2 Posts
0
10099
Does dell inspiron series 7000 can run the Oculus rift s?
Will dell inspiron series 7000 will be able to run it, i am concerned about displayport and the usb 3 requirements, laptop has single usb 3 with dp mode. seems Oculus needs both usb 3 and another DisplayPort.
jphughan
4 Operator
4 Operator
•
14K Posts
1
July 23rd, 2019 12:00
@Pit181 the Inspiron 7559 Specifications document here provides views of the system and descriptions of ports, and it doesn't show any USB-C port at all. I think you might have the wrong system model, unless maybe Dell offered a variant of that system that includes USB-C/TB3 and didn't document it? Anyhow, if your USB-C port supports DP mode as you mentioned in your original post, that's DisplayPort Alt Mode, and if you're sure it supports Thunderbolt 3, then it definitely supports DisplayPort Alt Mode because that's required for Thunderbolt-enabled USB-C ports, so you're covered there. For the second item about which GPU is driving the display output from USB-C, if your system has an NVIDIA GPU, then yes I believe if you go into NVIDIA Control Panel and check either the PhysX area or the multi-display area, you'll see a diagram showing which display outputs are wired to which GPU. You might have to have a display actually attached to the output though; I can't remember.
jphughan
4 Operator
4 Operator
•
14K Posts
0
July 23rd, 2019 08:00
@Pit181 the extra cable isn't the major potential issue. It's which GPU the USB-C output is wired to. If the USB-C port's video output is driven by the discrete GPU, which is very unlikely, then you could get a USB-C to DisplayPort adapter for that port that you'd plug the Rift S's video cable into, and then plug the Rift S's USB cable into another USB-A ("regular USB") port. There is a new standard called VirtualLink that will carry everything over a single USB-C connection, but to my knowledge it's only available on desktop GPUs at the moment, and then only the very new and higher-end models -- and I haven't seen it implemented in any current VR headsets as of this writing.
But the problem is likely to be that the USB-C video output is driven by the Intel GPU. In this setup, the discrete GPU when needed operates as a render-only device that passes completed video frames to the Intel GPU for output to the display(s). On the NVIDIA side, this setup is called NVIDIA Optimus. The main reason for this design is to improve battery life, because this allows the discrete GPU to be completely powered off when it isn't needed, whereas if the discrete GPU was directly wired to display outputs, it would need to remain active whenever a display was attached, even if nothing graphics-intensive was going on. The problem is that VR can't work in this "indirect" setup. I don't know if that's because Intel GPUs don't support passing VR through, or the discrete GPU always needs to have direct control of the video output that the headset is connected to for VR, or both, but it's widely documented that VR can't be used with laptops that have their display outputs driven through NVIDIA Optimus. To my knowledge, all Dell laptops have their USB-C ports wired to the Intel GPU for video output, with the exception of the newer Precision 7000 Series models that have special motherboard wiring that allows you to use a BIOS option to choose which GPU drives the display outputs -- but I haven't seen that anywhere else. On some Inspiron Gaming (now G Series) and Alienware models, Dell wired the HDMI output straight to the discrete GPU specifically to allow those systems to support VR. That was fine with the original Rift and various other VR headsets, but now that the Rift S has switched to DisplayPort, that solution doesn't work. DisplayPort to HDMI adapters/cables can only convert a DisplayPort source signal to HDMI, not the other way around. I've seen a single active converter setup that can take an HDMI signal and output DisplayPort, but it only supports older HDMI revisions that likely wouldn't support enough video bandwidth for VR.
JOcean
7 Technologist
7 Technologist
•
12.2K Posts
0
July 23rd, 2019 08:00
The Oculus compatibility tool should answer that question. Also I see that you have a post on their forums so you should be receiving more information there from their support folks.
https://support.oculus.com/1357437467617798/
jphughan
4 Operator
4 Operator
•
14K Posts
0
July 23rd, 2019 09:00
@Pit181 one more general note in addition to my reply above. When asking technical questions like this, it's always a good idea to identify the exact system model you're using. "Inspiron 7000 Series" refers to an entire model range of systems. Dell has made several Inspiron 7000 Series models over the last several years, and in fact Dell has several different Inspiron 7000 Series models on sale right now in various sizes and configurations. Sometimes the differences between those models will be relevant to the question you're asking, so getting accurate information will often depend on knowing the exact system you're dealing with. Your exact system model would be something like Inspiron 7557, for example. However, in this specific case, I don't think any Inspiron 7000 Series model will work with the Rift S, which is why I said above that this is just a general note for future reference.
Pit181
2 Posts
0
July 23rd, 2019 10:00
Thank you for the detailed answer, my Dell model is 7559, this laptop has a thunderbolt 3 supporting usb type c,
i understood that my USB Type c needs to be both:
1. Support DisplayPort Alt Mode
2. The port needs to be directly wired to the dedicated (usually NVIDIA) GPU rather than the Intel integrated GPU.
regarding 1, i cannot find in the manuals (Link) if my port supports this, do you know?
Regarding 2, if you know please tell me. else, I understood to look in the nvidia control panel - Physx configuration, this is my display, can you tell from this?