Bad performance with dual 4K monitor on Macbook Pro 2019

maarten · 06-10-2021, 06:18 PM

I recently bought the Kensington SD4780P dock. Unfortunately, the performance is not at all what I expected it to be. It's as if the framerate is low, and especially when I do CPU-intensive tasks, everything on the monitors just stutters. I assume it's because of the non-native monitor support, where it's just sending recordings of the extended desktops.

WindowServer is constantly between 20-30% CPU, DisplayLinkUserAgent jumps up and down between 5-40%. And that's with minimal usage.

My setup:
- Macbook Pro 2019 (Big Sur 11.4)
- DisplayLink Manager 1.4.0 (build 57.120)
- Dual 4K monitors (LG 27UK750-W & 27UL750-W), scaled to 1920x1080
- Kensington SD4780P dock

I've connected the monitors to the dock using DisplayPort cables, and the dock is connected to the Macbook using the Thunderbolt 3 cable. I'm also powering the Macbook with that cable. Tried connecting Apple's own power adapter to my Macbook in addition to the dock, but that didn't make any difference.

Hoping this gets fixed soon, I'm not really sure what to do at this point. I'm considering returning the dock and just buying adapters instead, though I was planning to buy a Macbook upgrade (M2?) later this year, which is why I thought I'd plan ahead and buy a dock instead.

06-10-2021, 06:18 PM	#1
maarten Junior Member Join Date: Jun 2021 Posts: 2	Bad performance with dual 4K monitor on Macbook Pro 2019 I recently bought the Kensington SD4780P dock. Unfortunately, the performance is not at all what I expected it to be. It's as if the framerate is low, and especially when I do CPU-intensive tasks, everything on the monitors just stutters. I assume it's because of the non-native monitor support, where it's just sending recordings of the extended desktops. WindowServer is constantly between 20-30% CPU, DisplayLinkUserAgent jumps up and down between 5-40%. And that's with minimal usage. My setup: - Macbook Pro 2019 (Big Sur 11.4) - DisplayLink Manager 1.4.0 (build 57.120) - Dual 4K monitors (LG 27UK750-W & 27UL750-W), scaled to 1920x1080 - Kensington SD4780P dock I've connected the monitors to the dock using DisplayPort cables, and the dock is connected to the Macbook using the Thunderbolt 3 cable. I'm also powering the Macbook with that cable. Tried connecting Apple's own power adapter to my Macbook in addition to the dock, but that didn't make any difference. Hoping this gets fixed soon, I'm not really sure what to do at this point. I'm considering returning the dock and just buying adapters instead, though I was planning to buy a Macbook upgrade (M2?) later this year, which is why I thought I'd plan ahead and buy a dock instead.