3 monitors to Dell Precision laptop?

USB Graphics Adapters
1

I have Dell Precision M6800, Quadro K3100M 4gb, RAM 16gb, i7. There’s HDMI, DP and VGA out. I’d like to connect 3 monitors with DVI-D in that I would use for MS Flight Simulator X.

  1. Is it possible to run FSX on 3 monitors with the configuration 1xFHD in center and 2x1600x900 on the side? If not 3x1600x900 is also fine.
  2. What do I need to connect?

Thanks

2

Hi,

Thank you for reaching out to us, I am happy to help!

Thank you for the detailed question and for providing the model number of the Dell system!

Based on Dell’s product page and a Dell support thread it looks like this system is only capable of supporting two external displays. Although it has three outputs, only two of these can be active at any given time. This system will be capable of driving two DVI-D monitors, the first using a DisplayPort to DVI adapter such as our DPM-DVIF ( https://plugable.com/products/dpm-dvif ) connected to the DisplayPort output of the system, and the second connected to the HDMI output using a HDMI-to-DVI adapter or adapter cable, we do not make these adapters but they can be found readily on Amazon or many local computer parts retailers.

Unfortunately this system will be limited to using two external displays along with the internal screen, this is a hardware limitation of the NVIDIA and Intel Graphics Chipsets in the computer. I do not recommend a USB graphics adapter due to poor support with most games including Flight Simulator X, most likely the flight simulator will not display on the USB attached display.

As for mixing resolutions in Flight Simulator X, I am sorry, but I am unaware how this will behave in the software.

Please let me know if you have any additional questions.

Pat

3

Thanks Pat,
I’m completely new to external monitors topic and this was very useful. Is there some kind of a DP or HDMI spliter that would make it possible?
Also, I wonder if using monitors with DP would allow to connect 3 of them using Daisy Chain? Or there’s simply a GPU limitation that would limit to 2 monitors?

As I understand I could have 3 displays - Laptop screen+2 external displays. Does the dedicated GPU runs all 3 or integrated one runs laptop screen in such a case? That could also work but I prefer to have 3 external without laptop display.

Thanks once again,
Duka

4

Hi Duka,

Thanks for asking!

This would appear to be a hardware limitation in the system. This computer uses NVIDIA Optimus Technology to share resources between the Quadro K3100M and the Intel built-in graphics. This allows for extended battery life by utilizing the Intel graphics for light workloads but then switching to the NVIDIA Quadro K3100M when more performance is needed.

By linking the graphics controllers they also share limitations, in this case the Intel graphics is only capable of supporting three total displays including the built in display and two of the three external outputs, limiting the system to three total displays ( the internal display is considered to be always connected even when disabled in Windows ).

DisplayPort MST ( Multi-Stream Technology ) can be used to daisy chain monitors however I doubt it will work with this system due to age, additionally the graphics controller will still be limited to two external displays. Right now the only major benefit to DisplayPort MST is reducing the number of cables to the system, this is offset by configuration issues, poor hardware support, lack of documentation on supported systems and connectivity problems.

For which graphics card controls witch display, based on the Dell support forum article the Intel Controller is hardwired to the internal display and VGA output, while the NVIDIA card directly controls the DisplayPort and HDMI ports, however with shared resources there should be little to no performance difference between connected displays.

Please let me know if this helps, or if you have any additional questions.

Pat

5

Thanks a million Pat,
You’re the best! This was very very informative. I can’t thank you enough. No further questions, everything is clear.
I will certainly buy your USB hubs and be your customer in the future.
All the best,
D

6

Hi Duka,

You’re welcome!

Please feel free to let us know if you have any questions regarding the USB hubs, we are happy to help!

Pat

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