Apple - How to connect two non-Thunderbolt displays to the Macbook Pro 2011 via Thunderbolt?

The Apple mini-DisplayPort to VGA or HDMI adapter terminates the Thunderbolt chain where it is connected, so until Apple released new MacBook Pro with two Thunderbolt ports (similar to the iMac that has two ports) then you will only get one video signal from the device through the Thunderbolt port.

You may find an inexpensive USB to VGA solution to get around this limitation. Initially they were slower, but the newer ones are getting much faster and the software much better. You can then put the most important content on the Thunderbolt port and have the secondary display served over USB.

Should a Thunderbolt adapter come about that drives two displays, I'll update the answer, but nothing has been released (or even rumored) even though it's clearly something the protocol could support.

I like this knowledge base article for the clear deprecation of which Macs support two Thunderbolt displays and which ones only support one.

• Apple Thunderbolt Display (27-inch): Connection options for Thunderbolt Macs

I searched hard to find something that will enable me to use 2 displays from my 2012 MacBook Pro without sacrificing on a USB port (by using an external graphics card)

My search ended here.

Basically this beauty enables me to plugin into the thunderbolt port (which also take Mini display ports) and connect 2 x 24 inch monitors using HDMI AND also use my MacBook Pro display.

So in total I have 3 displays all running at the same time.

What this adapter does is create an external display spanned across 2 monitors, which I have no problem with as i can resize my application windows accordingly. And plus you get lovely HDMI resolution. Hope that helps.

There are cheap DisplayPort to HDMI splitters, all based on the IDT ViewXpand chipset. You do not get full control over your monitors, mind you, to the OS it's just one huge monitor. But, did I mention it's cheap? http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=101&cp_id=10114&cs_id=1011409&p_id=8117&seq=1&format=2 or http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812500002 . I plan to drive a T221 from the two DisplayPorts on the 2012 MacBook Pro. 14 megapixels from a 2kg one laptop, that'd be something :D

Edit: to clarify, this is a hack. This is not a MultiStreamHub for DisplayPort.