3 or More Monitors using USB Dock and other Dock Related inquiries

[therock003]

I'm interested in buying a usb Dock for my laptop, cause i need to use 3 Monitors at least. Found this Dell D6000 Dock which has an hdmi out and 2 displayports. Saw someone say that you can use 3 or more Monitors with this. How is that possible since it has 3 ports. I guess Displayport carries a signal for more than one monitor and you can buy extra hubs for that to happen?

-Is the signal carried through the port or is it a usb passthrough and it stresses out the computer graphics card?
-Besides that i can still use my internal ports right? So for example i can use the hdmi from the dock and the hdmi of my laptop, having access to 2 monitors directly from hdmi to hdmi connection
-Can i use extra accessories on the docks usbc port? For example i saw a startech udbc-dvi active adapter that can handle up to 2560x1600 singal. I can use it for an old 2K Monitor that only accepts signal through DVI-D but my laptop does not have usbc nor dvi. But the dock has usbc port

https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/dell-universal-dock-d6000/apd/452-bcyt/pc-accessories

For now these are my most thought out questions. If someone could help, cause i really need to consider this in order to decide if i should buy this dock, or any for that matter

[Cornucopia]

You can only provide video to as big a layout as your video card(s) can handle. That is a hard limit that cannot be bypassed regardless of which ports you choose.

DP has the capability of pass-through daisy chaining. So, for example, you could use 1 DP port and send the signal to a monitor, then daisy chain from that monitor to another, and to another. IF THE MONITORS SUPPORT IT. They must be built that way, with a DP IN and a DP OUT, and specifically state they support the standard. Many larger Dell monitors do.

In addition to having to navigate choices for port outputs, you also may have a limitation based on your bios firmware, as some will allow manually choosing between internal & external cards, some allow both, some do it automatically, but some have limitations to combinations or totals, and it varies greatly.


Scott

[therock003]

You can only provide video to as big a layout as your video card(s) can handle. That is a hard limit that cannot be bypassed regardless of which ports you choose.

DP has the capability of pass-through daisy chaining. So, for example, you could use 1 DP port and send the signal to a monitor, then daisy chain from that monitor to another, and to another. IF THE MONITORS SUPPORT IT. They must be built that way, with a DP IN and a DP OUT, and specifically state they support the standard. Many larger Dell monitors do.

In addition to having to navigate choices for port outputs, you also may have a limitation based on your bios firmware, as some will allow manually choosing between internal & external cards, some allow both, some do it automatically, but some have limitations to combinations or totals, and it varies greatly.


Scott

My laptop has the intel hd520. Its nothing special but all i want to do is extend my desktop i wont be demanding much in terms of hardware usage.

So in my case how can i be certain that i can use both the gpu hdmi and docks hdmi at rhe same time?

Also as it pertains to Dp, if i dont have a monitor with dp ins and outs, i guess getting a cheap hdmi to dp cable wont be much of a problem right?

[lingyi]

Since your monitors are HDMI, you could go with USB to HDMI adapters: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=usb+to+hdmi&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

This removes any load on your internal graphics adapter. I have one in my PC toolkit, as well as a couple USB to VGA ones as well. Comes in handy to troubleshoot graphics card issues. They're fine for use for desktop tasks, but not powerful enough for gaming and probably 4K video.

If you want to game. There are dedicated external USB / Thunderbolt video card boxes and cases that allow you to add your own graphics card(s).

[Cornucopia]

Daisy chaining is currently ONLY supported by DP (v2.0?) Natively, so hdmi/dvi -> dp adapters will NOT work, as they are using an alternate mode of DP called DP++ (aka HDMI over DP). You CAN, of course, use dp ->hdmi adapters for multiple ports, if you do not intend to daisychain.

Those Dell docks, and most every other dock, do NOT have embedded GPUs, they are just expanding/extending the internal gpu's capability. You are still limited by what it can offer re: max desktop size/rez/framerate/color. You would need a video device like lingyi is referring to, to extend your capability, and even then there are limits.


Scott

[therock003]

Thanx guys for the replies.

The reason i like this product (besides that its Dell) is that it does usbc and usb 3 at the same time and it works with my old laptop and also wont have to buy a new one, when a get a usbc laptop down the line. It lacks variety of ports but it got the basic stuff. So if i get this and use the hdmi port and 2 hdmi to dp cables on the other two i imagine there wont be a problem to drive 3 external monitors? As i said its for extending Monitor Real estate and have more viewing space not doing graphic processing or anything

Also a colleague of mine at the office has an old macbook. How can i know that this weill work for his machine as well, so he can connect to the monitors when im not there

P.S. Please tell me if you got a better/different product to recommend