External display monster! Did Apple understate the power of the MacBook Pro M1 (and M2 and M3) Max?

If you’ve arrived here looking for information about macOS display scaling and questions about 4K vs 5K 27” displays, I have a more concise video specifically on this subject: https://youtu.be/9W16xa0eU_8 but if you are interested in the amazing capabilities of the Max series of Apple Silicon chips, read on… When the Apple Silicon M1 Max was released, the only 5K display on the market was the LG Ultrafine 5K, which required an entire Thunderbolt port to satisfy its thirst for data bandwidth. Apple says that the M1 Max (and the M2 Max and the M3 Max) support a maximum of three 5K or 6K Thunderbolt displays, plus a 4K display over HDMI, but can we challenge those limits with more modern display technology, like the DisplayPort 1.4-with-DSC-enabled Apple Studio Display, or Pro Display XDR? tl;dr yes, we can. While we are looking at 5K displays, I answer the question of why any Mac user would want to pay for a 27-inch 5K display when equally-sized 4K displays cost a fraction of the price? It's all to do with pixel density and interface size consistency. Join me on a voyage of discovery into the outer limits of display support for these incredible Apple Silicon machines. Update, April 5 - lots of comments are asking about the Thunderbolt hubs in use here, so here are the details: The pair of Thunderbolt ports on the right side of the MacBook connect to the dual Thunderbolt controller Ivanky FusionDock Max 1, which has two downstream Thunderbolt ports for each incoming Thunderbolt port, for a total of four downstream ports. The Thunderbolt port on the left of the MacBook connects to a CalDigit Element Hub, which has three downstream Thunderbolt ports. Note that apart from providing additional Thunderbolt ports, there is nothing uniquely special about either of these hubs to provide the external display support that any other Thunderbolt 4 hub could not do. Ivanky FusionDock Max 1 https://ivanky.com/products/ivanky-docking-station-fusiondock-max-1 CalDigit Element Hub https://www.caldigit.com/thunderbolt-4-element-hub/ 00:00 Introduction 00:28 Why 5K at 27"? 00:35 Why not 4K at 27"? 00:40 macOS UI size consistency 01:29 Retina pixel density 01:52 Double-density pixels 02:20 MacBook Display PPI vs 4K 03:20 Scaled 5K on 4K 03:54 Retina 218ppi @ 27" 16:9 04:57 Uncompressed 5K/60Hz 10 bit 05:53 LG Ultrafine 5K 06:13 Apple Studio Display 06:43 DisplayPort Channels per Port 07:41 4 x 5K Thunderbolt displays 08:25 4 x Studio Displays on 2 ports 09:09 Even more displays? 09:28 5 x Thunderbolt? 10:12 4 x Thunderbolt + HDMI 10:28 Conclusion - max display support