Laptop that can drive 2 x Ultra-wide monitors

[Buttery Ken]

Hi All

I'm looking to buy my wife a new laptop. It has to be Windows, and my go-to would usually be a Thinkpad X1 Carbon.

The latest Gen-11 looks like a great machine (a Gen-10 would be sufficient too if the deal is good) but I can't see anything that tells me that the Iris XE chipset can drive two 3440 x 1400 screens which she'll have at home.

In the office I think she has a Dell D6000 dock (current laptop is Dell). And I can find a Lenovo USB-C/Thunderbolt dock for home (I'm sure I've got one somewhere!). Do does the Iris XE chipset actually 'matter'? As the dock is doing all the work?

In the office she'll keep the laptop open, and have 2 x 1080p screens either side. At home it'll be closed and just have the two ultra-wides.

Any thoughts?

[Whoozit]

Bit of googling - second dropdown?

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/ar...

[Buttery Ken]

Whoozit said:

Bit of googling - second dropdown?

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/ar...

Thanks - Iris Xe Max isn't the same as Iris Xe though. However, the detail under 11th gen Intel seems accurate.

I'll take a punt I think!

[Domski86]

Anything vaguely modern should have no trouble driving the screens in a purely 2d (ala windows/office) environment, the issue will be how the laptop connects to the screens.

Most decent screens support Multi Stream Transport (daisy chaining) where the laptop connects to one screen via usb-c or display port, then the screen connects to the other

See here

[Haltamer]

Any USB-C (Even a USB-A) dock & Laptop will make short work of outputting 2x 1080P.

The real trouble comes when you want to drive multiple 4K displays

I've got a HP Probook 430G8 (i5-1135G7, Intel Iris XE iGPU) Driving..
Internal 1920x1080
Central 3840x2160 (Via HDMI)
Left 1920x1080 via Dell WD19 (USBC)
Right 1920x1080 via Dell WD19 (USBC)

All 60Hz.

Not too bad for two cables - It can drive all three external displays over USBC, but falls back to 1080P - Looking forward to getting a laptop with TB4 support & a WD22TB4 Dock... Should be able to bodge it into running 3x 4K then.

For any recent devices, the limitation will be the dock bandwith before the IGPU, Unless it's severely hobnobbed (Macbook Air M1 will apparently only output 1x)

[Lucas Ayde]

As others have said, anything from recent years should have no problem as long as it has 2x outputs and you aren't looking to play games.

Even the low end integrated graphics from Intel and AMD can put out twin 4k displays.

If you can, look for something that has at least one 'full-service' USB-C port in addition to HDMI (or DP). That gives you a lot of flexibility. eg. At work I power my Macbook off a USB-C connected ultrawide (which has an onboard hub too). Very convenient.

[Buttery Ken]

Just to bring this to a close, and in typical PH-fashion I've gone completely against what I originally thought

I use a M2 Macbook Air as a daily - I connect it to a Satechi 'dock' for my external monitor, and usb ports for webcam etc. External keyboard and touchpad and it works brilliantly.

So I've convinced my wife to go down the same route and will get a 15" M2 Macbook Air. I know it won't run two external monitors without some faffing but worse-case she can run the laptop screen on her desk for emails, and use her ultrawide for other stuff.

I've warned her there might be a steep learning curve but...shiny....

Thanks all

[bobthemonkey]

Buttery Ken said:

Just to bring this to a close, and in typical PH-fashion I've gone completely against what I originally thought

I use a M2 Macbook Air as a daily - I connect it to a Satechi 'dock' for my external monitor, and usb ports for webcam etc. External keyboard and touchpad and it works brilliantly.

So I've convinced my wife to go down the same route and will get a 15" M2 Macbook Air. I know it won't run two external monitors without some faffing but worse-case she can run the laptop screen on her desk for emails, and use her ultrawide for other stuff.

I've warned her there might be a steep learning curve but...shiny....

Thanks all

If you think dual screens will be an issue, you could probably get the 14” M1 MacBook Pro from the Apple refurb store for similar money to the 15” Air.: