2 Posts
0
1454
April 8th, 2021 14:00
3 monitors with Precision 5550, 2 through WD15 adapter and one through DA20 adapter?
Can I make this work while running the native display? I would be running them all at 1920x1080.
Thank you
No Events found!
2 Posts
0
1454
April 8th, 2021 14:00
Can I make this work while running the native display? I would be running them all at 1920x1080.
Thank you
Top
jphughan
9 Legend
•
14K Posts
1
April 8th, 2021 17:00
@Jake23 Sorry, somehow I missed the note that you wanted to keep the native/built-in display active. In that case, at least one of the external displays will need to be connected through an adapter that uses "indirect display" technology, such as DisplayLink -- not to be confused with DisplayPort. Displays connected indirectly don't count toward the GPU's maximum display limit since they aren't driven directly by a GPU. But that technology has some drawbacks that I wrote about in the post marked as the answer in this thread. If you think those potential drawbacks may be acceptable, or at least preferable to not having a quad display at all, then Plugable makes some DisplayLink adapters. This one gives you a DisplayPort output, and this one gives you an HDMI output. You'll need to install the DisplayLink software from DisplayLink.com
jphughan
9 Legend
•
14K Posts
0
April 8th, 2021 17:00
@Jake23 Running three external displays from the Precision 5550 requires you to be running Windows AND keeping your built-in display disabled. This is because the Intel GPU that controls all display outputs, even if you have an NVIDIA GPU in the system, only supports three simultaneous independent displays, and Linux does not allow the built-in display to be disabled like Windows does. But as long as you're good on those fronts, then yes you can connect two 1920x1080 displays to the WD15 and a third 1920x1080 display through the DA20. But if you want to rely on the WD15 as a power source for a Precision 5550, make sure the WD15 itself has a 180W adapter. The WD15 was also sold with a 130W power adapter, but in that setup it could only pass up to 90W through to the attached system. You need the 180W adapter to pass 130W through to the system, which is what the Precision 5550 is designed for.
Jake23
2 Posts
0
April 9th, 2021 05:00
@jphughan Thank you for the great information. Yes, I am just doing productivity tasks. So it sounds like those DisplayLink adapters will work for me. Interesting that those Plugable adapters are called DisplayPort adapters with DisplayLink technology since you suggest those are 2 different things.
jphughan
9 Legend
•
14K Posts
0
April 9th, 2021 06:00
@Jake23 Happy to help. The DisplayLink adapter that gives you a DisplayPort output is called a DisplayPort adapter. The one that gives you an HDMI output isn’t. It’s not just my post that suggests they’re two different things. One is a royalty-free connector and video protocol standard developed and maintained by VESA. The other is a proprietary hardware and software solution for transmitting video as USB data.