5K resolution issue

Question

Hi allBelow is the equipment I use.49' 5K screen 120Hz HDR. 10thGen ice lake HP spectre HP thunderbolt USB-C dock 120W I also got a Razer Core X with a Radeon 5600XT. Problem: I want to use 5K resolution @ 120Hz On my monitor using the spectre laptop via the above mentioned dock, but the connection is temperamental. Sometimes I may have to restart the laptop and the dock a few times for it to connect the monitor and the USB keyboard/ mouse to get identified. Sometimes after a restart the USB works but the screen drops out, other times vice versa. Once it starts to work, it works perfectly with no issues. If I undock and dock it back or restart for some reason, its a nightmare to get it connected again. I removed the HP dock and tried the eGPU in its place. It works, thou occasionally it drops out, refuses to connect, and most annoyingly laptop wouldn’t restart while its docked. Question: Has anyone tried 5K resolution on the 11th gen XPS 13'? Do you see any problem with the XPS 13 that could prevent achieving 5K via the HP dock or the eGPU?

jphughan · Accepted Answer

@blackslash  Ok, that detail helps, and 5120x1440 is definitely easier to deal with.  That can be run at 120 Hz HDR by the Intel GPU as long as you have a DP 1.4 connection to the display.  If you're using a dock, that would require a Thunderbolt dock that supports DP 1.4 from the source and a DP 1.4 output.  The XPS 13 9310 supports DP 1.4 output, but I don't know if the HP Thunderbolt dock supports DP 1.4.  Dell's own WD19TB dock does, though.  If on the other hand you're using an eGPU, then this all goes out the window, since in that case you just need a Thunderbolt 3 connection and a GPU that supports DP 1.4, which isn't difficult to find among desktop-type GPUs these days.  (It's still pretty rare on laptops overall, though.)  So going purely by the specs, your eGPU setup would work fine for that display.  And a dock setup would as well if HP's dock is like Dell's own WD19TB.  But of course that's just going by the specs, and not everything that should work in the tech world actually does.  For example, there are multiple reports of the XPS 13 9300 having issues running dual 4K 60 Hz through a WD19TB, even though that should work fine.  That's why real world confirmation is helpful, but unfortunately you've got a pretty new system, running a relatively rare eGPU setup, and a relatively display setup.  Even 5120x1440 60 Hz SDR is uncommon, but dialing up to 120 Hz HDR means that the likelihood of hearing real world experiences is going to be slim.  Sorry!

jphughan · Answer

@blackslash  Fyi '5K' is ambiguous, since sometimes it's used to refer to 5120x1440 and other times it's used to refer to 5120x2880, which is a very different animal.  And since you didn't specify a display model, I'm not sure if you're planning to use a DP input or a TB3 input, if the display even has the latter.  If you have a 5120x2880 display, that can be achieved via either DP 1.4 or TB3 (or dual DP 1.2 links, but that's an old setup).  5120x2880 at 120 Hz and HDR wouldn't be achievable via DP 1.4 to my knowledge, at least not without using DisplayPort DSC, but that brings some other concerns.  And lastly, it's not clear which specific dock you're talking about.  Is it the HP Thunderbolt Dock 120W G2?And when you say '11th Gen XPS 13', do you mean the XPS 13 9310 that uses Core 11th Gen CPUs?  A system that uses 11th Gen CPUs isn't the same thing as the 11th gen of a system.I don't want to go too deep into technical answers given the number of technical details that are completely unclear here, but generally speaking, the Intel GPUs built into the Core 11th Gen CPUs used in the XPS 13 9310 support up to 5120x2880 60 Hz, which would require DisplayPort 1.4, either a direct connection to the system or through a Thunderbolt dock.  I'm not sure if that setup can run HDR, but I'm practically certain that 5120x2880 120 Hz HDR wouldn't be possible due to sheer bandwidth considerations, again unless DispayPort DSC is in play, but I don't know if the XPS 13 9310 or for that matter your dock supports that.But using an eGPU changes the equation, because in that case you're not trying to drive the display from the system's own GPU.  You instead use TB3 for a PCIe connection to an external GPU, and then the eGPU's capabilities are the deciding factor.  eGPUs have been used with multiple generations of XPS 13 and XPS 15 models now, but as to how smooth the experience will be, that might be a question better asked on forums dedicated to eGPU usage, such as eGPU.io, simply because eGPUs are still an edge use case.  And then you'll have the issue that the XPS 13 9310 is quite new, which will likely limit the amount of real world experience reports you'll find.

blackslash · Answer

@jphughan thanks for your reply. Sorry I missed a few keys points there. The monitor is an AOC AG493UCX with 5120x1440 resolution. I am currently using DP as the monitor doesn’t seem to support that resolution via USB-C.

The dock is HP Thunderbolt Dock 120W G2 and I meant the Dell XPS 9310 sporting the 11th gen Intel core i7.

This is my work setup, I was looking at the XPS 9310 as I use the laptop in tablet mode quite alot. Just would like to know of it would technically work, as the the current HP spectre is driving me insane even thou it has a 10th gen ice lake CPU, it just wouldn’t work.

blackslash · Answer

@jphughan Thank you very much for your response. I understand that its not something that we can match on paper and expect it to work in real world situations, as there are many variables that can go wrong. I guess I will give it a go. Thank you for taking the time to reply back to me.

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5K resolution issue

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