additional displays through USB type-a

[Froger96]

Hi all,

I have a laptop and a single screen (120hz 1080p) and I am looking to get a second 1440p screen for graphic work.

However my laptop only has one HDMI out. I have seen that there are usb 3.0 to HDMI adapters, but most are 1080p only, and don't list refresh rates.

I don't have a type-c port, but the type-a ports are 3.1 so do have the increased bandwidth. Is there a combination of adapters that I could use.

for example: USB type-a (male) to type-c (female) then getting a usb-c to hdmi 4K dongle for my 1440p screen and use build in HDMI for 120hz

I can't afford a new PC right now. I just don't know if through a chain of dongles I am still going to be able to output a video signal?

 

Thanks in advance

[mariushm]

It's not really about the bandwidth but rather the chip inside the dongle. 

Basically a driver create a virtual video card with a monitor attached to it, and then 60 times a second, it sends the differences (or a snapshot) to the usb dongle, which updates its buffer and produces the digital signal on the hdmi output.

if the chip has only 1920 x 1200 x 3 bytes per pixel  = 6.220.800 bytes = ~ < 6 MB of memory then it won't be able to work with higher resolutions. 

 

Here for example : https://www.amazon.com/Wavlink-2048x1152-External-Projector-XP-Black/dp/B01CSG7TUC

 

is a dongle which claims it can do 2048 x 1152 and the description even says it uses a DisplayLink DL-3900 chipset, so you can find datasheet for it .. here's a cached copy from google for product brief 

[Froger96]

That was very helpful, I looked at the datasheet you linked and searched the highest end model number of the chip (for higher resolution) and amazon found this which supports 1400p at 50hz (which is fine as will mostly be doing graphic word/video editing at 25fps)

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Plugable-Graphics-Multiple-Monitors-2560x1440/dp/B01C6HBJOA/ref=asc_df_B01C6HBJOA/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=309903005216&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=5869479879276883213&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9045712&hvtargid=pla-403440382314&psc=1

 

Would this be something worth getting?