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By PURPLELEC | 03 December 2024 | 0 Comments

DisplayLink docks FAQ

  1.Should you buy a DisplayLink USB-C dock?
  Not all DisplayLink docks are created equal, which is why we test them. But for office workers on Windows, absolutely. For gamers, give it a pass.
  DisplayLink docking station offers a chance to expand your PC’s I/O capabilities, even with hardware that doesn’t support Thunderbolt. If you aren’t comfortable with this, feel free to return to the relative safety of a either a generic USB-C dongle or a powerful Thunderbolt dock: Both offer simplicity and a known experience.
  2.How do I know if my dock is a DisplayLink dock?
  It should prominently feature a DisplayLink logo, which we include a photo of earlier in the story. Not always, though.
  Shopping for a DisplayLink dock can be a bit confusing, too, since the term “DisplayLink dock” isn’t really in vogue. Instead, vendors will sometimes use “USB-C dock” instead. Just read the documentation closely and look for the label.
  3.How much should a DisplayLink docking station cost?
  DisplayLink was a much cheaper alternative to Thunderbolt docks during the height of the work-from-home years. Then, a Thunderbolt dock would cost about $300, and a DisplayLink dock about $150 to $200 or so. Prices for both have come down some, with DisplayLink docks starting for as low as $125.
  4.How many devices can a DisplayLink dock support?
  You’ll usually see close to as many ports on a DisplayLink dock as you will on a Thunderbolt dock, and maybe more. In general, DisplayLink is just fine for connecting multiple devices simultaneously. It’s when they’re all in use, transferring data, that the bus may get clogged and transfer rates may slow down.
  5.What’s better, a DisplayLink dock or a Thunderbolt dock?
  For now, there’s a case to be made that a DisplayLink dock is a better value: They’re generally cheaper, more stable, and offer the potential for more displays. But if you’re a gamer, the answer is not the same. Gamers should buy a Thunderbolt dock instead.
  The game changes, though, when Thunderbolt 5 debuts later in 2024. Then, Thunderbolt 5 bandwidth will shoot up to 80Gbps in both directions, allowing those docks to connect to four 4K displays at 144Hz refresh rates and offer improved charging.
  6.Can a DisplayLink dock charge your laptop and your smartphone?
  If the DisplayLink docking station ships with its own external power brick, it should be able to, yes. Most DisplayLink docks supply the same amount of power as a Thunderbolt dock (a maximum of 90 to 95W to your laptop, and hopefully enough power to fast-charge a smartphone.)
  7.Is a DisplayLink docking station plug and play?
  Not really. You’ll need a driver from Synaptics or the dock maker to enable the dock’s full functionality.
  8.What’s DSC and HBR3? I’ve heard that those are a competitor to DisplayLink.
  Display Stream Compression with High Bandwidth Rate 3 (DSC with HBR3) is a more open version of DisplayLink. It doesn’t require a software driver, but you won’t see this technology advertised at all. However, you will find it in products like the Purplelec DS018R, which uses Thunderbolt 4 and DSC to enable four external 4K displays.
  Basically, the same rules apply. If you own a recent, modern laptop, you may have one with DSC inside: It’s found within laptops with an Nvidia GeForce RTX graphics chip, or as part of Intel’s “Tiger Lake” platform, aka the 11th-gen Core chips. But this is absolutely not a feature that laptop makers advertise, either.
  9.Are DisplayLink and DisplayPort the same thing?
  No, they’re not, though the names are confusingly similar.
  DisplayPort is a physical display connector as well as a display protocol. Your laptop can route DisplayPort display protocols over Thunderbolt without ever using the connector itself. DisplayPort can also be routed over a USB-C connection encoded with DisplayLink, too.
  10.Is a DisplayLink dock good for gaming?
  Not especially. It’s best for productivity, which uses a number of windows with static applications. Any time you push gobs and gobs of data over the DisplayLink bus, as you would with gaming, you risk the connection being saturated and your game reduced to a stuttery mess.
  You may be able to “game” with a slow-paced game or one that doesn’t use a lot of fast-paced motion or detailed graphics, but it’s risky.

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