I searched for this question but didn’t see it. I understand that the new Studio Display doesn’t support older Macbooks through the Thunderbolt 3 connector. That said, if I had a DisplayPort to USB-C cable should that work to connect the two? I understand it may not carry all of the features (camera, etc.) but would it at least allow me to use it as a monitor and speakers? Thoughts?
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2022 Apple Studio Display with 2015 Macbook Air
- Thread starter Va_flyfisher
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Use Apple’s bidirectional Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 adapter and a Thunderbolt 2 cable. Resolution will be limited to “4K” at 60 Hz. That’s the easiest way, and the speakers will work.
A USB-C to DisplayPort cable is unidirectional and won’t work!
You need a cable that is either bidirectional or that explicitly goes from DisplayPort to USB-C and includes a USB connection for the speakers to work, like the Belkin Sync and Charge cable for the Huawei VR.
A USB-C to DisplayPort cable is unidirectional and won’t work!
You need a cable that is either bidirectional or that explicitly goes from DisplayPort to USB-C and includes a USB connection for the speakers to work, like the Belkin Sync and Charge cable for the Huawei VR.
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Awesome, really appreciate it. I was initially disappointed when I saw that it was “not compatible”.
The compatibility list only includes Macs and iPads which have Thunderbolt 3 or USB-C connections.
I thought the 2015 Macbooks had TB2 ports only ?
My work 2015 MBP (15") and personal 2015 MBA (13") has TB2 ports.
I don't think the TB3-TB2 adapter from Apple would work in the OP's case.
The Apple adapter has USB-C (TB3) male and a female TB2.
I use that adapter on my Mac Studio to connect a TB2 device (11 year old 27" Thunderbolt display).
I can confirm that it worked exactly as suggested. Yay!!
Also, I can confirm that on my 2015 Macbook Air when I had it hooked up, it offered an update to the Studio Display and I processed it. It failed and disabled the display and I needed to take it to the Apple Store for them to fix it.
@Va_flyfisher Thanks for posting this. I'm in exactly the same situation.
I also have a MacBook Air 2015 and my local Apple dealer also told me about same solution to use the MBA 2015 with the ASD - Apple’s bidirectional Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 adapter and a Thunderbolt 2 cable. I was skeptical.
Just wondered if the camera worked with your MBA 2015?
I presume the speakers worked well ?
Also were the fonts reasonably good and if so can you remember what scaling was being used in Displays when you used the MBA 2015?
The plan is to get the ASD and then also upgrade later the MBA 2015 to (perhaps) a M2 mac mini
I also have a MacBook Air 2015 and my local Apple dealer also told me about same solution to use the MBA 2015 with the ASD - Apple’s bidirectional Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 adapter and a Thunderbolt 2 cable. I was skeptical.
Just wondered if the camera worked with your MBA 2015?
I presume the speakers worked well ?
Also were the fonts reasonably good and if so can you remember what scaling was being used in Displays when you used the MBA 2015?
The plan is to get the ASD and then also upgrade later the MBA 2015 to (perhaps) a M2 mac mini
I have an older MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015), and a Studio Display which I've tested using the "Apple Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) to Thunderbolt 2" adapter. The macbook was on Catalina and updated to Monterey 12.7 (21G816). Based on this configuration, here are some answers to your questions:
The Studio Display camera does not show up in Catalina nor Monterey.
Speakers also did not show up in Catalina nor Monterey.
Fonts look good. Edges are crisp and smooth. No observable subpixel color-banding, so the subpixel hinting is working well. Not sure what you mean by "scaling"?... fonts are always scaled to match DPI & font size as far as I understand.
What does work?
Display itself shows up and works decently well with the following caveats:
The Studio Display camera does not show up in Catalina nor Monterey.
Speakers also did not show up in Catalina nor Monterey.
Fonts look good. Edges are crisp and smooth. No observable subpixel color-banding, so the subpixel hinting is working well. Not sure what you mean by "scaling"?... fonts are always scaled to match DPI & font size as far as I understand.
What does work?
Display itself shows up and works decently well with the following caveats:
- Brightness control is not working
- Display is always slightly dim except at night or in a dark room
- I haven't tested changing brightness from a modern supported mac yet... maybe it sticks to last used value?
- Ambient Light sensor does not auto-adjust brightness based on ambient light in the room
- Default color profile is stored on the Display itself, so this presumably works
- Note: I'm not an expert at color profiles & color correction
- I have no way of objectively or quantitatively evaluating the calibration, color correction / profiles myself, so I assume they work given that they're stored on the device
- Given the brightness problem above, any color-perfect expectations go out the window.
- Note: I'm not an expert at color profiles & color correction
- Transmission speed limits of Thunderbolt 2 cable -> USB-C connection
- Possible but unlikely... presumably at least speakers should be able to work with this speed?
- If System Information data is to be trusted... it says: "
-
Code:
Speed: Up to 20 Gb/s x1 - Full output below:
Code:
Studio Display: Vendor Name: Apple Inc. Device Name: Studio Display Mode: Thunderbolt 3 Device ID: 0x801F Vendor ID: 0x1 Device Revision: 0x1 UID: 0x00019FEC3D209800 Route String: 3 Firmware Version: 67.1 Port (Upstream): Status: Device connected Link Status: 0x2 Speed: Up to 20 Gb/s x1 Current Link Width: 0x2 Link Controller Firmware Version: 1.45.0 Studio Display: Display Type: Retina LCD Resolution: 5120 x 2880 Retina Framebuffer Depth: 24-Bit Color (ARGB8888) Mirror: Off Online: Yes
-
- Lack of drivers for Studio Display Camera & Speakers + Thunderbolt 2 combination
- This may or may not be true... not sure how Apple drivers work for this device
- Hardware-based feature-flags for older macbooks
- Not sure if this is true either, but maybe Apple disables certain features of the Studio Display on older mac hardware?
@jcuzella Many thanks for posting your experiences and anwersing my questions - much appreciated!
So it looks like my Macbook Air 2015 won't work well either with any potential Apple Studio Display purchase; as you say, too many features simply don't work.
By "Scaling" I meant if the Apple Studio Display defaults to a 1920 x 1080 resolution as I believe your MacBook Pro would only output maximum a 4K signal.
I did try (and returned) a Samsung 28" 4K monitor with my Macbook Air 2015 and I found the desktop UI animations choppy and the fans were mostly on all the time. Did you experience similarly with your MacBook Pro ?
Hope you'll able to (soon) test with a supported Mac as it's a shame you aren't currently utilising the full potential of the Apple Studio Display.
I went to the Apple store with armed with the Apple's Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 adapter and a Thunderbolt 2 cable and my Macbook Air 13" 2015 (which has a Intel HD Graphics 6000 graphics card).
The ASD gave me a default resolution of 1920 x 1080 I think at 60 Hz (although I didn't really check for this), I think I was getting a 4k picture, not 5K (as expected). So everything was bit large (text, icons etc ...). Going into 'System Preferences' > 'Displays' I chose the 2560 x 1440 resolution and things looked better - not so large.
The ASD's speakers worked and the volume could be changed using the Macbook Air's keyboard.
The ASD's inbuilt camera also worked - I tested using the Photo Booth app.
I didn't try anything else as I was short of time so couldn't check if the brightness could be changed but do remember seeing in 'System Preferences' > 'Displays' a slider to change the brightness.
Maybe this helps someone.
Update: It looks like things have improved, probably due to some silently pushed macOS update.
I'm now running macOS Monterey 12.7.6 (21H1320) on the same old MacBook, and now all those things are working: ASD speakers, camera, brightness control, etc...
The only things that are noticeably different than using the display with a newer MacBook are the following:
- Sometimes upon reboot / cold-boot while the Thunderbolt 2 -> TB3 over USB-C adapter is plugged in, the display does not initialize. Workaround: Unplug and re-plug the USB-C side of the adapter from behind the monitor.
- Camera quality is noticeably lower (720p / 1280px x 720px), as opposed to 1080p or higher. Likely this is due to the older MacBook's inferior GPU & video processing capabilities, as well as bandwidth limitations of the Thunderbolt 2 connection speeds (via adapter). No workaround is known.
@jcuzella Thanks, this is most helpful!
I'm curious if your MacBook (Monterey 12.7.6) runs hot or if the fans rev up significantly. I suspect the GPU might be straining, and you might find better performance when using the ASD in clamshell mode."
I briefly used a 4K Samsung monitor with my MacBook Air (2015) and noticed significant animation lag and increased fan noise.
However, my current setup is different, with an external keyboard and the MacBook always in clamshell mode. This might alleviate the issue.
Additionally, I'm using a DNS filter like NextDNS to block ads in Safari, this helps quite a bit to reduce fan activity.