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Docking Station D6000-Very Bad Video performance for gaming
Got new laptop and D6000 docking station with two 27" Dell UltraSharp 4K monitors, and installed latest DisplayLink diver, it works fine for regular stuff, however when I try to play games, it is very laggy, horrible video performance. I noticed that 'Windows Driver Foundation - User-mode Driver Framework Host Process' take lots CPU time. when game started. All game plays great on the laptop, but with this Docking Station, games are unplayable! In fact, anytime I do any intense graphic stuff, same thing happens. Any idea and suggestions? Very disappointed with Dell stuff. My last set of Dell laptop and docking station worked great. Thank you for your input.
jphughan
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October 4th, 2018 20:00
It’s because the Dxxxx series docks use DisplayLink rather than tapping into native GPU outputs. DisplayLink uses a driver to have the CPU and GPU compress video for transmission as regular USB traffic, and then a chip in the dock decompresses it and transmits it to the displays. That’s why you’re seeing all that CPU activity and horrible performance. DisplayLink is fine for basic productivity tasks, but when lots of the display area is changing at once, such as when gaming or watching full screen video, that’s a lot more work to do, so your CPU gets busy and you can end up with jerky/judder-y video. You can also see these types of issues if your USB bus is busy with other traffic, such as a large file transfer. And even without any of that, DisplayLink’s compression isn’t lossless, so you can end up with visible judder or blocky video for that reason alone. And on top of all that, you didn’t specify what system you’re using, but if it has both an Intel GPU and discrete GPU, then due to a limitation within Windows, only the Intel GPU can be used with displays connected via DisplayLink. The discrete GPU wouldn’t get used at all unless it’s the only one in the system.
You need a dock that taps into native GPU outputs. If your system has Thunderbolt 3, then you’d want the WD19TB dock if you have dual 4K displays. If your system only has USB-C, then the WD19 uses native GPU output, but it can’t handle dual 4K 60 Hz. And if you get the WD19, make sure you get the version with the correct power supply size based on your system’s requirements. The WD19TB only comes with the larger power supply option.
The D6000 can handle more displays at higher resolution than those other docks precisely because of its compression behavior, and also because again it doesn’t use native GPU outputs, but as I’ve just described, that brings significant drawbacks. It’s really meant as a business dock for use cases involving email and spreadsheets. Its main value proposition is that it can be used with both USB-C and USB-A systems, which means companies that currently have a mixture of older systems with traditional docking connectors and newer systems with USB-C/TB3 can standardize on this one dock model. That’s especially useful for companies with “hotel desk” setups. But it’s absolutely not the right choice for gaming.
jphughan
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October 4th, 2018 21:00
In addition to the post above, one other thing you may want to consider is getting rid of the 4K 27” displays in favor of 1440p 27” displays, for a few reasons:
- 4K at 27” gives you a pixel density that’s high enough that you’ll have to enable scaling for things to be legible (and Windows and various applications still don’t handle scaling consistently well) but not high enough to give you a truly sharp Apple Retina-style experience (you need 5K resolution at 27” for that). So in that regard, unless you specifically need 4K resolution for something like editing 4K video, 4K 27” is sort of the worst of both worlds. That’s why when I just bought a pair of 27” displays, I specifically avoided the U2718Q and instead bought the U2717D, which is 1440p.
- Lower resolution means your system will have an easier time rendering games at the native resolution of the displays, and you won’t even be able to tell the difference in pixel density.
- If you don’t have Thunderbolt 3 but do have USB-C, you can run dual 1440p displays if you connect the displays directly to the USB-C port with a USB-C to DisplayPort cable rather than running through a dock, for technical reasons I can explain if you’re curious. You can even do it through a single cable connection if your displays support DisplayPort daisy chaining. By comparison, running dual 4K displays using native GPU connectivity requires Thunderbolt 3, unless you have two separate display outputs on that system that are each capable of 4K 60 Hz and you’re ok using two cables for your displays.
BigChinaMan
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October 8th, 2018 16:00
Thank you.
loyukfai-new
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January 25th, 2021 20:00
@jphughan Hi there, sorry for bringing up an old thread, but your post came up very top in my Google searches... Am trying to find out what will happen if a D6000 is connected via USB-C without installing the driver, will the 2 DisplayPorts work at all?
Am trying to figure this out because of an issue with the OBS software, as it cannot handle dual GPU setup, so if the DisplayPorts on D6000 only work via DisplayLink with drivers, which means they're technically on another GPU, there could be issues.
Thanks a lot in advance.
jphughan
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January 25th, 2021 21:00
@loyukfai-new I'm not sure what happens in that scenario. The documentation indicates that when you have 3 displays attached, the HDMI display uses DisplayPort Alt Mode wile the other 2 displays use DisplayLink, but I don't know if the HDMI output can work on its own via DisplayPort Alt Mode if it's the only display connected and there are no DisplayLink drivers installed. Additionally, I think Windows Update will provide at least basic DisplayLink drivers automatically now -- but I'm not 100% sure about that.
But DisplayLink is not really another GPU. DisplayLink displays are not actually connected to any GPU at all. The issue with dual GPU systems it that DisplayLink displays can only have their content accelerated by the system's primary GPU. So if you have an Intel+NVIDIA setup, you won't get the benefit of the NVIDIA GPU's rendering performance on your DisplayLink displays.
loyukfai-new
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January 25th, 2021 22:00
Thanks a lot for the info!
There is a NVIDIA chip but I've disabled it due to compatibility issues with OBS. It seems OBS prefers one GPU and no extra stuffs...
Leaning towards TB15 as of writing. Since high resolution is not a pre-requisite in the use case I'm investigating.
Cheers.
d6000-user
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March 2nd, 2021 12:00
Hello @jphughan, I've just got a D6000 and I was not able to get a VGA monitor working using a DP to VGA cable adapter. I also connected a HDMI monitor but it's working well.
I've installed the latest driver but I still getting a black screen.
Hope you can help me.
d6000-user
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March 2nd, 2021 13:00
I'll try using a different adapter since the display only support VGA input. I hope it works if not I should get newer monitor.
Thanks so much for your response and patience.
jphughan
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March 2nd, 2021 13:00
@d6000-user That should be a straightforward setup. However, DisplayPort to VGA adapters include active signal converter chips since DisplayPort does not natively support VGA output, and those signal converter chips seem to cause problems sometimes. I've seen this happen with USB-C to HDMI adapters where the same design exists since USB-C uses DisplayPort for video. Sometimes one brand off USB-C to HDMI adapter will work with one laptop but not another, while some other brand of USB-C to HDMI adapter will work with both laptops, even though both adapters should have worked with both laptops. If you have a way to test whether the DisplayPort output works for regular DisplayPort, that might be a useful data point just to rule out an issue with the port on the D6000 itself, but the D6000 has two DP outputs, so if you're seeing this behavior on both ports, it's unlikely that both of them would be bad while HDMI works as expected. So you might just need a different brand of DP to VGA adapter. I've had good luck with StarTech and Cable Matters for these types of products, just to name a couple of solid vendors.
jphughan
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March 2nd, 2021 13:00
@d6000-user Just one additional thought: Does the display you're trying to use have ANY other input besides VGA? Even if you don't have DisplayPort or HDMI inputs on that display, do you maybe have DVI? If so, you could get a DisplayPort to DVI adapter plus a DVI cable instead, or maybe even a DisplayPort to DVI cable if you can find one. The D6000's DisplayPort outputs do have native support for HDMI/DVI signaling because they support "Dual Mode DisplayPort", so that would allow you to use a simpler type of adapter, and you'll get a higher quality image since ancient VGA is an analog signal, whereas DVI, HDMI, and DisplayPort are all digital signals. I'd try to avoid VGA if at all possible.
zbs221
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April 11th, 2021 20:00
Hi,
Figured I would piggy back off this thread...
Dell Latitude 7390
x2 Dell 27 Monitor - S2721D
Dell WD 19 130W Dock
I am realizing that I am unable to get 2560x1440 from both of these monitors while using DisplayPort cables from monitor to dock and USB-C into laptop. My laptop does not have Thunderbolt 3 USB-C, it only as DisplayPort USB-C. My original goal was to get 2560x1440 on both monitors and charge my laptop with 1 one plug-in, while also conveniently hiding dock and wires behind monitors. Since the WD19 dock wont solve first part of my goal I am exploring options to fix that first. I have 2 questions:
1. Can I use Dell Universal Dock - D6000 and connect via USB-C and obtain 2560x1440 from both monitors?
2. If #1 will not work are can you recommend something that will achieve all or most of my goals.
Thanks in advance!
jphughan
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April 11th, 2021 21:00
@zbs221 The Latitude 7390 is a DisplayPort HBR2 system, and therefore with a regular USB-C dock that also supports USB 3.x data like the WD19, you can only use dual displays up to 1920x1200. Running dual 2560x1440 and USB 3.x all through a regular USB-C dock would require a system and dock that supports DisplayPort HBR3. The WD19 does, but that system doesn't. But yes, the D6000 would allow you to run your desired display setup and charge the system -- as long as you're willing to accept the issues of DisplayLink that I described in the post marked as the answer in this thread. If that's not acceptable, then the next best option would be to connect one of your displays directly to the system instead of running both through the dock. In that case, you won't have to meet the bandwidth requirements of both displays through the dock.
march718
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September 7th, 2021 19:00
@jphughan Thank you very much for the info on this thread, it's been very helpful thus far. I was hoping you could also provide some clarity in my similar situation.. I have a Precision 7550 with dGPU and a WD19DCS dock connected via HDMI and DP to a single 34" samsung ultrawide 21:9 monitor. I am trying to achieve the option for two PIP displays each at 1720x1440 resolution on the single 3440x1440 ultrawide monitor.
The HDMI output provides me the recommended resolution of 1720x1440 for the half-screen display however the DP output does not offer 1720x1440 (only the full 3440x1440 and smaller options). To make matters worse I do not have the intel graphics control panel and cannot install it due to this being a company-controlled machine. I have the NVidia control panel but both display outputs are controlled via Intel.
Can I make the dGPU control both display outputs by changing to USB-C and/or removing one of the HDMI/DP connections? Is there any other way to force NVidia to take control or force a custom resolution on the samsung monitor (which is recognized as generic PnP in device manager)?
My goal is to maintain the dual USB-C dock connector as the only connection to my laptop for ease of use.
Thanks in advance!
jphughan
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September 7th, 2021 23:00
@march718 Happy to help, although going forward it really would have been better for you to create your own topic about this rather than posting in this topic, since your question has nothing at all to do with the subject of this topic.
I’m surprised that PBP isn’t working given that running the display as a single display at its native resolution does. But if you want to have the NVIDIA GPU control the display outputs, you need to enable the BIOS option for that. It’s available on Precision 7000 Series systems like yours, and I think it’s called “Graphics special mode” or something. Using different outputs on the dock won’t make a difference because it won’t change which GPU controls the USB-C output supporting the entire dock.
jackdignam
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June 4th, 2024 22:08
@jphughan sorry to bring up an old thread but I've tried searching everywhere, but with no luck. I even tried asking microsoft co-pilot but lol.
I too have the Dell 6000s docking station from work, using the USB C cable into my work laptop(My laptop is a Thinkpad X1 Yoga Gen 7). Im trying to use my existing two 27 1440p monitors, I currently have it setup as follows:
1 HDMI - displaying 2560x1440 fine
1 DP in HDMI out to the 2nd monitor, but the max resolution I can set is 2048x1152.
Is this a bandwith problem with the docking station? I previously used this setup fine with a different dell docking station from a previous job (I can't remember what model name it was) so I don't think its a cable issue.
Would using the USB-C port with a USB-C to HDMI solve my issue?
I need to use HDMI on the monitor end, as the monitors have 1 DP, 2 HDMI - they are higher refresh rate through DP which I reserve for my PC.
Thanks in advance, I appreciate any wisdom you can share.
(edited)