DisplayLink performance on MacBook Pro M2 Max becomes laggy
 

Hey everyone,

I’m using a MacBook Pro M2 Max with two external 1440p monitors connected through a DisplayLink docking station.

After I run the DisplayLink Cleaner Tool and reinstall the latest driver, everything works perfectly at first — smooth performance, no delay at all.
But after about 2–3 hours of use, the external displays become extremely laggy:
the mouse starts to trail and respond with a slight delay, and overall UI responsiveness drops.

When I check Activity Monitor, the CPU usage of DisplayLink Manager has increased about 4× compared to normal.
The only way I’ve found to fix it is to run the cleaner and reinstall the driver again — which restores smooth performance for a while, until it happens again.

Has anyone found a permanent fix or workaround for this issue?
Otherwise I might have to return the docking station — it’s great when it works, but this makes it pretty unusable.

Thanks in advance for any help!

If the original manufacturer of your DisplayLink-based product has been unable to assist you, then I would suggest reporting the issue to DisplayLink directly by following the process outlined here --> https://support.displaylink.com/know...to-displaylink

Dont want to run any more software on my mac to report it. Just will send it back and use a docking station without Displaylink.

Clearly DisplayLink is the problem. It occurs after the Macbook goes into sleep mode.
After sleepmode the CPU usage is way to high and just a restart can fix it.

Strange that i am the only one with this problem?!

Lagging after update to 14.1 on M3 Mac
 

I am also having lagging problems. I'm running an M3 Mac that was working fine until I updated to 14.1 .0(build 28).

The CPU usage is currently sitting at 180%.

I need to roll-back, as this isn't usable.

How does one roll back? The 14.0.0 installer won't run as a newer version has already installed.

did someone already try using https://support.displaylink.com/know...tool-for-macos to roll-back completely and then reinstall one of the legacy versions?

btw. dl is also laggy for me on mac book air m3 since 14.1

Hi PeterHt,

If you want to roll back to any older than currently installed version of DisplayLink Manager then cleaning tool is one of the options. However, it's usually recommended to test if a problem that is reported on current version is something unique or present in any older version as well.

Since performance related issues are really wide subject, I encourage everyone to describe their configuration (DisplayLink device, connected monitors, MacBook, macOS version) and as well as describe what the problem is.

Regards,
Szymon

Hi Szymon, I used the cleaning tool and after that installed 14.0.0 again. Performance issues have been resolved for me. cpu usage is back to around 13%. Was above 100% (?) with 14.1

i am using
UGREEN Revodok Pro 209
Dell 2713H
LG HDR 4K
Macbook Air M3, Tahoe 26.1

That's surprising, as it's difficult to associate such change in behaviour with any particular change we did between 14.0 and 14.1. I understand that upgrading again to 14.1 brings back the high CPU usage problem?

Regards,
Szymon

Mouse performance on macbook pro M3 after upgrade to Tahoe 26.1 and DL 14.1,0
 

I also experienced this performance issue with unusable mouse liggieness after upgrading to Tahoe 26.1 and DL 14.1 and / or 14.2. Reverting back to 14.0 (via clean) resolved this issue.

It was literally like trying to drag the mouse through treacle.

Using DisplayLink 5K, macbook pro M3, 2 x 4K monitors L28u-30 and Samsung LU28R55 both running at 3008 x 1692