New XPS 17 questions

Hi @jphughan et al thanks for the extensive replies - hower regarding 

1. Is there a way to power an external monitor at a high framerate, e. g. 144hz?

You write that you touched on that above - however I cant find the solution (if there is any) - I would like to run VR headsets on the XPS 17 and that would require a signal running 90 hz minimum.

De we have a solution to this?

Best 

Sune

@SSloth  It may depend on the VR headset in question.  For example, the Oculus Quest added support for being driven by a PC rather than only being usable as a standalone headset, but it achieved that in a completely different way from other headsets.  It relies on technology that allows video to be transmitted as garden variety USB data rather than receiving a native GPU video feed.  That increases its compatibility with systems, especially laptops, compared to "traditional" VR headsets like the Rift, because those other headsets require a native GPU feed, typically of a specific type (DisplayPort or HDMI) and also require that the feed be coming directly from a discrete GPU, not passed through an Intel GPU.  That latter requirement rules out many laptops that have all outputs wired to the Intel GPU and use the discrete GPU only through NVIDIA Optimus.  The XPS 17 9700 and 9710 default to this mode of operation, but if you order them with the highest-end GPU available on each system, then those systems include a BIOS option allowing the discrete GPU to be given direct control of the external display outputs, which allows for use cases such as VR.  If you have a lower-end GPU, you don't have this option at all.

So if you have a Quest, you should be fine.  If you have a "traditional" VR headset, then as long as your XPS 17 has the top GPU and you enable this BIOS option, you'll also be fine.  But if you have a lower-spec XPS 17, then you won't be able to use those VR headsets.  And to be clear, it has nothing to do with resolution or refresh rate specifically.  The Intel GPUs in those systems can support much higher resolutions and refresh rates than are required by typical VR headsets.  The problem is that the Intel GPUs simply don't support VR, not even VR passthrough from a discrete GPU.

Hi and thanks for the extensive and quick reply - the Quest 2 runs smooth on the XPS 17 9710 with 3060 Nvidia GPU - and yeah they use the usb-c solution and it works with 120 hz no sweat.... so you're absolutly right on that one. I allready set in the bios the GPU to go directly to the thunderbult ports - one thing I am not quite sure of is if you are correct about the refresh rate with other HMDs since thay should minimally run with 90 hz - and even better still 120 hz allthough not all HMDs support that. But taking your advice i would think that I should buy some sort of thunderbult 4 to HDMI er DP adaptor for sorts in order to test it... and eventually plug it in the right side of the computer to get best support (according to Dells own documentation)... so now the question is - (she on the HDMI/DP side in order to plug the HMD directly in). We are talking HMDs suchs as SteamVR, Reverb G2 and such....? Do you have any thoughts on that? Are we talking something like this? https://www.amazon.com/tomtoc-DisplayPort-Thunderbolt-Aluminum-Compatible/dp/B07ZT12Q41/ref=sr_1_3?crid=35TIQ3EJ1CC1K&keywords=usb+c+to+displayport+1.4+120hz&qid=1646816890&sprefix=usb+c+to+displayport+1.4+120+hz%2Caps%2C158&sr=8-3