Daisy Chain, also known as Daisy Chain or officially known as Multi-Stream Transport (MST in the case of DisplayPort technology) involves connecting a monitor to another monitor rather than directly to the video output port of the Graphic card. But we will dig deeper into the subject to fully understand the implications that this has.
What is the garland?
Literally this is called Daisy Chain or daisy chain to a wiring diagram used in electronics. It is a succession of links such that a monitor A is linked to a monitor B and this in turn to a monitor C successively. The connections do not form networks (so monitor C would not have a connection to monitor A) and they do not return from the first device to the last, so if the connection is broken, for example, on the second monitor, the third also I would lose the connection.
This is a great way to minimize cable clutter and extend the range of your PC’s monitors, because if for example you have three monitors connected to the computer, the farthest distance will likely require you to use monitors. cable extensions. In addition, this way instead of having to pull a cable from each of the monitors to the PC (supporting the output ports of the graphics card) you will only have to connect each monitor to the power supply and then those here to each other with the video cables; you will use the same number of cables but you will save length and waste it.
There are some limitations, as the maximum single cable bandwidth between the first monitor and the PC will need to handle video transmission for all daisy-chained displays, although there are high-end cables that will help you avoid these issues and Take full advantage of resolution and refresh rate so that cable bandwidth is not a limiting factor.
Daisy Chain connected monitors do not behave any differently from conventionally connected monitors, but you must keep in mind that since we are connecting monitors to others, you will need the monitor to have video outputs and not just entries (the manufacturer usually specifies this and sometimes even indicates that it is compatible with Daisy Chain). Also note that serial connection of the UCB-C monitor is only supported on Windows, macOS computers require Thunderbolt to do so.
Multiple daisy-chained monitors
To connect your monitors in Daisy Chain mode, you will need a few specific items. First, you obviously need two or more monitors that support DisplayPort 1.2 at a minimum; The displays that will serve as middle links in the chain should include DisplayPort output ports as well as input ports, and of course, you will also need high quality DisplayPort cables due to the bandwidth limitations we have mentioned. . Preferably, the cables should be DP 1.2, 1.3 or even 1.4.
You can also use USB-C connections, but HDMI does not support Daisy chain, only DisplayPort, mini DisplayPort, and USB-C. Of course, you can use high-end HDMI to DisplayPort converters that support the Daisy chain, although it’s true that they’re hard to find and quite expensive.
Therefore, DisplayPort is the most established daisy-chaining medium as it is supported since version 1.2 of the standard which debuted in January 2010. To daisy-chain monitors to DisplayPort, you just need to connect the first screen to the PC graphics card. using a compatible cable then from the second screen to the first and so on as shown in the picture above.
Some monitors may require you to select the DisplayPort 1.2 setting to use extended monitor modes, otherwise this type of connection may restrict its operation to mirror mode where both displays display the same content. If your graphics card supports it, you may be able to further increase the number of monitors you can daisy-chain, so that you can have up to six displays.
Limitations of the daisy chain connection
As we mentioned before, this method of connecting daisy-chained monitors is compatible with DisplayPort 1.2 and above as well as USB-C, but in this case only on Windows systems. HDMI is not supported, and here we have the first limitation.
On the other hand, and unless you are also using relatively low resolutions on all monitors, you may start to have bandwidth issues with DisplayPort cables; for example, a DisplayPort 1.2 daisy chain can handle four 1080p resolution displays or two displays with a resolution of up to 2560 x 1600 pixels. For its part, DisplayPort 1.3 and 1.4 are able to manage monitors connected in Daisy Chain up to 4K resolution, although only two of them at the highest resolution and only at a refresh rate of 60 Hz despite the fact that DisplayPort supports much higher frequencies. However, these more advanced standards support up to six 1080p displays.
You have to take into account another limitation, and that is that Intel’s integrated graphics cards (widely used in laptops) only support up to three displays including the one incorporated in the laptop, that is, it only supports connecting two add-on monitors to the laptop screen. With Tiger Lake, compatibility will be extended to four screens, according to Intel.