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Is any current new MacBook's support 3 external monitors with the lid closed?

Do any of the current (new) MacBooks support 3 monitors with the lid closed? I am trying to switch from my work laptop (PC) to a personal MacBook. My current Macbook Air does not support 3 monitors. Do any of the newer models support 3?


[Re-Titled by Moderator]

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 14.6

Posted on Nov 18, 2024 4:28 AM

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3 replies

Nov 18, 2024 4:51 AM in response to mahon3726

MacBook Pro (14-inch, M4 Pro or M4 Max, 2024) - Tech Specs - Apple Support

MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2024) - Tech Specs - Apple Support


14" and 16" MacBook Pros that have the M4 Max chip can support up to four external displays, with the lid open.


I believe that older 14" and 16" MacBook Pros that have a M1 Max, M2 Max, or M3 Max chip also can drive up to four displays, with the lid open. (You may want to double-check their Technical Specifications to make sure.)


No Mac notebook with a plain M-series chip, or with a Pro chip, supports three external displays. The only Apple Silicon Mac notebooks where closing the lid gets you the ability to add another display are M3 MacBook Airs and 14" plain M3 MacBook Pros running updated versions of macOS. They would be limited to one external display at all times if not for the "lid closed" support.

Nov 18, 2024 8:23 AM in response to mahon3726

from the tech specs link posted for 14-in MacBook Pro above:


M4 Max

  • Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display at 1 billion colors and:
  • Up to four external displays: Up to three external displays with 6K resolution at 60Hz over Thunderbolt and one external display with up to 4K resolution at 144Hz over HDMI
  • Up to three external displays: Up to two external displays with 6K resolution at 60Hz over Thunderbolt and one external display with up to 8K resolution at 60Hz or one external display with 4K resolution at 240Hz over HDMI


in addition:

The Apple standard for its built-in hardware-accelerated displays, makes them suitable for full-motion video for production/display of cinema-quality video with NO dropped frames, and NO dropouts or partial-blank scan lines due to memory under-runs or other issues. This requires a hardware rasterizer/display-generator for each fully-accelerated display, supported by Huge memory bandwidth to refresh each display 60 or more times a second. 


(If you are doing ONLY program listings, spreadsheets, stock quotes and other slow to change data, there are some other solutions, but they require you to make some strong compromises.)

Is any current new MacBook's support 3 external monitors with the lid closed?

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