G3 15 3590 - Oculus Rift S

You might want to take a look at the posts I wrote in this thread where a similar question was asked. It is very likely that the USB-C/TB3 port is wired to the Intel GPU, in which case you would not be able to use a Rift S with that system.  Of course this might change going forward for gaming-oriented systems now that Oculus has switched from using HDMI to using DisplayPort, but right now to my knowledge all Dell and Alienware systems have their USB-C/TB3 ports wired to the Intel GPU, even if they have other outputs that are sometimes wired straight to the discrete GPU.  The only exception is more recent models in the Precision 7000 Series lineup, which have a BIOS option that allows you to choose which GPU controls the outputs, but that's possible because those systems have a more complex motherboard design where both GPUs are wired to a multiplexer, and the BIOS option allows you to specify which "path" should be allowed through to the actual output.

See my reply to JP. I am playing games over that USB C port to a display port monitor and it's working perfectly. I'm reasonably sure the USB C port is capable of running from the Nvidia GPU. in that case, I see no reason why this wouldn't work with the RIFT S. 

Side note. If you don't have a RIFT yet, you may want to wait for them to release the "Link" feature on the quest that will allow you to connect your Quest to a computer using a USB C cable and make it into a Rift S essentially. Kind of a best of both worlds setup. 

I am reasonably positive that the 3590 usb C display port connection runs from the Nvidia GPU. 

I have the Model G3 3590 with a 9th Gen Core i5 8GB Ram and a GTX 1660ti

I am using a USB C to display port cable and connected directly to the display port on my monitor. It works perfectly. I was playing The Outer Worlds at ~75FPS at a mixture of High to Very High settings.

Now there may be something crazy happening under the hood, but if it were tied to the iGPU I don't think the game would function at all. 

@LonelyWater  the ability to run high frame rates at high detail on a display attached via USB-C means nothing in terms of which GPU directly controls the display outputs and therefore nothing in terms of VR compatibility.  What you're doing is achievable on displays controlled by Intel GPUs and has been achievable for years thanks to a technology called NVIDIA Optimus, which basically allows an NVIDIA GPU to operate as a render-only device doing all of the work and then pass completed video frames to the Intel GPU for passthrough to any displays that it directly controls.  The main reason for this design is battery life, because not having the NVIDIA GPU directly connected to any display outputs means that it can be completely disabled when its performance isn't needed, whereas if it was directly controlling a display output, then it would need to be active whenever you were using a display on that output, even if nothing graphics-intensive was going on -- and some people use external displays and projectors on battery power.  But running VR requires the NVIDIA GPU to have direct control of the display output itself, because current Intel GPUs do not support passing a VR signal through.  Optimus is insufficient, which is why you'll find so many threads about people having trouble running VR from laptops even though those laptops can play games on regular displays with plenty of performance.  Optimus is also insufficient for running G-Sync, Adaptive V-Sync, and stereoscopic 3D.

But if you own this system and want to find out for sure in order to settle any doubts and possibly help others, open NVIDIA Control Panel on your system and go to the PhysX Settings section.  You'll see a diagram there that will show you which GPU is directly controlling each active display, or will at least show any displays directly controlled by the NVIDIA GPU, depending on the system configuration and NVIDIA driver version.  What do you see?

Even if it turns out that the USB-C output is wired directly to the NVIDIA GPU on this particular system, which would be great for VR, just be aware that NVIDIA Optimus exists and has for years, and therefore it is entirely possible to play games that tap into an NVIDIA GPU on displays that are wired to an Intel GPU.  It's not the case that games would not function at all in that setup as you supposed above. Just fyi.

@LonelyWater  good info!  Ok, so that means that this system could run an HDMI-based VR headset -- so not the Rift S, but the original Rift and most (all?) other current VR headsets on the market.

And for anyone else who might see this and not be aware, although DisplayPort to HDMI adapters exist, they would not work in this situation.  Those adapters take a DisplayPort source signal and convert it to an HDMI output.  They do not work in the opposite direction, as would be required to run a Rift S from an HDMI output.

Makes sense. I guess that falls into the category of "something weird happening under the hood". You are correct. the HDMI in PHYSx is directly connected to the GPU, the USB C is iGPU bound.

Do you have any evidence of this? I have the G3 15 3590 and I would like to get a rift s as well.

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I found this in the NVIDIA Control Panel on my dell g3 15 3590

@jphughan I have a few questions:

Is it certain that this laptop will work with the oculus rift s?

Is the usb-c actually wired to the intel gpu, and does this matter?

Thanks

@Darkened Emerald  sorry for the confusion today.  When this thread popped back up, I re-read the history and updated my earlier posts, but it turns out that I re-read them incorrectly.  The person who said everything was working was talking about playing games on a USB-C regular display, not a VR headset attached to the USB-C port.  So I've had to go back and update them again.

Anyway, I can't personally be certain what GPU this particular system's USB-C port is wired to.  However:

• If you have a USB-C to DP cable or USB-C to HDMI cable, connect a display that way and check that same area of NVIDIA Control Panel you're already looking at, and see which GPU that display shows as being attached to.
• If you don't have a way to do that, I will say that as of this writing, on every Dell and Alienware laptop I have seen and even read about here, the USB-C/TB3 port is always wired to the NVIDIA GPU.  The only exception are the Precision 7000 Series models from the 7x20 onward, which have a BIOS option allowing you to choose which GPU controls the outputs, but they can only do that because they use a more complex and expensive motherboard design.  I mentioned that in an earlier post in this thread.

In any case, yes it absolutely matters.  If the USB-C port is wired to the Intel GPU, you will not be able to use a Rift S.  Using a Rift S requires that your system have a DisplayPort output (or a video-enabled USB-C output, which uses DsiplayPort) that is directly wired to a discrete GPU.  I discussed this in more detail in my post addressed to LonelyWater dated Nov 06 2019.

Hello! Just another question, how do I tell if the usb-c is wired to the intel gpu?

Thanks for clearing most of the confusion up!

@jphughan 

@Darkened Emerald  as I said in my post above, connect a display to the USB-C port using something like a USB-C to DisplayPort or HDMI adapter (or dongle plus cable) and then check that same PhysX section of NVIDIA Control Panel that you posted earlier.  At that point it will show an external display in addition to the laptop display it's already showing in your screenshot.  See which GPU it says the external display is connected to.

To update this post - I am able to use the Oculus Quest using a USB C cable on this laptop

@jphughan I don’t have any adapter like that and I’m not allowed to buy one. 

Should I try just hdmi from my laptop to the screen?