Surface Pro - Is 4 Screens Possible?

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Paul1977

5039 posts

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#288900 30-Jul-2021 16:13

I have a couple of Surface Pro 7s each with a Surface Dock 2.

The users would like to have 3 external monitors connected, plus still be able to use the screen on the Surface... so 4 screens total.

I've not been able to get more than 3 screens in total working; be it all external, or 2 external and the Surface screen. The Surface detects that there are 4 screens, but will only output to 3 of them.

Has anyone got 4 screens going at once with a Surface Pro 7 and Surface Dock 2?

wratterus

1687 posts

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#2752524 30-Jul-2021 16:47

Haven't tried this myself, but could the Type-C port do two (Daisy Chain) & two from the dock? The CPU says it only supports 3, but not sure if the DP chaining counts toward the 3 total displays or not (it probably does). Other option would be a DisplayLink dock as well as a Surface dock, that could work.

https://www.pbtech.co.nz/product/NBDDEL3660396/Dell-D6000-USB-C--USB-30-Triple-4K-via-USB-C-Docki

Something like that maybe.

Paul1977

5039 posts

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#2752528 30-Jul-2021 16:57

wratterus:

Haven't tried this myself, but could the Type-C port do two (Daisy Chain) & two from the dock? The CPU says it only supports 3, but not sure if the DP chaining counts toward the 3 total displays or not (it probably does). Other option would be a DisplayLink dock as well as a Surface dock, that could work.

https://www.pbtech.co.nz/product/NBDDEL3660396/Dell-D6000-USB-C--USB-30-Triple-4K-via-USB-C-Docki

Something like that maybe.

What do you mean "The CPU says it only supports 3"?

The Surface Dock we have has 4 USB-C outputs, but even if we only connect 2 monitors to the dock and one to the USB-C port on the surface it will still only output to 3 screens total. We can change display settings to flick between having 2 monitors plus the Surface screen, or 3 monitors and no Surface screen.

Batwing

672 posts

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#2752640 30-Jul-2021 19:20

Not the same setup by any stretch, but displaylink is probably the answer. I have a surface laptop 4, previously a 3. Usb-c to Dell d6000 dock and have three external monitors plus the laptop screen to work with.

Paul1977

5039 posts

Uber Geek

#2752762 31-Jul-2021 10:30

Would like to avoid the expense of adding a DisplayLink dock if it can be avoided. But if this was the only solution, would this dock connect to the Surface Dock (rather than directly to the Surface)? Would like to keep the only thing physically connecting to the Surface to be the proprietary Surface Dock connector.

An option I’m reading about that MAY work is a wireless HDMI display adapter for the 4th screen.

https://www.pbtech.co.nz/product/ADPMST82789/Microsoft-Wireless-Display-Adapter-4K--Share-whats

This would be a cheaper option, but without testing don’t know how “plug n play” it would be for a regular user.

gzt

17104 posts

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#2752872 31-Jul-2021 14:09

I'm not sure adding docks and ports will help. This may be a limitation of the graphics chipset. Imo take a look at the chipset spec.

Batwing

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#2752987 31-Jul-2021 16:55

Adding a dock to a dock would not make much sense for sure, and shelling out to replace the dock is also perhaps not worth the investment unless you absolutely need every screen. It may depend on what other ports you also need on the dock day-to-day to decide whether you stick with the surface one or find a decent displaylink capable one instead

When work started dishing out surfaces and we were told we MUST supply our own Surface docks and only surface docks would be supported I dug my heels in to get them to allow the dell D6000 since it was not whitelisted at the time and we've my wife's HP elitebook for work and our home laptop to think about too (and though we didn't already own a dock if I was going to have to buy one it was going to be for all the devices and not just for my work). Funny thing is even once enabled I had to battle again to get HP's equivalent universal dock whitelisted too when we ran out of surface docks at work...

When at home I use a 4K main display, 2 1080p displays and the surface laptop's display - all at 60hz. I see no reason why the surface pro 7 could not also do this since its what the dock supports.

Daisy chaining off my 4K dell forces it to run at 30hz and the 1080p monitor it chains to runs at 60hz. Daisy chaining basically useless since it doesn't have enough bandwidth to do it properly as far as I can tell.

If you can borrow a decent displaylink dock perhaps its worth having a play and see if it actually suits your needs better than the official dock.