HiDPI resolutions on M1 Mac - dual screen setup

[JanB]

Originally Posted by Tibi

I have a MBP M1 and it's the first time when I notice the fan starting so probably this solution puts more pressure on the CPU ...

I'm using a MacBook Air M1 with 16GB of RAM, and I haven't found DisplayLink or BetterDummy to require a noticeable amount of CPU power, at least in my typical workload.

Since the Macbook Air doesn't have a fan, I can't hear it, of course, but I took some measurements:

Idle without DisplayLink Screen connected
System: 7%, User 2-3%

Idle with DisplayLink Screen connected
System: 7%, User 3-4%

4K Video fullscreen on USB-C connected Screen
System: 12%, User 10%

4K Video fullscreen on DisplayLink @4k
System: 12%, User 17%

4K Video fullscreen on DisplayLink @4k + BetterDummy Screen
System: 12%, User 17%

*Idle means Word, Excel, Browser, Mail etc. open, but not used


It seems, that DisplayLink (and BetterDummy) are consuming of course some CPU resources, but I see no difference using the Dummy screens or not. From my point of view (unsing one 4k screen via DisplayLink) the amount of CPU used for DisplayLink is ok.

MS Teams of course is not a very friendly application at MacOS, it always consumes lot of resources.

But I agree, that HiDPI should be integrated in the DisplayLink software.