Trouble getting full bandwidth on L1Tech KVM

[Level1_Amber]

@iamdak

Maxonar DisplayPort 2.1 Cable – 13ft

The KVM sees all connections as 1 long cable. The longer your cable, the more likely you will have signal problems with the KVM. For instance, PC 1 length + PC 2 length + monitor cable are are what you’re actually dealing with because the KVM has no repeater. So if PC 1 is 6.6ft, PC 2 is 6.6 ft, and the cable to your monitor is 13ft, that’s a pretty loooong cable in the eyes of the KVM. You definitely need some fiber optic cables since they’re so long

Here’s more info from our FAQ / a rewording:

@Level1_Amber

Degrading Signal

The more cable length and connections you have, the more the signal will degrade. You will lose a bit of signal through the KVM; there is no repeater in it. This is necessary because the KVM aspires to be a big dumb switch so it would not interfere with Nvidia G-Sync/AMD Freesync. This way you have fewer problems trying to use whatever hot new thing that hasn’t come out yet. Also, this helps us stick closer to the DP 1.4 raw specification without having to get creative.

Shorter Is Better!!

So keeping the total run length from GPU to Monitor to about 10 feet (~3 meters) or less is important, especially for higher res/refresh. Certain combinations of equipment may require a 3+3 foot cable combination, for example. That’s a total length of about 6 feet, or roughly equivalent to what you’d have with a single cable.

How The KVM Sees Cables

With this setup, your GPU sees one long signal corridor from the DP connector on the GPU all the way to the display. So a 6+3 foot cable is like as if you have about a 10-foot cable. Two 10-foot copper cables are not going to work.