5K x 3K Display Cannot Reach 5120 x 2880 Resolution on a Thunderbolt Docking Station

Intel HD Graphics and 5K x 3K Resolution

5K monitors (like the Dell UltraSharp UP2715K) used as an extended display of the Dell laptop displays a garbled or flicking screen. This happens if you try to configure the extended monitor to maximum resolution (5120 x 2880).

This occurs when using a TB16 and mini-DisplayPort (mDP) or full-size DisplayPort (DP) cable connections.

This 5 K resolution issue is a design limitation of the computers switchable graphics video (Intel HD graphics, AMD, or Nvidia Discrete) configuration.

The Intel graphics driver cannot synchronize an extended output signal through a separate DisplayPort Multi-Stream Transport (MST) path and is unable to support 5 K mode.

Affected computers include:

• Latitude E5570
• Latitude 7370
• Latitude 7275
• Precision 3510
• Precision 7510
• Precision 7710
• XPS 12-9250
• XPS 13-9350
• XPS 15-9550

There are two workaround methods to display 5K resolution on the UP2715K monitor when connected to a TB16.

1. Disable the switchable graphics mode from the system BIOS, enabling only the discrete graphics mode. Ensure that the latest video driver that posted on the Dell Support Website for the computer is installed. Once this is done, you can connect the 5K x 3K display using the TB16 and mDP or DP cable connections.
2. Connect the 5K x 3K display to the TB16 USB-C output using a Thunderbolt 3 to dual DisplayPort adapter such as StarTech (Manufacturer Part # TB32DP2) or pluggable brand adapter to achieve your 5K resolution.

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