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I want to use 2 external monitors along with the MacBook Pro as one Monitor to the left of Macbook Pro, the other one on the right, with Macbook Pro in the middle. Is it possible to do that? How to achieve that?

My Intel Graphics is: Intel HD Graphics 3000 512 MB

I looked over the Internet, I saw Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI Adapter and the other option was using Matrox TripleHead2Go Three-Monitor Graphics Expansion - Digital Edition T2G-D3D-IF offer dual monitor & triple monitor functionality. Is this correct? Can something like this be achieved with something similar with low budget in mind?

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DisplayLink

DisplayLink makes USB graphics adapters for PCs and Macs. You can add as many displays as you have USB ports and processing power.

You would use the built in graphics card for one of your displays and use the USB graphics adapter for the other side. I would suggest using your three displays in the following order:

  • Primary: MacBook Pro built in display

  • Secondary: Display connected to Mini DisplayPort

  • Tertiary: Display connected to USB graphics adapter.

The USB graphics adapter solution is fantastic, but it can be a little slow sometimes.

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    thanks for the answer! I have seen the site. Its given me a lot of options :) – gkolan Mar 16 '12 at 3:06
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    I have the same setup at home, and I really like it. I have the USB2VGAPRO from StarTech as it offers 1920x1200 output through the DL-195 chipset. The only downside is that it offers slower refresh updates for accelerated content (video, dragging or scrolling quickly, etc) ca.startech.com/AV/USB-Video-Adapters – adamrmcd Jul 2 '12 at 0:42
  • I went with this solution, and the adapter recommended by @adamrmcd and it works like a charm (but the display update is oooh so slow). – Konrad Rudolph Sep 14 '12 at 14:46
  • Just curious. Is this faster than just using two hdmi cables to connect two monitors? I'm currently just running a mini displayport to hdmi for one monitor and a direct hdmi to another monitor from a macbook pro 16gb memory NVIDIA GeForce 650M 1024 MB graphics, 2.7 GHz Core i7. It runs okay for the first minutes, but then it gets slow and janky. Any thoughts? – cameronroe Mar 6 '16 at 17:18
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I've seen something like this used and it works well. A good friend of mine has a total of 4 monitors - The MB Pro, the regular display port, and two USBs.

They do run between $50 and $75, but make it easy.

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  • thanks a lot for the answer! I also had this one in mind, but its like 64$. – gkolan Mar 16 '12 at 2:55
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    @reko Yes. They are a bit pricey. Don't forget to accept the answer that worked best for you (or the one you chose to go with). – bassplayer7 Mar 16 '12 at 3:12
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@Matt and @bassplayer are both correct, but they do not address the links you mentioned in your question.

The Matrox Dual/TripleHead2Go won't work the way you want it to: it makes all the connected monitors appear to be one large monitor to the system, so you wouldn't be able to put the MacBook Pro's monitor between them. (You could, however, put it in the middle, below the big "monitor".)

The dual-link DVI adapter is designed to run one large monitor and will not run two smaller monitors. (This is because of how dual-link DVI was designed, not the adapter.)

The only way to get what you want is to hook one monitor up natively to the mini DisplayPort and use a DisplayLink adapter (like @Matt and @bassplayer mention) for the other. Remember that the DisplayLink-connected monitor won't have the graphics power of the DisplayPort-connected monitor, so play your games on the latter and the internal MBP display.

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