Oh no. Well that's very disheartening to read. The Surface is unable to video output to a 4K display at 60Hz
Trouble outputting to 4K display
- Thread starter JReinhal
- Start date
Jamie Youngblood
Member
Just to clarify, the SP3 can drive a 4k display at 60Hz. But it does it using MST mode. You have 3 monitor buses to work with, each with a max ~3200x2000x60Hz. You can use two of those to drive a single 4k monitor @ 60Hz using a single DP1.2 cable. You then have one bus left over which you could use, e.g., to drive your surface display.
So as long as your monitor supports MST, you are OK.
Ahhh, ok. I see. So I will have to custom resolution to set up the MST.
Ok, so Im a bit lost now. How do I set up MST mode?
surfdock
Active Member
So it turns out that 60Hz 4K is not well supported on SP3 right now. 30Hz works just fine. This is a limitation of the Intel U-series chips and the bandwidth they can support on a single DisplayPort data stream.
I don't think monitors like the Samsung U28D590D or Asus PB287Q support the tiled MST mode over a single cable that others are suggesting as a workaround. You can try going into the monitor on-screen menu and switching between DP1.2 and DP1.1 mode if something like that is available, but this made no difference on the Asus 4K monitor I have. Many of these monitors have a "Picture-by-Picture" mode where you can use an HDMI-cable for one side of the screen and a DisplayPort cable on the other side and each is 1920*2160. I haven't tried this option yet but will give it a shot next week with a docking station. I suspect this will be a painful approach.
Some older screens like the Asus PQ321Q are actually less advanced and rely on stitching two half screens together to make the single 4K image since no timing controllers to do the full bandwidth were available at design-time. However, since these monitors rely on two streams, the SP3 actually does seem to work if you use the Intel 3621 drivers and the full control panel collage mode to stich it together. Here is a guide on how to set that up:
https://communities.intel.com/thread/48023?start=0&tstart=0
I'll see if I can collect all the info on available 4K consumer panels and summarize into an SP3 4K guide for the site.
Personally, if I had $600-$700 to blow on monitors right now, I'd get two nice 1920x1200 IPS panels or a 2560x1440 IPS with some beer money left over.
I don't think monitors like the Samsung U28D590D or Asus PB287Q support the tiled MST mode over a single cable that others are suggesting as a workaround. You can try going into the monitor on-screen menu and switching between DP1.2 and DP1.1 mode if something like that is available, but this made no difference on the Asus 4K monitor I have. Many of these monitors have a "Picture-by-Picture" mode where you can use an HDMI-cable for one side of the screen and a DisplayPort cable on the other side and each is 1920*2160. I haven't tried this option yet but will give it a shot next week with a docking station. I suspect this will be a painful approach.
Some older screens like the Asus PQ321Q are actually less advanced and rely on stitching two half screens together to make the single 4K image since no timing controllers to do the full bandwidth were available at design-time. However, since these monitors rely on two streams, the SP3 actually does seem to work if you use the Intel 3621 drivers and the full control panel collage mode to stich it together. Here is a guide on how to set that up:
I'll see if I can collect all the info on available 4K consumer panels and summarize into an SP3 4K guide for the site.
Personally, if I had $600-$700 to blow on monitors right now, I'd get two nice 1920x1200 IPS panels or a 2560x1440 IPS with some beer money left over.
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Thank you for your wonderful update. I suppose that's Why I'm getting bandwidth errors when I try to output 4k at 60hz.
Any idea why I'm unable to get any sort of image at all via the dock to the 4k monitor?
surfdock
Active Member
Hey JReinhal, I know when the Dock was first released, some customers were having problems getting the display working. I thought that was fixed with the latest firmware and windows updates for Surface Pro 3. If you can't get any monitor to display on the dock miniDisplayPort with latest update, but the one on the tablet itself works OK, then you might want to exchange the dock for a new one. Make sure to test the dock at the store with a monitor they have. If the new dock doesn't work either, then it may be your tablet that isn't working properly.
Another thing to try is a miniDP->HDMI adapter. A colleague at work with your *exact* same configuration got everything working at 30Hz with this adapter:
http://www.amazon.com/Accell-B086B-007B-2-Active-Adapter-Packaging/dp/B00F90H77A
Or a USB -> DisplayPort adapter: http://plugable.com/products/uga-4kdp
BTW the Microsoft dock is a passthrough for the DisplayPort signal. If you open the dock up (use a pentalobe screwdriver bit) you'll see this clearly - its basically just a 6" extension cable from the tablet 40-pin power/super connector to the miniDP receptacle. Even small extension cables can have an impact on signal quality. Anyway, by attaching a miniDP->HDMI adapter right to the dock, you're regenerating the signal altogether.
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