As well all know productivity goes exponentially upwards when we go from 1 to 2 monitors and incrementally when one goes from 1 to 3 monitors. I am fortunate that I have been able to work in a multi-monitor environment for a long time. I personally do better with three monitors than two, but sadly not everyone can afford a multi-display video card. Luckily for all of us their are some great options to expand the number of monitors we can have from a single video output.
The folks from ACCELL have introduced the ACCELL DisplayPort 1.2 to 2 DisplayPort Multi-Display MST Hub (K088B-004B) that allows you to easily connect 2 DisplayPort Monitors to a Single DisplayPort output. From their website they say the hub utilizes multi-stream transport (MST) protocol, supporting up to 2 displays independently at 2560×1600 @ 60Hz (reduced blanking) or 3840×2160 @ 30Hz (reduced blanking) each with DP 1.2.
So while we all can read a spec I wanted to see how the performance was using a Windows 7 desktop that I have, that has a single display port output on the video card. Hooking the device up was as simple at plugging in the display port plug to the video card and the USB cable to one of my computers usb ports. I connected both monitors to the hub and booted my computer. It took a little longer to initially sync things up the first boot but I had video.. It was a simple process of arranging how I wanted the displays to replicate within windows display settings.
The monitors I tested this on had a maximum resolution of 2560×1600, so I was not able to test all the way to the top 4k specification but performance at 2560 was flawless. My son loaded and played couple of mid-level video games without any issue or noticeable latency.
Even more exciting is that I know I could use this adapter with two 4k monitors. I have tested these types of devices in the past, and I will say there is a vast improvement in video quality and refresh speed. The Multi-Transport (MST) protocols being used by ACCELL are making a big difference as refresh rates supported go as high as 266khz on a 4k display
At $79.99 this is small price to pay if you want to expand from 1 to 2 monitors. ACCELL has 1 to 3 port hubs available on their website as well, so be sure to check out all the input / output options.