Tldr; how do you connect 2 4k+ 60hz monitors, from 1 or 2 laptop usbc (TB/dp alt)?
Story time
So I finally for my boss to agree on buying a new monitor, from a shitty 24” LCD from who knows how old. (At least it’s an FHD, yay!)
But my budget is tight, so no fancy 5k2k, or the RD280U / UG. The ug isn’t in the jp market, anyways.
There was a knockoff RD280 (JN-282IPS4KP), which I could fit 2 of them in my budget, but as always, there’s a catch. (Several, actually)
Ignoring minor things, they somehow decided that usbc was redundant, and removed it from their current lineup! With an older connection standard, it’s HDMI 50hz(!) or DP 60hz.
Which comes to my mind: outside of AliExpress and taobao, i haven’t seen much or any DP docks. They’re all 4k60. Direct cables exist, but I need power too.
Has anyone dealt with this problem? How did you overcame? I guess egpu is a solution, but $$$!
Idk that I would use 4k from a laptop. If it has a dgpu then maybe.
It’s company property laptop (i.e. no gaming) with modern enough igpu (Ryzen 7 ai 350), I’m totally fine letting it drive 2 4k+ and 1 1080p, all at 60hz.
It ain’t gonna break records, but this is Firefox+vscode+windows terminal+Miro+office365. I guess it’s decent enough. It already handles a 4k 144hz when I work from home.
Though maybe you’re right. In that case, do you think an egpu would be better? At least I’ll have enough DP ports.
There should not be any problem running dual 4k screens of any modern day CPU with inbuilt graphics.
But getting dual 4k streams in one USB-C cable is a different issue. You need to find the manual of the laptop and see if it is able to output dual 4k@60hz and how it achieves that.
For my laptop, Kensington has good documentation for the compatibility. Maybe they also have it for your model?
Thanks for the bandwidth notice - that’s something I’ve been thinking too.
Mine is a thinkpad T14s g6 amd, which has 2x USB4 (40Gbps, limited by CPU).
Looking at the article, it states 40Gbps is enough for 2x 6k60hz monitor with pure HDMI, so I guess I’m good?
I’m thinking at worst I’ll use 1 dock + 1 DB cable, 1 for each monitor. At least those cables with adapters are cheap.
Well Kensington is interesting because they have docks that require drivers called DisplayLink® and driverless docks. With DisplayLink® they can some how achieve allot more bandwidth and displays than otherwise supported. Mostly useful for macs because of Apple reasons…
But with a modern none Mac laptop like yours 2x4K@60 should just work just fine with display alt mode. Your laptop would even work with my ancient port extending dock Dell WD19 because you laptop can do display stream compression too get dual 4k
The biggest issue for me is that I don’t know if usb4 supports DSC, nor about the monitor.
It states DP1.4, but afaik DSC is optional in that revision and they don’t list it.
Anyways, I found that Cable Matters 201099 (amazon jp link) satisfies it, and it can do 4k+ 60 *2!
And just like Wendell said, this form 28.2” 2:3 factor is indeed quite sweet!
Thank you all for the participation!