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Old 12-13-2016, 09:27 AM   #1
palsecam
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Question Need clarification regarding performance impact

Hello,

I'm looking to buy a new laptop.

Its primary usage is a professional usage, I want to connect two external monitors.
I can also, sometimes, play some games (still using on the external monitors).

Your FAQ tells that gamers should look elsewhere. What is unclear is why.

Firstly, does gaming on an external monitor actually uses the internal GPU (Nvidia or AMD) of the laptop ?
Secondly, is there an impact on the performance ? I not only ask regarding the framerate (which I expect to be equals to what the laptop can do on the built-in screen), but also on the latency (does the usb link add time to display the image) ?

I'm not a hard-core gamer (not e-sport player ), but I play some real games. I don't understand if your techs applies to me. I sit in the "grey zone".


My alternatives are :
  1. Buy a professional laptop with out-of-the-box support for proprietary docking station (Lenovo T, Dell XPS) ==> quite expensive
  2. Buy a "common" laptop or "gamer" laptop (good for gaming but also good for heavy workload in my job), with an USB docking station - if side effects are acceptable
  3. Use a USB docking station for everything but the HDMI connector to plug my main external monitor, to benefits the full performances of the GPU


Thanks for clarification.
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Old 12-14-2016, 11:06 AM   #2
AlbanRampon
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Hello,

Thank you for your interest!
DisplayLink chips or drivers are not GPUs. Computation of pixels handed over to DisplayLink are done by the GPU. Windows sends calculation to the GPU.
Impact of performance of what and doing what would be my return question. Everything has a cost! Plugging a second monitor, hard drive or running any piece of software will add load on different elements: buses, GPU, CPU... Most people ignore GPU load because Windows doesn't provide an obvious bar graph for it, except maybe with a temperature gauge.

As laptops are getting skinny, a proprietary connector dock may use a serial bus like USB and therefore will not necessarily offer a better throughput. A proprietary connector dock is pretty much throw away when you change machine. A real standard USB dock will bring you universality. By real USB, I mean USB connector hosting USB traffic, not another format over a USB-C connector for instance...
My work machine is a Surface Pro 3. The other day I wished to do something on my Android phone... I unplugged my tablet and plugged in my USB-C Android phone!

DisplayLink driver will use CPU as we need to ship these pixels through the USB, fast, and in a clever manner to achieve the low latency keeping the pixel-perfect we are known for.
But the algorithm we have use what is available and, like a clown, juggles with CPU bandwidth, USB throughput available, what we must send... transparently.
We have demonstrated quad 4Kp60Hz over a single USB3 link. Nobody else has yet... especially when it works on USB Type A too. Traders can have in excess of 15 displays!

However, the primary use case of our technology is universality for productivity, not gaming. We test for productivity, video playback so we know it works reliably. We do not test games and they use multiple ways to address graphics, some bypassing the standard Windows Desktop Manager and this was causing issue on older versions of Windows, so we don't advise it.
Being obviously biaised (!) without having a discount, I would still buy a DisplayLink dock. I have two proprietary connector docks at home I can't use anymore, that's enough. So I would choose option 2.
If you have a really high end graphics card in the laptop and sometimes launch seriously demanding gaming which leaves you no CPU bandwidth available, then you can always temporarily move the HDMI connector... But I don't see the USB latency or throughput being any limitation to you.

Oh, and any product using DisplayLink technology with a Type A connector can already be used over the newer Type C with a passive plug adapter as we use standard USB.

What resolution do you expect for your external monitors?

Kind regards,
Alban
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Old 12-14-2016, 01:23 PM   #3
palsecam
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AlbanRampon View Post
As laptops are getting skinny, a proprietary connector dock may use a serial bus like USB and therefore will not necessarily offer a better throughput.
Do you mean that proprietary dock station (like http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/c...ode=40A20170EU) does not have value compared to universal docking station?

Quote:
Originally Posted by AlbanRampon View Post

DisplayLink driver will use CPU as we need to ship these pixels through the USB, fast, and in a clever manner to achieve the low latency keeping the pixel-perfect we are known for.
But the algorithm we have use what is available and, like a clown, juggles with CPU bandwidth, USB throughput available, what we must send... transparently.
We have demonstrated quad 4Kp60Hz over a single USB3 link. Nobody else has yet... especially when it works on USB Type A too. Traders can have in excess of 15 displays!
As I'm targeting Core I5 (at least), I don't expect the CPU to be an issue.

Quote:
Originally Posted by AlbanRampon View Post
What resolution do you expect for your external monitors?
I expect to output twice 1920*1200/32@60hz. But I don't exclude going further if one of the monitor eventually dies.

Last edited by palsecam; 12-14-2016 at 02:51 PM.
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Old 12-14-2016, 03:26 PM   #4
AlbanRampon
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Non, je faisais référence à un autre type. Le photo montre qu'il y a plein de broches donc c'est un type stable, meme s'il n'est pas universel.

Cette résolution n'est pas suffisamment haute pour faire transpirer le GPU, la station d'accueil ou l'USB.

Alban.
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Old 12-14-2016, 04:37 PM   #5
palsecam
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AlbanRampon View Post
Non, je faisais référence à un autre type. Le photo montre qu'il y a plein de broches donc c'est un type stable, meme s'il n'est pas universel.

Cette résolution n'est pas suffisamment haute pour faire transpirer le GPU, la station d'accueil ou l'USB.

Alban.
I don't get your answer... It seems to be like automated translation, isn't it ?

If I'm right, please keep the answer in english.

thx
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Old 12-14-2016, 04:51 PM   #6
AlbanRampon
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You sent me a page in French to read and give you an opinion on... So I replied to you in native French.

The resolution is not high enough to cause issues.
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