New XPS 17 questions

Thanks @jphughan , I have been following the review. What ive understood is that it only experiences the battery drain when RTX is in use so im  curious to know if by making the RTX the primary GPU, you are keeping the RTX always on thereby keeping the laptop under permanent load which would cause you to always experience battery drain. Even when not doing anything demanding.

I have not noticed any battery drain while plugged in, which is most of the time. On reboot though, I have had the system complain about the charger not being a high enough Wattage even thought it is the charger that came with the XPS 17. I simply tell it to continue and the error clears. It happens rarely and intermittently.

Regarding 3, if I plug two external thunderbolt ssd enclosures at the same time into the two ports on the same side, I get the "thunderbolt device functionality might be limited" error. The second enclosure has to plug into the other side of the laptop for them both to work. Can someone explain this?

@deccauk  There's nothing more descriptive than "functionality might be limited"?  Even if you click on the error or something?  My only GUESS there is that if both of your enclosures could run PCIe x4, then having two connected to the same dual port TB3 chipset might be causing bandwidth to be shared between them.  Even if the controller itself is keeping PCIe x4 interfaces open to each device rather than going 2x2, the controller itself likely only has a PCIe x4 interface back to the CPU, so even if each enclosure could run up to PCIe x4 on its own, the maximum total bandwidth across the two of them would be PCIe x4.  By comparison, the ports on the right would very likely be handled by a completely separate dual port TB3 controller (I'm not aware of Intel making a quad port TB3 controller), in which case it might have its own PCIe x4 interface back to the CPU.

You could attempt to test this theory by running benchmark tests on both enclosures simultaneously, in one case while they're connected to ports on the same side and in an other case where they're connected on opposite sides.

@jphughanClicking on the pop out error message takes you to a fairly general Microsoft website discussing USB-C connections.

The second device does not connect at all. It does not appear in device manager, not even as a device with an error flagged.

Just received my XPS 17 9700 w/ Geforce RTX 2060 6GB, non-touch 1920 x 1200 display.

Connected it to my LG 38GL950G-B (144 Hz 3840 x 1600 ultrawide w/ G-sync) via a USB-C Thunderbolt 3 to Display Port 1.4 cable.

Connecting initially it works, but the display settings show the LG is using the Intel HD integrated graphics card with max refresh rate able to be set to 85 Hz.

As recommended in this thread, I entered BIOS, set the Display option to output the dedicated graphics card on all USB-C ports.

Monitor detects no signal after doing this, and I get blank display. I do however get a notification in the Windows Notification Center that "G-sync" is enabled, however still no display. Going into Display Settings, it shows the secondary display, but selecting it freezes the system for a second and the resolution/scaling dropdowns are grayed out, like it's not fully connected or something.

I've reinstalled graphics drivers and monitor software, tried both the GeForce Studio drivers and the Game Ready drivers. Reinstalled Windows and still had the same issue. Tried two different USB-C TB3 to Display Port 1.4 cables. Nvidia Control Panel has only options for 3D settings available and none of the other options regardless of the Display BIOS settings set to use dGPU or iGPU.

Has anyone else experienced a similar issue?

Update:

It appears the issue might be the USB-C TB3 to DP 1.4a cable.

The XPS 17 comes with a dongle that has a a HDMI output. Connecting an HDMI cable from this to the HDMI input on the LG monitor was able to connect with full options in the Nvidia Control Panel. However, still only max 85 Hz max refresh rate, as expected since HDMI.

Which then begs the question, is there a USB-C to DisplayPort cable that is supported, one that is able to achieve the full 144 Hz refresh rate that the monitor can do? I will try a Dell chat and report any findings.

@dhagquist  You didn't specify which cable you're using now, but barring any firmware issues with the system that might be responsible for this (which admittedly may well be a factor, given that the XPS 17 does have some known firmware issues already), a USB-C to DP 1.4 cable or dongle should get the job done.  Maybe you just got unlucky with the one you received.  Could have been a weird interoperability issue or even just a defective unit.  I've helped multiple people here who had problems with USB-C to HDMI adapters when using them on certain laptops even though the adapters worked fine with other devices they had, and in each case it was fixed by getting a different brand of USB-C to HDMI adapter that worked with all of their devices.  Of course that shouldn't have been necessary, but not everything that SHOULD work in the tech world actually DOES.

In terms of recommendations, Cable Matters and StarTech have never let me down.  Cable Matters makes a USB-C to DP 1.4 adapter (link on Amazon US here), which you could pair with a DP 1.4 cable.  And StarTech makes a full USB-C to DP 1.4 cable (link).  And then Club3D also makes a USB-C to DP 1.4 full cable (link).  I've never bought Club3D products, but I've heard good things.

@jphughan Thanks for the response. I'll try some of those things and report back.

@dhagquist  Building on my above reply, I just found a full USB-C to DP 1.4 full cable by Cable Matters.  It's cheaper than Club3D's and MUCH cheaper than StarTech's.  Here is the link.

@BlackAppz how do you connect you monitors?

I tried to connect my using included adapter and HDMI cable, using Dell DA-300 and Displayport 1.4 cable and still I can not set frequency to 60 Hz for 4K using Intel Graph adapter.

If I switch to Nvidia card it works, but inter card should be able to work too, no?

best,

ilya

@shvez  The NVIDIA GPU supports DisplayPort 1.4/HBR3, which is why you can run 4K 60 Hz through a DA300 when that GPU has direct control of the display outputs.  But the Intel GPU only supports DisplayPort 1.2/HBR2, which does not offer enough bandwidth to run 4K 60 Hz through a DA300, since the DA300 also sets up the USB-C link to run USB 3.x as well, which cuts video bandwidth in half over what would be possible when only running USB 2.0.  I wrote an explainer post about this here.  If you want 4K 60 Hz with the Intel GPU controlling the display outputs, you'll need either a solution that only uses USB 2.0 (or no USB data at all, like a USB-C to DP cable) or else a solution that uses Thunderbolt 3.

@jphughan thank you

@BlackAppz: Out of the box the XPS 17 will do dual 4k monitors.

Did you mean dual 4k external monitors along with the built-in display?

Hello, what connection are you using for your 3 monitors (HDMI 2.0, Displayport 1.4, USB-C, Thunderbolt 3)? Are you using a docking station like the Dell Thunderbolt Dock - WD19TB or connecting them directly to the USB-C/TB3 ports of the laptop?