7680 x 1440 off DP Alienware 18 How is this even possible?

I have no idea how I got this to work. I've tried for months to get this setup to work, toying around with different components but I had pretty much given up on it.

I woke up today and was browsing online for new monitors (ASUS ROG Swift looks amazing). I decided to mess around with the resolutions of my current monitors again and found it odd that I was able to set all 3 of my external monitors to 2560 x 1440 resolution. I didn't think it would work, it never did before, but I tried it anyway and to my surprise my monitors actually are running!


So right now I have 3 2560x1440 monitors running off of the Alienware 18's single DisplayPort + the laptop's screen itself. They are running in extended mode, not mirror/duplicate mode. I assume I could even plug another monitor into the unoccupied HDMI right now .

I have NEVER been able to do this before with this setup - hell, I couldn't even get the 3 external monitors to run at 1080p all at once off the same port so I had to use the HDMI port.

Does anyone know how this is even possible? This should be well beyond my GPU's maximum output resolution. The only thing that has changed recently is that there was a Windows update this morning.

Here's a screenshot that summarizes everything, works way better than me trying to explain everything to you. No clue what's going on.

Please have a look and let me know if you have any ideas.You will have to scroll horizontally to see the entire photo (it's 9600 x 1440 pixels).

View image: ippf

 

Display port can transport multiple streams of information. also called DIsplay port MST

 

Yeah this is pretty standard for any gpu with DP that does not run optimus.

 

Wow, thanks for the reply guys. I think I completely misunderstood the maximum output rating of my GPU. On Nvidia's website 3840 x 2160 is listed as the max "DisplayPort MultiMode Support" resolution. I took that to mean the total number of pixels I could output, regardless of the amount of screens.
So if I'm understanding this correctly, I could potentially hookup three 4k monitors to my laptop via DP MST?

May I ask - what then is the cap for my DisplayPort? Will I be limited by total resolution, total number of output monitors my GPU supports, total number of monitors DP MST supports, or something else entirely?

 

This is very interesting to me. I've wanted for a long time to hook up 3 monitors but according to threads like this it can't be done. Everybody said you can only do 2 external monitors or 1 external and the laptop monitor. There was one guy who said he got it to work but he had ATI cards and not Nvidia's. I have a M18R2 with dual 680's and everywhere I check says it can't be done. Which model do you have? Did you essentially daisy chain the DP connections from monitor to monitor? Any help would be appreciated, I'll go buy 3 monitors this weekend if it can be done.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...thread-ask-questions-find-solutions-here.html

 

See, what the problem was enduro/ optimus because the video was still routed through the CPU's integrated graphics and you were limited by the max screen outputs of the integrated graphics. Or in your case, just running integrated graphics. So in your case, all you have to do is too make sure you are running on your 680s and not Intel HD 4000. You should be able to check this in the BIOS, device manager, GPU-Z, or what ever tool you use. ( its fn+f7 to switch graphics for you guys too right?)


Now, I don't personally have this machine, but for the time i read about the 18's, that should be it.


Sent from my SGH-T999

 

On Fermi, Nvidia restricted the output to 2 screens when using a single GPU (3 if you had a laptop display along with it.) Regardless of whether you use DisplayPort or not, even on Quadro cards. They would only allow 3+ screens when using SLI mode. I assume that was a way to try and force gamers and IT professionals to purchase more expensive SLI setups.

They stopped using that outrageous policy on Kepler GPUs, if they hadn't I would have switched to AMD, regardless of their GPUs performance.

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

 

Crap so basically I'd need the 780m or 880m not my 680m is what you are saying. That sucks, looks like I'm going to be selling my rig then.

 

As far as I know of, the GTX 680M is Kepler.

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

 

Yeah, 680m is Kepler.

Sent from my SGH-T999

 

Looks like you are correct. I may just have to bite the bullet and buy the monitors to try it.

 

sorry to unearth this !

Anymore news / people who have tried this?

 

Holy thread resurrection, this is a year old!

FWIW you radeon guys, supposedly in discrete GPU only mode, AMD eyefinity will give us up to 6 displays through a 7970M. Quoted from notebookcheck: "Furthermore, the 7970M can directly support up to 6 connected monitors using Eyefinity Technology if Enduro is disabled."