An external GPU may be the way to go. Doesn't have to be a beast of a GPU. Probably best to find one thats AMD for easy compatibility. You could also find one that has the amount of connections you need.
this post was submitted on 07 Jul 2024
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Steam Deck
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in my experience the official dock has trouble with just one monitor. i couldn't imagine trying to configure 3.
when i boot into desktop mode with the official dock, there's a 50-50 chance that it just doesn't load the image at all on the monitor and i have to take it off the dock and just use desktop in handheld mode.
maybe a better splitter or connection could do it. but the official dock seems to have a lot of issues with USB inputs in general.
oh yeah sometimes mine does that too. i have 1440p and 1080p hooked to the dock. sometimes they struggle but i think its just driver issue so i just rebooted the deck and its running normally again.
once you running more than 1 monitor. you can never go back.
You might be able to get this to work, but not in the way you are currently thinking (and it would be kind of janky). The Tablet needs a USB-C port with Displayport alt mode, so a USB-C port that can also transmit Displayport signals. Not every USB-C port and no USB-A port can do that. But Displayport supports daisy chaining multiple monitors from one port on the device. With multiple (pretty expensive) adapters you might be able to do it. You would need a Displayport daisy chain adapter (a few Monitors have this built in) to get two usable ports from the single one on the dock and one that converts a Displayport and a USB-A port to USB-C with Displayport alt mode. But this might still not work because of compatibility problems, so I would only try this, if you have free returns.
I assume the tablet gets its video through standard HDMI/DP over USB-C, hence a USB-A to C adapter wouldn't work.
If you still want to use the tablet with the official dock, there may be HDMI+USB -> USB-C adapters capable of inserting the HDMI signal into the USB-C connection. I'm not too knowledgeable on this topic, so you may want to resort to some more research of your own.
Also keep in mind (as far as I'm aware) there's a hard limit on 2 external monitors, unless you use some "trickery" like DisplayLink.
thanks for the info. the displaylink method sound okay, if i assumed it only mirrors one of the display then its a viable option. however those thing are pricy...
So the setup is currently two external monitors? Or does that include the Deck monitor? Is the USB connection to the Wacom just for pen input or does it transfer image as well? If USB-C is used as the monitor port it most definitely will not work with USB-A of any kind. Not even USB-A 3.1. You either need a different dock with a USB-C port or you need the Wacom Link Plus (which means you probably also need a different dock with at least 2 HDMI ports or one HDMI and one DisplayPort).
i forgot to specify. yea, currently im running two external monitors. one 1080p and the other is 1440p.
the wacom movink is a display tablet with pen touch so i'd assume basically an external monitor hence the third monitor.
thats a bummer, thanks for the info.
Ah yea I didn't realize the official dock has 2 ports for display output. Valve is bae.
There are definitely docks that have 3 display outputs, which would be a viable option if you also buy the Wacom Link Plus. I personally don't know of any docks that have 2 display outputs and a USB-C port that is display-capable. There may be Thunderbolt ones but Steam Deck doesn't do Thunderbolt unfortunately.
So yea I guess your only option is a different dock plus Wacom Link Plus. I don't see any other personally.
thank you for your info. seems like searching other docks is the most cost efficient for me. other commenter said that steam deck has a hard limit of 2 external displays, i cant find info if its true or not.
Check my edited comment, I'm pretty certain my limit was wrong.
thank you for your time for do a bit of a research
according to some redditor the limits are
one monitor 8K 60Hz | one monitor 4K 120Hz | three monitors 4K 30Hz | three monitors 2K 60Hz
which makes a lot more sense to me than a hard limit. driving displays as far as graphics processors are concerned is just a matter of data bandwidth. so the more pixels you want to drive the fewer monitors you will be able to run
I think it would struggle to have the bandwidth to pull that off, but maybe if you keep the resolution and refresh rate down. And that's assuming USB-C to USB-A would work in this case, which I don't know the answer to.
thanks for the info. other commenter said that usb c cant be converted to A, unfortunately.