Two computers and one Studio Display?

[allanz85]

Hello all that needed help, I bought these from Amazon (U.S.):

USB C Switch,Bi-Directional USB C Switcher 2 Computers,MLEEDA USB Type C KVM Switch 8K@60Hz 4K@120Hz Video/10Gbps Data Transfer/100W Charging,Compatible with Thunderbolt Device,2 USB-C Cables Included

USB C Switch,Bi-Directional USB C Switcher 2 Computers,MLEEDA USB Type C KVM Switch 8K@60Hz 4K@120Hz Video/10Gbps Data Transfer/100W Charging,Compatible with Thunderbolt Device,2 USB-C Cables Included

www.amazon.com

My set up:
Studio Display
Mac Mini M1
Dell laptop /w a Thunderbolt 3 port

I used the two USBC cables that came with the KVM, worked flawlessly. They're a bit on the pricey side but they come with two USBC 10gig cables (That actually work).

My Dell actually detected it as Thunderbolt, not just USB-c.

Hope this helps

-----

Side note: I've also purchased Cablematters USBC cables to test, but they only worked upon a fresh restart, once I hit the switch button, there were flickers and the screen turns off. So don't purchase these and use the original cables that came with the switch.

Cable Matters [USB-IF Certified] 10 Gbps Gen 2 USB C to USB C Cable 3.3 ft / 1m with 8K Video and 100W Power Delivery in Black

Cable Matters [USB-IF Certified] 10 Gbps Gen 2 USB C to USB C Cable 3.3 ft / 1m with 8K Video and 100W Power Delivery in Black

www.amazon.com

 

[PhillPaige]

Great news on my end! I got it working with what I consider a better version of the switch than is available on Amazon.

What I used:

• USB-C Bi-Direction Switch with Remote! AliExpress: 100W USB C Two-way Switcher Type-C Splitter 2x1/1x2 Bi-Direction KVM Data Video Switcher 8K For Computer Monitor Multiple Source
• This doesn't come with USB-C Cables so I got two of these: Amazon: [USB-IF Certified] Cable Matters 10 Gbps Gen 2 USB C to USB C Cable 3.3 ft / 1m with 8K Video and 100W Power Delivery in Black (same as the one on the US Amazon site shared before)

Works perfectly! So excited!

Short-terms plans for 1x Apple Studio Display

• Pair of these to hook up my mouse/keyboard directly to the display: Amazon: USB-C to USB-A L-shape adapter

Long-terms plans for 2x Apple Studio Display

• Buy another switch from AliExpress, and hook up each monitor individually, the downside is there will be two cables running from each laptop vs the single if I went with a hub like the CalDigit element... but now I can individually control if I want one laptop displaying on both, or one on each.
• I have the Logitech G604 mouse and G915 keyboard, that can switch between bluetooth/lightspeed right on the device, so if I'm using one display for each monitor, it will be super easy to switch between inputs.

Outstanding recommendation - was looking at switches costing more than 10 times this setup but this works *perfectly* for me with my windows laptop as one input and my iMac 27" as the other, sharing my studio display. Top work sir, I tip my hat to you!

 

[allanz85]

Hello all that needed help, I bought these from Amazon (U.S.):

USB C Switch,Bi-Directional USB C Switcher 2 Computers,MLEEDA USB Type C KVM Switch 8K@60Hz 4K@120Hz Video/10Gbps Data Transfer/100W Charging,Compatible with Thunderbolt Device,2 USB-C Cables Included

USB C Switch,Bi-Directional USB C Switcher 2 Computers,MLEEDA USB Type C KVM Switch 8K@60Hz 4K@120Hz Video/10Gbps Data Transfer/100W Charging,Compatible with Thunderbolt Device,2 USB-C Cables Included

www.amazon.com

My set up:
Studio Display
Mac Mini M1
Dell laptop /w a Thunderbolt 3 port

I used the two USBC cables that came with the KVM, worked flawlessly. They're a bit on the pricey side but they come with two USBC 10gig cables (That actually work).

My Dell actually detected it as Thunderbolt, not just USB-c.

Hope this helps

-----

Side note: I've also purchased Cablematters USBC cables to test, but they only worked upon a fresh restart, once I hit the switch button, there were flickers and the screen turns off. So don't purchase these and use the original cables that came with the switch.

Cable Matters [USB-IF Certified] 10 Gbps Gen 2 USB C to USB C Cable 3.3 ft / 1m with 8K Video and 100W Power Delivery in Black

Cable Matters [USB-IF Certified] 10 Gbps Gen 2 USB C to USB C Cable 3.3 ft / 1m with 8K Video and 100W Power Delivery in Black

www.amazon.com

Hi all, reporting back after about a week of use:

1. My dell could not display 5k, only 4k. When I try 5k (option is available, the dell has a dedicated gpu), the screen flickers a little and turns completely black until it reverts back to 4k.

2. This set up did not work for my Mac Mini M1 + Macbook pro 13 (2018), I don't know if it's a faulty cable or just not enough bandwidth - the Mac Mini worked perfectly fine but when switched to the macbook pro, the studio display had rainbow'ish pixels across the whole screen.
Edit: Found the fix for this, apparently, this has nothing to do with the KVM, this fix worked for me:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/ventura-external-display-problem.2367256/post-31850212

I also ordered the KVM on Alibaba, will test that set up and report back (takes forever to arrive).

 

[Converseallstar95]

I said 10 Gbps per line and USB-C has 4 lines. 10x4=40Gbps in one direction or 20Gbps in two directions.
Thunderbolt 2 is actually 10.3125 Gbps per line on the wire.

Thunderbolt3/4 and USB4 is 20 Gbps per line. A Thunderbolt 3/4 cable can do 80 Gbps in one direction or 40 Gbps in two directions. DisplayPort 2.0 is also up to 20 Gbps per line.
Thunderbolt 3/4 is actually 20.625 Gbps per line on the wire.

Thunderbolt 5 and USB4 2.0 will be even faster. They'll use 25.6Gbaud. The baud term is used instead of bits because it uses PAM-3 where each component can have 3 levels. A bit only has two levels. When there's 3 levels, you can call the value a trit instead of a bit.
https://www.graniteriverlabs.com/en-us/technical-blog/usb4-80-cio80


If it can connect as Thunderbolt 20 Gbps then it might be able to do 4K60 or 5K39. The switch might block Thunderbolt connections - I don't recall if anyone in this thread reported success with Thunderbolt 20 Gbps connection. You can try Thunderbolt 20 Gbps connection using a normal USB-C cable without a switch.

Sorry for the delayed response, thank you for the explanation--I think I have a better understanding now. I ended up trying two of the options and both were finicky, and I didn't want to use non TB certified cables because there are other TB devices in the chain, so it was frankly more trouble than it was worth moving the one cable connected to the monitor. I guess I will have to wait for a certified TB switcher at some point. Thank you!

 

[ascender]

Great news on my end! I got it working with what I consider a better version of the switch than is available on Amazon.

What I used:

• USB-C Bi-Direction Switch with Remote! AliExpress: 100W USB C Two-way Switcher Type-C Splitter 2x1/1x2 Bi-Direction KVM Data Video Switcher 8K For Computer Monitor Multiple Source
• This doesn't come with USB-C Cables so I got two of these: Amazon: [USB-IF Certified] Cable Matters 10 Gbps Gen 2 USB C to USB C Cable 3.3 ft / 1m with 8K Video and 100W Power Delivery in Black (same as the one on the US Amazon site shared before)

Finally got the switcher from AliExpress, but am getting no signal at all through it. It's powering on ok and I have the machines connected with an original Apple TB4 cable and a Cable Matters one from the above link. Neither machine detects the Studio Display at all which is weird.

 

[Erpler]

I'm very curious to see if the AMD 7940 (HS/U) with the Radeon 780M-igpu can drive the LG Ultrafine 5k at full resolution and refreshrate. Think of products like the Minisforum Venus UM790 Pro or even the AMD 7940 derived ROG Ally.

The UM790 has the following video output listed:
HDMI 2.1 (4K@144Hz) ×2
USB4 (8K@60Hz)×2

 

[joevt]

I'm very curious to see if the AMD 7940 (HS/U) with the Radeon 780M-igpu can drive the LG Ultrafine 5k at full resolution and refreshrate. Think of products like the Minisforum Venus UM790 Pro or even the AMD 7940 derived ROG Ally.

The UM790 has the following video output listed:
HDMI 2.1 (4K@144Hz) ×2
USB4 (8K@60Hz)×2

LG UltraFine 5K can do 5K60 only with Thunderbolt and only when the host Thunderbolt port supports two separate DisplayPort connections.

The specs for the Minisforum Venus UM790 Pro do not say if the USB4 ports support Thunderbolt or if a single USB4 port can support two separate DisplayPort connections - not MST.

I suppose if a USB4 port doesn't support Thunderbolt you can connect a Thunderbolt 4 hub and it will work as USB4 for the upstream and do Thunderbolt for the downstream but I've never seen anyone try it (I don't follow PC stuff very often).

 

[Erpler]

LG UltraFine 5K can do 5K60 only with Thunderbolt and only when the host Thunderbolt port supports two separate DisplayPort connections.

The specs for the Minisforum Venus UM790 Pro do not say if the USB4 ports support Thunderbolt or if a single USB4 port can support two separate DisplayPort connections - not MST.

I suppose if a USB4 port doesn't support Thunderbolt you can connect a Thunderbolt 4 hub and it will work as USB4 for the upstream and do Thunderbolt for the downstream but I've never seen anyone try it (I don't follow PC stuff very often).

My knowledge on this subject is very limited but I do know AMD has set some minimum USB4 requirements starting with their Ryzen 6000 series. When I take a look at the specifications sheet I see the following:

• DisplayPort 2.1
• UHBR10

Besides that USB4 should (depending on the implementation) incorporate the Thunderbolt 3 protocol and it supports USB-C DisplayPort Alt mode and has sufficient bandwidth to support two separate DisplayPort connections simultaneously. Unfortunately this is also fairly vague in terms of what it actually means in terms of support. Of course it also depends on the device ports being wired up for it.

This pcworld article has been testing Ryzen 6000 laptops and there does seem to be some potential here. After updating the firmware the USB 4 ports supported Thunderbolt 3 only devices.

I've also found another spec sheet stating that starting with Ryzen 6000 the DisplayPort tunneling supports DP 1.4a HBR3 (34,56Gbit/s) with 2-channel SST. These specs do indicate to me that in theory it should be possible for it to use the TB3 protocol to encapsulate two separate SST signals.

I think my best bet will be opening a thread and hoping someone with both devices is able to test it. There does seem to be potential here for the LG Ultrafine 5K to be driven directly. I'll see if I can contact Minisforum to see if their USB4 ports + firmware are capable of supporting TB.


Edit: Minisforum replied

Thanks for contacting Minisforum Support .
The UM790 Pro has theoretically implemented and enabled this lightning support. There are no compatibility tests available on whether connecting the LG UltraFine 5k to the UM790 Pro at full 5K 60hz will drive the display.

 

[joevt]

Edit: Minisforum replied

What is "lightning"? If that's their word then you should ask to speak with someone who knows something about anything.

You shouldn't have mentioned a specific display. The question should be, can two displays connected to a Thunderbolt 3 dock work when the Thunderbolt 3 dock is connected to the USB4 port?

If the answer is yes, then the LG should also work, since it is basically a Thunderbolt 3 dock with two displays connected to it.

If they don't know the answer then you can insult their competence.

 

[asman]

Great news on my end! I got it working with what I consider a better version of the switch than is available on Amazon.

What I used:

• USB-C Bi-Direction Switch with Remote! AliExpress: 100W USB C Two-way Switcher Type-C Splitter 2x1/1x2 Bi-Direction KVM Data Video Switcher 8K For Computer Monitor Multiple Source
• This doesn't come with USB-C Cables so I got two of these: Amazon: [USB-IF Certified] Cable Matters 10 Gbps Gen 2 USB C to USB C Cable 3.3 ft / 1m with 8K Video and 100W Power Delivery in Black (same as the one on the US Amazon site shared before)

Works perfectly! So excited!

Short-terms plans for 1x Apple Studio Display

• Pair of these to hook up my mouse/keyboard directly to the display: Amazon: USB-C to USB-A L-shape adapter

Long-terms plans for 2x Apple Studio Display

• Buy another switch from AliExpress, and hook up each monitor individually, the downside is there will be two cables running from each laptop vs the single if I went with a hub like the CalDigit element... but now I can individually control if I want one laptop displaying on both, or one on each.
• I have the Logitech G604 mouse and G915 keyboard, that can switch between bluetooth/lightspeed right on the device, so if I'm using one display for each monitor, it will be super easy to switch between inputs.

Are the Studio Display's cameras and speakers working perfectly?

 

[Converseallstar95]

For anyone who’s interested, it looks like the SSI KVM was picked up by Sabrent. Seemed to be released a week or so ago, but it’s out of stock on their website. A third party is selling it on Amazon for no premium, so I just ordered one to try out.

SABRENT Thunderbolt 4 KVM Switch, Peripheral Sharing with 3X Thunderbolt 4 USB C 40Gbps, 2X USB-C Charging 60W (PD 3.0) | 4X USB Type A 3.2x2 10Gbps | Supports 4K@144Hz / 8K@60Hz DSC (SB-TB4K)

SABRENT Thunderbolt 4 KVM Switch, Peripheral Sharing with 3X Thunderbolt 4 USB C 40Gbps, 2X USB-C Charging 60W (PD 3.0) | 4X USB Type A 3.2x2 10Gbps | Supports 4K@144Hz / 8K@60Hz DSC (SB-TB4K)

www.amazon.com

 

[tommiy]

@Converseallstar95 thanks can you let us know the results of your tests?

 

[edanuff]

@Converseallstar95 thanks can you let us know the results of your tests?

I’ve ordered one from Sabrent as well. Will report back once it arrives.

 

[Converseallstar95]

I’ve ordered one from Sabrent as well. Will report back once it arrives.

I haven’t had time to tear apart the setup yet, but I did look through the manual and box contents. It seems like you may be able to use it bus powered if you don’t want the 60W pass through charging (the brick is huge). That would be awesome since I already have a TB dock with pass through.

 

[edanuff]

Mine shipped out this morning, should have it in a day or so. Meanwhile, Sabrent has a video up where they show it switching a Studio Display between a Mac and a PC:

 

[petardosh]

Mine shipped out this morning, should have it in a day or so. Meanwhile, Sabrent has a video up where they show it switching a Studio Display between a Mac and a PC:

I read that it only charges the current active laptop which would be a bummer

 

[Richdmoore]

I read that it only charges the current active laptop which would be a bummer

I wonder if that can be worked around by placing another device before the KVM? I guess we will see, I am interested in this to use a studio display with both a mac studio and an M1 iPad pro.

I do wonder if I should go the USB route, but I don't know how well apple integrates with normal monitors. (I have had an iMac for the past 10 years.)

 

[edanuff]

My Sabrent TB4 KVM switch arrived today and here's my mini-review. I'm using it to switch betrween a Mac Studio and a Windows 11 PC. On the PC side, I have an MSI Z790 motherboard which has Thunderbolt 4 output and has a mini-Displayport input for passthrough from the GPU card, which in this case is a 4090. This is fairly standard for how PCs support Thunderbolt video. I was previously using a CableDeconn USB-C switch for the last year, which did an acceptable job except that it cannot pass through 40Mbps of video bandwidth and hence drops down to 20Mbs Displayport with DisplayStream Compression, which is not a big problem, but it was quite unreliable for passing through USB signals for accessing any of the built-in devices such as the camera or speakers, nor enable the use of the rest of the ports on the back of the monitor. I've been eagerly awaiting the availability of a true TB4 KVM switch for a while, and had been hoping SSI would find a US partner to distribute their KVM since they originaly previewed it back in 2021. Physically, the Sabrent KVM is essentially a Thunderbolt Hub with two host input ports and a pushbutton switch at the end of an extension cable, so that the box can be placed out of sight. I used a pair of Cable Matters TB4 cables to hook up the Mac to the KVM and the KVM to the Studio Display and everything worked as expected. The KVM does come with a pair of short Thunderbolt cables but those weren't going to reach for my desk setup. On connection, System Information shows a full TB4 40 Gb/s connection to the Studio Display and everything works great from speakers and camera. On the PC, it didn’t like the DisplayPort to USB-C cable I was using, which was just a simple one that did not have USB passthrough. Sabrent does claim that DisplayPort alt-mode cables on the PC or other devices do work with this switch, so I suspect that the cable needs to have USB in addition to the video signal, which the cable I used did not. I do have a Belkin cable somewhere in my cable box but didn't try it, opting instead to use the PC's Thunderbolt output, which worked fine. I have had issues with Thunderbolt video on PCs before, particularly with games as well as not getting a boot screen until Windows loads, so I've typically used DisplayPort to USB-C cables rather than Thunderbolt, even though the motherboard supports it, but this time around none of those issues has occured and everything I've tested seems to work so far. Intel Thunderbolt Control Center shows the KVM and the Apple Studio Display. I don't have the Bootcamp drivers installed so I'm not seeing the speakers or the camera on the PC side. I will try that and report back. Switching between the two displays takes quite a bit longer than the CableDeconn switch, which is not surprising since it's a substantially more complicated device, but I could see this being an issue for some. In any case, I use both the Mac and PC fairly regularly in my workflows as well as PC gaming, so I expect I'll find any issues reasonably quickly and will report back. I am not using it with any laptops, so I don't know about whether it charges the laptop that's not active. I do need to switch between the PC and Mac fairly regularly every day, so if this switch doesn't prove reliable or has compatibility issues, I should find them fairly quickly and report back, but so far so good.

 

[Diskutant]

Thanks for your review edanuff.
When you switch the output from Mac to PC, does the Mac still "see" the display, or does it rearrange everything to other displays?

 

[edanuff]

Thanks for your review edanuff.
When you switch the output from Mac to PC, does the Mac still "see" the display, or does it rearrange everything to other displays?

It rearranges everything.

 

[signsinthedust]

On the PC side, I have an MSI Z790 motherboard which has Thunderbolt 4 output and has a mini-Displayport input for passthrough from the GPU card, which in this case is a 4090.

I was unaware that the Z790 supports Thunderbolt 4.

MSI MAG Z790 TOMAHAWK WIFI LGA 1700 Intel Z790 SATA 6Gb/s DDR5 ATX Motherboard - Newegg.com

Buy MSI MAG Z790 TOMAHAWK WIFI LGA 1700 Intel Z790 SATA 6Gb/s DDR5 ATX Motherboard with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!

www.newegg.com

Is this your make and model?

 

[edanuff]

I was unaware that the Z790 supports Thunderbolt 4.

MSI MAG Z790 TOMAHAWK WIFI LGA 1700 Intel Z790 SATA 6Gb/s DDR5 ATX Motherboard - Newegg.com

Buy MSI MAG Z790 TOMAHAWK WIFI LGA 1700 Intel Z790 SATA 6Gb/s DDR5 ATX Motherboard with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!

www.newegg.com

Is this your make and model?

I have the MSI Z790 Ace which has TB4 on the motherboard. Not to do a full recap of the Studio Display Windows Compatibility thread, but typically you want a TB4 interface that has DisplayPort pass-through. This is where you'll connect the output of your GPU card into what's usually a mini-DisplayPort input under the USB-C Thunderbolt output. Without this pass-through, you're limited to onboard video which is usually quite poor performance. MSI offers an add-in card that makes this possible (MSI Thunderbolt 4 PCIe Expansion Card), or you can look for one of their motherboard models that has pass-through built in. I don't believe the Tomahawk does.

 

[ChrisA]

Connect the Studio Display to the Mac Studio. Then when you need to access the Dell notebook, use screen sharing.

You can have the notebook display come up as a window on the Mac Desktop or you can go full screen. This would be sub-optimal for games but for work-related stuff like documents and email the lag is not noticeable at all.

This works BETTER than using a switch because a switch is "all or nothing" and with screen sharing, you have access to both computers at the same time. You can even cut and pates between them.

 

[Converseallstar95]

My Sabrent TB4 KVM switch arrived today and here's my mini-review. I'm using it to switch betrween a Mac Studio and a Windows 11 PC. On the PC side, I have an MSI Z790 motherboard which has Thunderbolt 4 output and has a mini-Displayport input for passthrough from the GPU card, which in this case is a 4090. This is fairly standard for how PCs support Thunderbolt video. I was previously using a CableDeconn USB-C switch for the last year, which did an acceptable job except that it cannot pass through 40Mbps of video bandwidth and hence drops down to 20Mbs Displayport with DisplayStream Compression, which is not a big problem, but it was quite unreliable for passing through USB signals for accessing any of the built-in devices such as the camera or speakers, nor enable the use of the rest of the ports on the back of the monitor. I've been eagerly awaiting the availability of a true TB4 KVM switch for a while, and had been hoping SSI would find a US partner to distribute their KVM since they originaly previewed it back in 2021. Physically, the Sabrent KVM is essentially a Thunderbolt Hub with two host input ports and a pushbutton switch at the end of an extension cable, so that the box can be placed out of sight. I used a pair of Cable Matters TB4 cables to hook up the Mac to the KVM and the KVM to the Studio Display and everything worked as expected. The KVM does come with a pair of short Thunderbolt cables but those weren't going to reach for my desk setup. On connection, System Information shows a full TB4 40 Gb/s connection to the Studio Display and everything works great from speakers and camera. On the PC, it didn’t like the DisplayPort to USB-C cable I was using, which was just a simple one that did not have USB passthrough. Sabrent does claim that DisplayPort alt-mode cables on the PC or other devices do work with this switch, so I suspect that the cable needs to have USB in addition to the video signal, which the cable I used did not. I do have a Belkin cable somewhere in my cable box but didn't try it, opting instead to use the PC's Thunderbolt output, which worked fine. I have had issues with Thunderbolt video on PCs before, particularly with games as well as not getting a boot screen until Windows loads, so I've typically used DisplayPort to USB-C cables rather than Thunderbolt, even though the motherboard supports it, but this time around none of those issues has occured and everything I've tested seems to work so far. Intel Thunderbolt Control Center shows the KVM and the Apple Studio Display. I don't have the Bootcamp drivers installed so I'm not seeing the speakers or the camera on the PC side. I will try that and report back. Switching between the two displays takes quite a bit longer than the CableDeconn switch, which is not surprising since it's a substantially more complicated device, but I could see this being an issue for some. In any case, I use both the Mac and PC fairly regularly in my workflows as well as PC gaming, so I expect I'll find any issues reasonably quickly and will report back. I am not using it with any laptops, so I don't know about whether it charges the laptop that's not active. I do need to switch between the PC and Mac fairly regularly every day, so if this switch doesn't prove reliable or has compatibility issues, I should find them fairly quickly and report back, but so far so good.

So I’ve had a chance to play with mine too and here’s what happened.

Currently have a 2019 MBP 16 inch (TB 3) connected to a TB 3 dock from OWC, then the dock is connected to an LG UltraFink 5K. Then I have a 2018 Mac mini connected to the display as well and manually switch the TB 3 cables.

This KVM would not work with any of the TB 3 cables regardless of which way I tried. The only way I got the KVM to work was when I connected the laptop to KVM with a TB 4 cable (included) then KVM to display with a TB 4 cable (included).

I’ve ordered two more TB 4 cables to see if I can get everything else working with the OWC dock (since it does 85W pass through) and will report back.

Weird the TB 3 cables didn’t work when they were 40gbps cables.

 

[Richdmoore]

So I’ve had a chance to play with mine too and here’s what happened.

Currently have a 2019 MBP 16 inch (TB 3) connected to a TB 3 dock from OWC, then the dock is connected to an LG UltraFink 5K. Then I have a 2018 Mac mini connected to the display as well and manually switch the TB 3 cables.

This KVM would not work with any of the TB 3 cables regardless of which way I tried. The only way I got the KVM to work was when I connected the laptop to KVM with a TB 4 cable (included) then KVM to display with a TB 4 cable (included).

I’ve ordered two more TB 4 cables to see if I can get everything else working with the OWC dock (since it does 85W pass through) and will report back.

Weird the TB 3 cables didn’t work when they were 40gbps cables.

Looking forward to hearing if the upgraded cables solves the issue.

I hope we don't have to upgrade to a thunderbolt 4 device/hub to charge both the on line and offline devices.