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WD19 Docking Station Compatibility
Hi all,
I am wishing to purchase a WD19 180W docking station for a Latitude 3420, however I want to make sure both of my displays will work with it before I purchase one. I have got an ASUS VG248QE which has 1x DisplayPort (v1.2), 1x Dual-link DVI-D port, and 1x HDMI port (v1.4) and have got a ASUS VP28UQGL which has 1x DisplayPort (v1.1 and 1.2) and x2 HDMI ports (v2). Your feedback would be much appreciated.
Kind regards,
RocknRollTim
jphughan
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September 12th, 2021 02:00
@RocknRollTim With a regular WD19, even with a modern DisplayPort HBR3 system by having an 11th Gen CPU, you can’t run a 4K 60 Hz display plus another display. You just don’t have the bandwidth. This is covered in the WD19 User Guide on the Dell Support site, FYI.
You’d need Thunderbolt to run that display setup through a dock, but your system doesn’t offer that. Your system has an HDMI 1.4 port, so you could connect the 1080p display there, but I don’t know if it will run at 144 Hz from that port if that matters to you.
But a 4K and 1080p display of the same physical size is a pretty bad combination anyway since you’ll end up with issues inherent to using multiple scale factors simultaneously, since Windows only ever renders internally at a single scale factor and then uses post-render GPU scaling to resize rendered content to the other scale factors, which doesn’t always look great. But based on that system’s specs, it doesn’t look like you’d be able to run dual 4K 60 Hz external displays even if you wanted to change displays.
jphughan
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September 12th, 2021 03:00
@RocknRollTim To be clear, the 4K 60 Hz display should work with your system through the dock as long as you have a Core 11th Gen CPU (that system was also available with 10th Gen) AND the 4K 60 Hz display is the ONLY display connected through the dock. This will allow that display to have access to all video bandwidth available over the dock connection, which it will need. You’d then have to connect the 1080p display to the HDMI output, and possible accept a lower than 144 Hz refresh rate. Not sure about the latter.
jphughan
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October 11th, 2021 13:00
@RocknRollTim Sorry to hear that. I have seen a few threads reporting that systems that support DisplayPort HBR3 aren't able to run 4K 60 Hz through a WD19 or WD19S even though that is supposed to be possible. I haven't seen a thread with a confirmed fix to that issue, so I don't know what the underlying cause is, but this may be yet another case of not everything that SHOULD be working in tech ACTUALLY working. Prior to this, I remember that when the XPS 13 9300 was released, it was unable to run dual 4K 60 Hz through a WD19TB, which also should have been possible. At this point if you've already tried HDMI and DP outputs, the only things I can suggest would be trying a USB-C to DP adapter/cable if you happen to have one, or otherwise waiting for driver and firmware updates for the system and dock. I realize that doesn't give you a solution today, but this is supposed to be a plug and play solution, and if it doesn't work even after trying multiple outputs, there aren't really any configuration tweaks you can play with that might get it working. Sorry I don't have a better answer here!
RocknRollTim
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September 12th, 2021 03:00
@jphughan Ah sorry for the misunderstanding, I totally understand now. Thank you again for the very helpful advice. I will mark your later response as the accepted solution.
Many thanks,
RocknRollTim
RocknRollTim
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September 12th, 2021 03:00
@jphughan Thank you for your helpful and elaborate response, it really helps me to just my decision. I was aware that the 1080p display would work with the laptop via HDMI at 60Hz but that doesn't bother me as I have the resolutions scaled on all displays. I was only wondering whether I could utilise both displays from my PC as they work fine on that even though they do not align with scaling properly and normally like to work with 2 screens but as the 4K display is not compatible with the laptop I therefore will have to use my 1080p display for the time being. Thank you ever so much for your help once again.
Many thanks,
RocknRollTim
RocknRollTim
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October 11th, 2021 13:00
@jphughan Unfortunately the 4K display is not working through the docking station via HDMI or DisplayPort. I have also updated the firmware and still no joy.
jphughan
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October 13th, 2021 13:00
@RocknRollTim Wow, really?? I almost didn't bother suggesting USB-C to DisplayPort since that uses DisplayPort protocol for video, so I figured that if the actual DP and HDMI outputs didn't work, then it would be a very long shot to expect USB-C to DP to fare any better. But I'm glad it paid off and that you followed up to confirm it in case it helps others!
RocknRollTim
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October 13th, 2021 13:00
@jphughan Absolutely brilliant, the DisplayPort to USB-C cable worked like a treat! Thank you ever so much for your help and thank you for your help once again!
RocknRollTim
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December 4th, 2021 02:00
@jphughan The one other thing I forgot to mention if others are following this thread is to reduce the 4K display down to 1080p otherwise you will experience horrible lag particularly navigating the cursor on screen and sometimes you may encounter duplicate cursors when using Remote Desktop i.e. one stuck on the screen and the other moving very slowly.