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February 24th, 2022 00:00
Vostro 5510 Monitor Count Iris XE (i7 (TB4), i5 (USB-C/DP) and Dell Gaming G15 RTX 3060
I'm interested in the two laptops with an inquiry on whether can drive 4 external monitors (with Laptop Display off or on (5)).
1) Vostros 5510 (i7 vs i5) https://www.dell.com/en-ca/work/shop/laptops-ultrabooks/new-vostro-5510/spd/vostro-15-5510-laptop
I read the Intel Iris XE iGPU should be able to power 4 external monitors. Could someone confirm? And can the laptop screen be running for a 5th monitor?
Do I need Thunderbird 4 from a i7 over i5 (USB 3.2) in terms of 40gbps bandwidth? Will I benefit from being able to run 1440p or 4k + 1080p off one output USB-C (or some split dongle / hub to 2-4 DP / HDMI output with some sort of Daisy Chain off of the DP)?
What do I need to consider for getting the Thunderbird 4 USB-C over a regular USB-C.
I just have a 1440p monitor and the rest are 1080p for now (only have 2 other monitors). but could be upgraded in future to higher resolutions.
2) G15 Gaming Laptop RTX 3050 or 3060 https://deals.dell.com/en-ca/productdetail/d5mn
I read that the Nvidia RTX 3050 or 3060 should be able to power 4 external monitors via various extension configuration, could someone confirm along with whether the screen can also be running with the IGPU?
Currently I have a Vostros 5502 (MX350 GPU) and I am able to connect USB-C -> Dell 2719 -> DP Daisy Chain to an old screen and HDMI to another monitor + having the Laptop Display on.
jphughan
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February 24th, 2022 08:00
@Sedul Obligatory caveat that I haven't tested your specific equipment and not everything in the tech world that SHOULD work actually DOES work, but apart from that, the Intel Xe should be able to run dual 1440p + single 1080p if you get an MST hub that actually supports DisplayPort 1.4 rather than 1.2. And you would also be able to keep the built-in display active if desired, since the Xe can handle four total displays.
In terms of whether you should get Thunderbolt, I personally would consider it simply because USB4 is very similar to Thunderbolt, so that might allow you to use USB4 peripherals at higher performance levels than if you only had USB 3.x support on your system. But the counterargument is that USB4 is still quite new, and whether you'd actually need to take advantage of its performance levels with any peripherals you might buy over however long you'll be keeping this particular system might be dubious. I've bought a variety of things over the years for futureproofing that I ended up replacing before I ever took advantage of the additional capabilities I had paid for.
The more immediate possible use cases for Thunderbolt would be for a docking station and/or an eGPU. If you think you might ever want all of your displays and other peripherals all flowing through a single cable connection to your system, then a Thunderbolt dock would allow that, whereas an MST hub only handles displays, and I don't think you can run dual 1440p + single 1080p + USB 3.x for your other peripherals all through a regular USB-C dock. Maybe if the USB-C dock supported DisplayPort DSC, but I'm not certain on that. And you can't run an eGPU without Thunderbolt at all.
jphughan
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February 24th, 2022 09:00
@Sedul Four external displays should be possible as long as you have the appropriate equipment to meet the bandwidth requirements of the display setup you want to run. Older Intel GPUs that only supported three displays allowed all three of them to be external, for example.
Sedul
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February 24th, 2022 00:00
Hi, sorry I actually asked a similar and more detailed question earlier with my Vostros 5502 and I had forgotten @jphughan helped answer. Would still welcome a confirmation given Iris XE in the 5510 and not MX 330 in the new Vostros 5510 as well as the fact that there is a Thunderbird 4 output in the i7 (my question is really do I need the i7 Thunderbird 4 output for running 4 external displays and/or future proofing something - but based on the below linked discussion, it may be possible to run via 3-output MST Hubs ~ 2x1440p + 1 1080p since Display Port 1.4a allows for 2 4K.
https://www.dell.com/community/Vostro/Quad-Monitor-Setup-Vostro-5502-Laptop-Geforce-MX-330/m-p/8056159
Sedul
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February 24th, 2022 08:00
Hi @jphughan - thank you for your response. Very helpful
In regards to the quad output - Do you know if 4 external output is possible with Iris Xe?
Very unlikely I would run a eGPU in the future, but a single cable connection to Thunderbolt dock for displays, power is really the only thing. Possibly some sort of Hardware KVM setup but that is also unlikely at the current moment.
Sedul
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February 24th, 2022 09:00
Great to hear. I can settle with 3 + the laptop monitor but it will be great if 4 external monitor is supported with the Intel Xe on the Dell + Thunderbolt 4 for better hub bandwidth capability over getting a USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 (I think it's just 5gbps or 10gbps vs 40gbps on the Thunderbolt 4)
The max would be running 4 external monitors with 1440p x2 and 1080p x 2 realistically.