port adapter on a list of options to get more resolution out of your laptop and bought it. Literally plugged it in and it worked out of the box – monitor was perfect. I did run into glitchyness a little later where my monitor would go black for a second and reconnect the image – so I found multiple drivers on the Displayport site for Win 10 including .MSI file I was able to download on my corp locked down machine no prob. The monitor works perfectly! Startech has been totally game changing.
This product gives new life to my Surface Pro 6. Before I was unable to effectively use a 3840×2160 monitor. Now I can use it through my Surface Pro 3 docking stations and my 4K display works perfectly at 60ghz. Thank you!
Mac Book Air M1
HDMI
USB A USB C
(Display Link)
iPadProMac Booc AirSideCa
This item not only drives my ultra wide at native resolution at 60hz (displayport) or 30hz (hdmi) it also drives another monitor at the same time – this actually goes beyond the stated specification of a single 5k ultra wide.
It also works with pc or Mac and the cpu impact is minimal – I can drive my ultra wide from a surface pro x with 20% cpu utilisation when dragging windows quickly which is usually a high cpu usage event for displaylink.
Using this my thunderbolt 4 dock drives 3 monitors (including the 5k ultra wide), 1gb Ethernet, a 4k webcam and a usb keyboard and mouse from a single usb c, from a surface pro x.
It’s not cheap, but we’ll worth it for those with 5k ultra wides and non thunderbolt laptops.
*update* it also can drive both my new mateview 4k+ monitors from a surface pro x as well.
Only received today but literally plug and play on Windows 11 – no driver installation required.
I’m a 5th and 6th monitor with a Nvidia GPU (4 monitor limit.) A DisplayPort MST adapter was useless due to Nvidia’s programmed limit (my next card will be AMD or Intel for this reason.)
Based on the reviews and past experiences with DisplayLink (around 2015), I wasn’t expecting much but as extra monitors/information they would be fine/the best I could get. I’m very surprised with the response time and quality, running at 1080p/60hz. I can barely see a difference between the monitors on this adapter, and the same model of monitors connected directly to my GPU (4 of same monitor, 2x GPU, 2x this adapter.)
If this adapter continues to perform as it does today, it’s a 5star. I’m not sure where the bad reviews are coming from, maybe Mac users. Windows 11, no drivers, 100%.
I bought this dual display port adaptor to set up 2 additional screens with my macbook air. I installed the driver (from the StarTech website) but nothing was happening. I spent quite a long time trying to figure out how to set up dual screens via the display settings on my macbook air and turned to the web for help. One possible issue that I kept reading about was the Monterey software and the inability to dive deeper into dual screen settings. I turned to the StarTech online support, who were really helpful and talked me through the mac settings, made sure I had installed the driver and then ensured I had allowed the correct permissions. Voila…. it started working and now I’m all set with dual screens! Great customer support, especially as I’m no whizz on a mac and they had to be patient and navigate me around!
I’ve tried three other monitor adapters that didn’t work and usually ran very hot.
I have two LG 32″ 4K monitors attached to my Lenovo Ideapad Slim 7 (Intel 11 i7, 16GB, 1TB SSD) that work fine with the StarTech USB 3.0 to Dual DisplayPort Adapter 4K 60Hz. The 3 other DisplayPort Adapters I tried didn’t work and two of them got very hot in only minutes.
I use this in combination with a CallDigit 3 (not the plus version) hooked up to a Macbook air. A 4K screen landscape, directly is connected to the CallDigit and two portrait 2K screens flank that on each side using this adapter.
Installation and configureation of the software was smooth. The diplaylinked monitors can be used for watching youtube without problem (although primarily there for text and email editing).
If you want to attach more monitors than Apple says you can to a Macbook Air, this is the way to go.
Je l’utilise pour connecter 2 crans de 1920×1200 sur mon portable pour le tltravail. Fonctionne trs bien sans problmes. C’est sr que je ne jous pas des jeux vido et je n’coute pas de film sur ces crans. Alors, je ne peux pas juger des performances.
I purchased this for my MacBook Air M1 since the laptop only supports one external monitor natively. That was about 6 months ago and I have had no major issues with it, though I’m facing some minor ones after recently upgraded from a FHD monitor to a 4K. I had no issues whatsoever using FHD, but 4K causes my screen to lag a bit when viewing graphically intensive videos. I am not sure if this is due to the adapter or my laptop’s limitations. At first I thought it was because I was using a 4K 30hz cable but I changed to a 4K 120hz cable and have the same results. Not a big problem though and I am still satisfied.
I bought this adaptor to connect a new laptop (with limited ports) to my two older Dell monitors. I use this setup at home mainly for (non-graphics) work and so refresh rates and high-definition is not an issue for me. I received it (and the required cables purchased separately) plugged it all in and it just works. I think I do notice some delay or ghosting (or other video aberrations) when there is a pop-up video. But its not what I use it for and so it doesn’t bother me.
I like using a lot of monitors as a software engineer, My current work laptop only supports 3 total and adding this upped the support to 5 total which has made all the difference. For standard work, coding, and use it performs as well as standard external monitors. It is not recommended for gaming and I have not tried this but with videos it works well and has no delay or fuzziness like past usb graphics cards I have used. You will need to go to the manufacturer website and download the driver for it to work as expected (If you’re remoted into work via VPN or ipv6 you may want to switch to local and download it since it’s much faster) but once it’s installed its worked without issue and everyone in my team is slowly adding them to their builds. Would recommend and buy again.
Be aware even if you use a discrete GPU or your processor’s integrated graphics, this still uses a lot of CPU while encoding the video output, therefore, the refresh rate is not always smooth, especially when your computer is under load (this could be annoying).
It’s also identified as a screen capture device by both Windows and macOS, what could lead to some problems. In Windows, it only appears after POST/BOOT, but you can use to log into your system. On macOS, it seems like you need to unlock your device before being able to use the external monitors connected through this adapter. It seems like you can’t use TouchID when this adapter is connected because macOS thinks the screen is being recorded/shared (this warning could also be annoying since you’re not sure if the device is the only thing watching your screen).
It might work on Linux, but I wouldn’t put much faith on it becacuse on my tests, I had a lot of kernel panics (even with the latest drivers from official manufacturer’s website) and sometimes the screen just went blank and wouldn’t come back.
TL; DR; it could be really helpful, but it’s not a magical device, it comes with it’s own caveats that you should be aware of.
Easy to install; plugs into USB. Works as advertised. However, my own ignorance: I got the model with two Display Ports, instead of two HDMI outputs. Had to do some finaggling to get my two Dell monitors set up.
I have a regular PC with USB 3 Ports…nothing special. I have 2 external Dell monitors. I need 3 screens for work.
Make sure you have a USB 3 port available…the plastic tab visible within the port will be BLUE. The blue tab means USB 3.
With this slick little adapter, you can use a USB 3 port to plug this in AFTER YOU INSTALL THE DRIVER. The packaging materials provide the URL from which to download the driver. 5 minutes tops from reading the instructions to having the download complete.
Note: this adapter is for DisplayPort. My Dell monitors accept several different cables including DisplayPort. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE DisplayPort CONNECTORS ON YOUR MONITORS AND DisplayPort cables (I bought my cables from Amazon, too. I believe they were about $10.00 each).
Plug the cables into your monitors, plug the other end of the cables into this adapter, then… plug this beauty into the USB 3 port.
I believe I rebooted. after plugging in, too.
Voila…3 working monitors. Excellent resolution, no lag time, no flicker…everything I had hoped for.
Why This Works:
This adapter is basically another graphics card…it can handle the 2 monitors. Your PC’s internal graphics card might not be able to handle 3 monitors but all your PC knows is that a USB port is in use. What it is being used for does not matter. (Yes, I know…gross oversimplification but effectively accurate.)
This adapter simply WORKS!!! You can count on it working if it has no internal problem. I mention that because the first one I received worked for about 15 seconds then I’d either see blank screens or vertical bars on one or both external screens. Nobody mentioned that so I wasted time troubleshooting. Just return it; it’s not working if that happens.. NO BIG DEAL. Sending it back via Amazon returns is as simple as possible. Amazon, true to form, IMMEDIATELY sent me a replacement adapter. My new adapter was in use well before Amazon got the defective adapter back.
This is a great product. 5 stars across the board The tech support at StarTech was good when I was troubleshooting, too. They did think it might be my PC but it was not. Naturally they had no way to be certain so kudos to them for faith in their product.
I’ve waited months to write this review. I wanted to make sure.
100% endorsement. If you have external monitors with DisplayPort connections…this will WORK.
BTW…I went to one of the big chain computer stores prior to figuring this out on my own. I spent HOURS and $185 on cabling and adapters the simply COULD NOT WORK.
My monitors came with cables for one of the other connections on them. I tried to daisy-chain connections into the USB port. That will not work. Don’t waste time trying. You may not have DisplayPort connections…I expect StarTech makes some other adapter that might work for you. Bottom line…monitor connects to adapter. Adapter connects to USB. NOTHING ELSE IN THAT CONNECTION CHAIN…and you are good.
One final note…I believe this adapter is what is referred to as an “active” adapter.
Also the resolution options are limited, so this adapter is definitely not the same as using a direct connect monitor. Additionally there was some compression/video artifacting that was noticeable.
While this will let you use a m1 mac with multiple monitors, it is not the same experience as native external display support. I’m okay with that, it’s just a no-go for me since I need portrait/rotation support.
I purchased this adapter for my M1 MacBook to increase the amount of monitors I can plug in. All I had to do was download the software and it was plug and play after that! If you are trying to buy this for your M1 Mac, it works and I have 2 additional monitors plugged being displayed as opposed to being capped at one monitor. Definitely a quality product, though, it is a little bit pricey for what it is. However, if you value screen real estate them this is for you!
First, it works perfect. I succeeded in connecting two extra 4K monitors at the same time with my new MacBook Air M1 version and there was no observable latency. However, Displaylink technology will use your CPU as GPU to draw those figures, in this case, when you watching some videos on the monitor extended by DisplayLink, it will cost quite a lot CPU and make you computer much hotter than normal temperature. So if you just buy it for some text edit work, it is a good choice, but if you are doing some designing task like drawing, or video processing, you may need a second though. By the way, it is not the fault of this product, I believe it is the fault of M1 chip, so I still give it 4 stars.
works well please note not bought for gaming so 5 stars are for video/graphics etc
Great product that solved a very specific problem with my Mac Mini M1.
I was finally able to get 60hz out of my hdmi 2.0 monitors. No other solution worked until I used this adapter. I’m using an HMDI 2.0 switcher (the main problem) with another computer, and for some reason could not get 60hz from my monitor plugged into the HDMI port on the mac mini m1, even with an assortment of different cable brands / types (only using the hub/switcher, directly plugging into the computer worked, but limited me to only 2 monitors).
I used this adapter to run a display port to hdmi cable to the switcher and then installed the DisplayLink software / helper, which runs in the background and doesn’t need attending. I know it seems like a strange way to get the Mac Mini to do something that should be simpler, but now I am able to have my USB-C wacom cintiq, x2 hdmi monitors, and sidecar my ipad all at the same time with 60hz, imperceptible latency, no flickering.
The unit is warm to the touch but other than that no other strange observations. Looking forward to trying to plug in a fifth monitor – just because! 🙂
It is a very compact device. It converted the poor screen resolution on my laptop to 4K UHD high resolution and colorful graphic on the large external display. I bought my laptop about a year ago based on the CPU, memory, disk space performance, but I did not realize the screen resolution was so poor. I was looking for the 3 things, A large high resolution external monitor with DP port, an external graphic adapter with HDMI port (input) and DP port (output).
I bought a bigger external screen for my iPad Pro, it showed iPad screen as is at the extremely high resolution on the external monitor without any adapter since iPad Pro already has high end graphic device built-in. I wanted see my laptop screen at the same resolution and real color. So I bought this graphic adapter and a DP to DP cable, and connected this adapter HDMI port input (to laptop HDMI port) and DP port output(to external monitor via DP to DP cable). I setup my display to the highest resolution that 4K UHD can get, then It worked perfectly to achieved my wish. The device gets the medium hot temperature with one port use. So I set to my laptop screen to sleep when I am not using 20 min, just in case. Also be patient to establish connection between the laptop HDMI port and the monitor via this adapter at the boot time, may take 10-20 sec. but it will automatic establish the connection at 4K UHD resolution. Thank you!
Had expected to have to go out and purchase a large monitor to work with the the new Mac Air and the M1 Chip. This works great for business related programs and internet viewing and is backward compatible with my older Mac.
I am using this through a CalDigit dock but have tried direct and the results are just as good.
La configuration est ultra simple (tlchargement des pilotes et du logiciel, configuration des crans dans le gestionnaire d’cran de Mac OS).
Je vous conseille ma vido sur ma chane You tube SY BER TECH si vous avez quelques difficults car j’y ai dtaill le processus d’installation.
Update, have now used this for video work and so far its been flawless, note the display will come on after login which is when the DisplayLink manager will load and automatically activate the screens, but I am really happy with this setup. Together with my docks cdmi output, I know have 4 screens running well. Its expensive but given the New M1s are limited to just 2 screens natively, this allows for more.
Love the product. It works very well and is simple to plug in. Really appreciate StarTech customer service. Number 1 customer service.
Love the product. It works very well and is simple to plug in. Only issue is that it seems to overheat and crashes. Started happening once and it happens at least once every two days since. Maybe with less use it wouldn’t happen but happens to me.
so I asked for Startech assistance on their website (which i recommend doing) they advised this port would run two x2 external monitors plus my laptop screen ( MacBook air) and it does perfectly, to the point i am amazed at how easy and simple life has become I can drag different applications from screen to screen and have multiple applications open at one time on each screen, I again advise talking to Startech and downloading the correct software but just follow the instructions.
I’m using this to power two 1600×1200 LCDs (not quite 4k, but I wanted the option for later).
It works decently, but can be hot/warm to the touch. At one point it was making a small amount of noise, but that’s now stopped ( I was concerned initially, but after three months with the product I’m on anymore).
I’d very likely buy a second one if I ever expand my current 4-monitor setup.
Top product, few minutes set-up, plug and play and so far so good, working off an old lenovo. Expensive, yes, but the freedom to have a couple of monitors outweighs cost. Worthy and reliable, tech support is there, along with drivers if needed…install drivers first if required, but really easy product that works.
Truly wonderful device that will drive 2 screens from a USB port (USB 2 or 3).
Its not fast on USB2 – dont expect to be playing games on the connected monitors, but it has been truly wonderful for adding 2 extra screens during lockdown.
UPDATE AFTER 1 WEEK.
I’ve changed my review to 4 stars instead of 5. The device began to malfunction and eventually completely failed after about an hour of usage. I’ve returned the item. i’m going to purchase another and then see whether it fails in the same way after a few weeks. Check back in a month or so for an updated review.
UPDATE AFTER A REPLACEMENT DEVICE
I’m currently using a replacement to the last one that i used. It has only been two days, so i’ll update this review after a few more weeks to report what’s changed since this time. So far no abnormal failures. I’ve determined that the additional heat from the charging process of the laptop is related to the failure of the adapter. So far it has not failed unless the laptop is changing and the physical heat of the SSD and the 4 cores rises to and stays at or above 50 Centigrade.
UPDATE AFTER 2 WEEKS:
I’ve used the adapter while on the changer (see note above) and that does not seem to influence the failures. Maybe its temperature, but my latest hypothesis is that the data transfer rate between my usb 3.0 to a 4k 60 fps monitor is not equal; ~600 MB for USB3, 3.4 Gig for display port. The adapter has malfunctioned when doing video or media, but for static spreadsheet, document, web browsing, it seems to be just fine!!
UPDATE AFTER THREE MONTHS:
I can use the adapter for at least a few hours with low workload before it crashes. Unfortunately, when it does inevitably crash, half the time my computer will free and i have to give it a full re-start. I noticed the ominous “black box” part of this adapter gets warm after use, and so maybe cooling it will help alleviate failures? Or perhaps it could just use a “break” now and then?
Purchased for Lenovo Windows 10 work laptop to use with my two 27″ LG 4K monitors. It’s plug and play and display ports work like a charm. I am swapping over to a 15″ Macbook Retina(2014) dual booting machine and haven’t been able to get it to work when I’m using the Mac OS(Yes, 10.14 (Mojave) is the OS). It works fine when I’m booted into Windows 10(on the MacBook) but not Mojave. The hardware clearly works, I just haven’t figured out the Mac OSMojave issue. The instructions make it seem rather simple to use(like it is with Windows 10) when using OS Mojave but it’s definitely not plug and play like it is with Windows 10, at least not for me. So that’s why I’m giving 4 stars instead of 5.
The only time I noticed an issue (slight lag) was if there was a lot of movement or updates on the screen – this is normal for most USB adapters and it may be due to the limited bandwidth on just USB 3.0. I have to mention I have this adapter hooked up like so: Laptop > USB 3.0 hub on one of the monitors > DisplayPort adapter + USB sound card + USB Gigabit Ethernet adapter.
I have a lot of things up and running between my IDE (Phpstorm), Thunderbird, Chrome, Spotify, Slack, Skype, Microsoft Teams, Office, Excel, and Photoshop.