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572
June 21st, 2023 08:00
XPS 13 9305 and UD22 - looking for 4 external displays
I work from home fairly permanently now and have decided that I would like 4 external displays (so 4 including the monitor). The monitors I have are fairly cheap and all have HDMI inputs, I work in banking so don't need anything high end from a resolution perspective, just lots of active real estate. Prior to purchasing my UD22 and the two new monitors I checked in with Dell sales to determine if this would be possible and the response was yes.
up until now, I have been running the power in through the Thunderbolt 4 (USB Type-C) port with Power Delivery (Primary) and a HDMI splitter out through the other Type-C. I am awaiting two new DisplayPort to HDMI cables to arrive, but I have tried to use one of my new external monitors out of the HDMI port on the UD22 (3 external displays) but I cannot get a connection without sacrificing one of the other monitors.
Steps taken:
- Fully updated both the XPS 13 9305 and the UD22
- Tried different port configurations
- tried different cables
Unfortunately I cannot get the third display to show, and am even more nervous that I won't be able to get forth one to show either (once I get the cables tonight from Amazon).
Is anyone able to offer any advice? There is not a lot of reading material on this topic and the few bits that I have found I have attempted to emulate with no luck. I do hope I don't have to send everything back
Dr0pB3ar
4 Posts
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June 22nd, 2023 02:00
So, my Display Port to HDMI cables came in last night which I was going to return based on the above, but though why not just check and see.... I now have 5 displays running 1080p!! I have two monitors connected through a splitter to a single USB-C outlet on the laptop and I have the 2 new screens running from the display ports on the UD22. Would this be because the USB-C to HDMI isn't going through Iris??
In any case - [SOLVED]
ejn63
10 Elder
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28.7K Posts
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June 21st, 2023 09:00
The Irix Xe graphics aboard the CPU in that model can support three simultaneous displays -- not four.
There may be a way to drive a fourth, but it would have to be over a standard USB port using a DisplayLink driver, independent of the other connections being supplied by the Irix Xe GPU (which is the only one in the system) -- you can't drive four displays from the Iris Xe GPU.
Dr0pB3ar
4 Posts
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June 21st, 2023 09:00
Very disappointing that Dell advised me that 4 additional displays can be connected to my laptop after giving them all the details (or course including service tag). Now, I'm left with a dock, two monitors, mountings and a bunch of cables I can't use. I guess I go back to the start and see what I can come up with. Any advice what would be the cheapest product (desktop, laptop or nuc) to run 4 screens on? I don't need it to do anything else fancy nor do I need 4k etc... I just look at tabulated data and charts (not very exciting I know)
Dr0pB3ar
4 Posts
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June 21st, 2023 10:00
That USB / DisplayLink option; are you able to elaborate? Would a USB / HDMI piece of hardware work?
ejn63
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28.7K Posts
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June 21st, 2023 10:00
No question the least expensive option is a desktop system of some sort, preferably with a discrete (nVidia or AMD) GPU rather than integrated video, and with a Thunderbolt port.
If you're going to use a notebook -- same thing; thunderbolt + discrete GPU (and not a low-power CPU as in the XPS you have).
ejn63
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28.7K Posts
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June 21st, 2023 11:00
I'm referring to something like this
https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-adapter-usb-c-to-hdmi-dp-with-power-pass-through/apd/492-bctu/pc-accessories?gacd=9684992-1102-5761040-266906002-0&dgc=ST&gad=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwv8qkBhAnEiwAkY-ahpFsc_eexbW0xE4PO0fTOF5uonm0dzLhBDYC-8q8lkhK--00MIBGYxoCXwIQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
It should route one of the video signals over displaylink rather than through the onboard GPU, giving you another video output.