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T430s usb 3.0 dual DP dock and DP to Dual DP adapter, can I drive 4 monitors?

T430-T490, T530-T590 Series
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discord
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T430s usb 3.0 dual DP dock and DP to Dual DP adapter, can I drive 4 monitors?

#1 Post by discord » Sat Oct 14, 2017 1:04 am

I have a T430s and an usb 3.0 dual DP dock. I now have 4 identical Lenovo 1920x1080 DP monitors. I'm currently driving 2 DP monitors off the usb3 dock both using DP. I am wondering if I get two of the lenovo DP -> dual DP adapters, will I be able to drive 4 monitors. From what I understand those adapters make the system think a pair is a single display. I think I have the integrated HD4000 hardware.

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Re: T430s usb 3.0 dual DP dock and DP to Dual DP adapter, can I drive 4 monitors?

#2 Post by Whitieiii » Sat Oct 14, 2017 3:35 pm

Natively I believe the ThinkPad T430 can handle 3 displays max but it requires the NVS 5400 Graphics card and if hooked up correct... The t430s requires the docking station with 2 display port for 3 monitors.... The intel only T430 only allows 2 extended monitors regardless of the dock or side of machine.... The t440p/s only allows 3 monitors only if hooked up to correct ports at same time.... The W540 and newer should handle 6 extended monitors with dock and P50 should be able to handle 5 with dock I beleve

I gave options for you if you absolutely need to have more than 3 monitors but this is how Lenovo has it configured
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Re: T430s usb 3.0 dual DP dock and DP to Dual DP adapter, can I drive 4 monitors?

#3 Post by Whitieiii » Sat Oct 14, 2017 3:38 pm

It's a waste of power imo if two displays are mirrored but there are times when mirroring displays is useful but I haven't found a use for mirror displays
My Collection:
A30 Pentium 3 512MB ram 60GB HDD Win 98SE
HP 8460p 2nd gen i7 8GB ram 500GB HDD Radeon 6470m Win 7
T440p 4th gen i7 12GB ram GT 730m 1TB SSD Win 10
X1 Extreme Gen 2 16GB ram 1650 M-Q 1TB SSD Win 10
x260 6th gen i-series
Mum's T440s 4th gen i5 8GB ram 300GB SSD Win 10

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Re: T430s usb 3.0 dual DP dock and DP to Dual DP adapter, can I drive 4 monitors?

#4 Post by Thinkpad4by3 » Sat Oct 14, 2017 3:48 pm

discord wrote:
Sat Oct 14, 2017 1:04 am
I have a T430s and an usb 3.0 dual DP dock. I now have 4 identical Lenovo 1920x1080 DP monitors. I'm currently driving 2 DP monitors off the usb3 dock both using DP. I am wondering if I get two of the lenovo DP -> dual DP adapters, will I be able to drive 4 monitors. From what I understand those adapters make the system think a pair is a single display. I think I have the integrated HD4000 hardware.
Your best solution is a external graphics card solution. That is the best way because the graphics card CAN easily handle that many displays. The HD4000 pushing 4 displays is pretty much impossible. Try and cram 4 people into a 2 seater car that can maybe fit three.
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The efficiency of two screens equally sized with equal numbers if pixels are equal. The time spent by a 4:3 user complaining about 16:9 is proportional to the inefficiency working with a 16:9 display, therefore the amount of useful work extracted is equal.

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Re: T430s usb 3.0 dual DP dock and DP to Dual DP adapter, can I drive 4 monitors?

#5 Post by dr_st » Sun Oct 15, 2017 2:02 am

It should work. 2 displays handled by the HD graphics, 2 displays handled by the USB 3.0 graphics. The USB dock is its own video device, the Intel graphics is not involved.
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Re: T430s usb 3.0 dual DP dock and DP to Dual DP adapter, can I drive 4 monitors?

#6 Post by ZaZ » Sun Oct 15, 2017 4:00 am

The Lenovo USB 3.0 to DVI/VGA Monitor Adapter(0B47072) might be worth a look. Supposedly it supports up to six monitors if you've got enough USB 3.0 ports.
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Re: T430s usb 3.0 dual DP dock and DP to Dual DP adapter, can I drive 4 monitors?

#7 Post by Thinkpad4by3 » Sun Oct 15, 2017 8:38 am

Yea, but the problem is that those displays are run off the CPU and if you don't have a sufficiently powerful CPU or are doing tasks that really CPU intensive, you will start having problems, especially over that many displays.
Thinkpad4by3's Law of the Universe.

The efficiency of two screens equally sized with equal numbers if pixels are equal. The time spent by a 4:3 user complaining about 16:9 is proportional to the inefficiency working with a 16:9 display, therefore the amount of useful work extracted is equal.

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