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Steve Garon
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June 3rd, 2020 11:00
Force mode on D6000 dock
I have a monitor plugged into my D6000 dock via HDMI and I was wondering if it was possible to switch between HDMI and display link mode depending on the task performed.
Basically, I'd like to use displaylink while browsing on the desktop app I can get 4k60 output but would like to switch to hdmi alt mode while gaming so I don't get the very bad performance of display link.
How would I do that?
@Steve Garon My recollection from the D6000's manual is that HDMI only uses DP Alt Mode when there are already two other displays in use on the DisplayPort outputs, otherwise even the HDMI output uses DisplayLink. I think there's also a note that DP Alt Mode is used for the HDMI output when there's no DisplayLink driver installed at all, so you MIGHT be able to achieve sort of a toggle by disabling a DisplayLink device in Device Manager or something in order to achieve the same end result, but that would knock out any other displays you had as well. Other than that, I don't believe there's a toggle. The D6000 is a poor choice for any gaming use cases for the reason you've already stated. But honestly if you're gaming, being limited to 30 Hz would be a problem all on its own -- or were you also planning to drop your resolution to maintain refresh rate for that scenario?
If you specify the actual system you're using and all display(s) you have, there might be a better option that would get you 4K 60 Hz via native GPU output, but apart from that, unless you can figure something out in Device Manager, I don't think you can achieve the mode switching you're looking for.Steve Garon
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Posted June 3rd, 2020 14:00
@jphughan I only have one monitor and I want to do light gaming on the integrated graphic (iris plus) off my XPS. Yes killing the displaylink adapter does the trick but I wish there would just be an on/off switch in the displaylink notification icon. I need 4k60 while browsing the web but 1080p60 max while gaming which is why hdmi hdmi alt mode is so attractive for gaming, it makes the game much faster
@Steve Garon One other point I forgot to call out. I suspect the reason you don't have an on/off switch is because most DisplayLink-based setups don't actually support being driven in two separate ways. Even on the D6000, that flexibility is only possible on the HDMI output, not on either of its DisplayPort outputs. And there are all sorts of DisplayLink adapters that plug into USB ports and provide a video output, and they wouldn't support DP Alt Mode either. In those cases, disabling DisplayLink would leave the user with no signal at all. DisplayLink software is made by DisplayLink themselves, not Dell, so I can't say I'm too surprised that they don't have this special mode toggle that's only useful on this particular dock.
jphughan
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Posted June 3rd, 2020 14:00
@Steve Garon I understand the appeal of having the toggle, but again I don't think that's possible. But if you only care about 1080p60 while gaming, one option that might be available depending on your system and display would be to have a separate display cable connected from a "native" display output on your laptop to a different input on the display. Then when you want to play games, switch your display over to the input that's being fed directly from the system's GPU. You'd probably have to physically disconnect that other cable when you didn't want to use it though, because most displays will maintain "presence" even on inactive inputs, so if you kept the cable connected, your system would think there were two displays connected, in which case application windows could get "lost" over there. (The design philosophy decision between whether a display should maintain presence on inactive inputs is a longer discussion, but for most use cases it's better to do so, even if not in this particular use case. But in fairness, this is an unusual scenario.)