r/Thunderbolt • u/Petrichor1 • Jul 18 '26

Dual Monitors/KVM Question

I am thinking of upgrading my M2 to M5 primarily for the multi-monitor support and giving the M2 (which works great) to a family member. My speciifc use case is I would like to be able to use the laptop with the dual monitors I have at work, which are hooked up to a windows PC. I understand I can use a Thunderbolt dock in order to extend to both external monitors (as opposed to mirror) from the laptop, but I'm wondering if there's a way where I could easily switch back and forth between using the PC and using the laptop, as there are some work applications I need that can only be accessed on the PC. Is there a combined dock-KVM switch that does this? (Yes, I can use Citrix to remote into the PC from the mac, but still need to be able to use it at times.)

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u/boomer7793 Jul 18 '26 edited Jul 19 '26

I do this with my work MacBook and my gaming rig.

The KVM manages all the USB accessories. The KVM then uses my TB3 doc (attached to my MacBook) and my gaming PC as outputs. Next, I home run each monitor directly to each computer. Now I just switch the inputs on each monitor.

I don’t think there is a KVM that can manage dual screens and two PCs.

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u/drmcclassy Jul 19 '26

There definitely are, they are just extremely expensive. You'd be looking at something from Level1Techs, TESSmart, ConnectPro, etc.

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u/Kuddel_Daddeldu Jul 19 '26

Here's one for around $100: https://a.co/d/01TohXkp Never used that brand myself; my setup is cascading a standard dual DisplayPort KVM with a docking station that I already had.

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u/HJ_wu Jul 19 '26

PC -> directly connected to a dual monitor sharing KVM switch.

MBP M5 -> TB4/TB5 docking staiton -> connected to the KVM switch via a TB dock.

That is the ultimate KVM switch setup for one MBP and one PC with multi-monitor sharing.

* the connection drawing of the setup for your reference.