How many monitors iMac 21.5 4K can handle?
Well, Im a programmer and I want bunch of monitors.
I have a 21.5 Inch 5K iMac, from 2017
Just bought a DUAL HDMI Adapter from StarTech.com
My intention is to have 3 extra displays because the Mac has 2 thunderbolt 3 ports so in 1 port I connected the StarTech adapter and in the other one a simple Thunderbolt 3 to HDMI adapter
But when they are connected together I have 2 random displays working, I cant get the 3 extra display to work!
In the past I have both thunderbolt ports with the single HDMI adapter and worked fine.
Im afraid that this iMac, due its 4K resolution, can't handle 3 extra monitors.
What do you say? Thanks.
Apple documents the supported displays now from the installed OS:
Check how many displays your Mac supports: Choose Apple () menu > About This Mac > Support, then click Specifications. On the web page that appears, the number of displays your Mac supports appears under Video Support.
I don’t recommend using more than the official, but sometimes people are OK with adapters that split up a display if they don’t care about full resolution or refresh rates as much as maxing out the total square inches of display.
- https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202351
Another option is using an external GPU. See Use an external graphics processor with your Mac on Apple's website.
From your comments you should expect three 4k displays - up to 2 4K external displays and the iMac integrated one.