Is it possible 4 monitors connected to a laptop?

How can one connect 4 monitors to a laptop? A laptop with the ne w RTX 30XX series that is.

What would be needed or how would this setup look like? Via Thunderbolt? Display Port? HDMI? or is a docking station needed?

@custom90gt @etern4l

 

Depends on the laptop I guess. On the m15 it's easy, and there are a couple of options:
1xmDP, 1xHDMi + USB dongles or docking stations with 2xHDMi or 2x DP as needed.
Additionally, you could use a TB3 eGPU and I believe desktop graphics cards support up to 4 monitors (edit: NVIDIA 4, up to 3 UHD; AMD 6 with some restrictions)
or on FW laptops we could also dig up the old AGA for an additional 4-6 monitors.

So basically I could attach at, let's see:
2 internal + 3x2 USB + 2x4 eGPU = 16 FHD monitors to my m15. Actually, apparently AMD cards support up to 6 monitors, so I could have 20+ monitors in theory.
That's enough to drive a decent monitor wall, or build like monitor dome one enters to be completely surrounded by screens for the purpose of immersion and isolation from the grim reality of real life lol (*)

(*) not sure if there is a Windows limit on this - haven't used more than 6 screens personally.

 

Someone from Linus Tech Tips forum said:

 

You have to ask yourself: who is right? Bro @etern4l, or someone from LTT forum

I'm not sure what "No" referred to exactly, I'll assume it's kind of an answer to your "How can one connect 4 monitors to a laptop? " question. The solution I described works because the USB docking station or one of those $20-30 dongles have built-in basic display controllers, and cheap models with two video output per device are readily available. You won't be able to game on this, but good enough for desktop work. Worth paying attention to HDMI version supported, as this can limit framerate

(And of course if you are using eGPU and/or AGA those are additional independent GPUs too).

If the question was can a laptop with a single Nvidia GPU handle 4 screens: then indeed "no". It can just handle as many as the number of direct video outputs allows I think. So in the case of the usual FW, it would be just 2 screens unless the mDP output can be split, then maybe 3 (+the internal display) .

 

Actually, there is one more option: it might be possible to split the mDP signal to multiple monitors.

https://blog.tripplite.com/how-to-connect-a-single-displayport-signal-to-multiple-monitors

This way in theory you could have a single onboard Nvidia GPU drive 4 displays: 1xinternal, 1xHDMI, 2xmDP split - it's a big if multiple displays per single mDP are supported by say our AWs, so more likely just 3 displays can be driven by the dGPU.

 

Rather more a bandwidh limits. Lets say you want to connect only 4K monitors. This is different beast than connect many monitors with etc the lower 720p resolution. Hz will also come into play into this calculation.

 

Yes, I was assuming the usual office 1080p 60Hz screens. There would be enough bandwidth for that

 

This may be of interest.

 

If it’s setup such that external monitors turn on if you close the lid, hopefully should free up that bandwidth from internal . My dad uses 3 monitors with his Dell dock but with the internal screen off it should be possible to get that extra one in, if 4 is the hard limit.

Edit:
Seems 3 independent displays is the limit for the Intel GPU but if you use a dock with DisplayLink apparently it likely won’t count towards limit:
munity/Latitude/Latitute-7490-w-WD15-docking-station-Setting-up-4-monitor/td-p/7372369

Maybe this would do:
Quad 4K DisplayLink Dock by Targus (Warning steep price)
https://ca.targus.com/products/usb-...ng-station-100-watt-power-delivery-dock570usz

 

Two many variables here but some food for thought:

Refresh rates and resolutions are very important. For bigger screens we may be looking at QHD and UHD resolution and then things can get more complicated.

I would start out with a Thunderbolt dock with two monitor outputs and add two display outputs from the laptop into the mix and take it from there.

 

Depends on the laptop and configured specs. Easiest solution is a eGPU or DisplayLink adapter