I’ve ran into this situation multiple times at my current and previous jobs. I really want to avoid Windows and use something better, but I can’t live without two external monitors.
On Windows, it “just works”. I don’t have to do anything.
On Linux (I tried Linux Mint today) it doesn’t work. First, it only connected one of the monitors, the other one did not register. Then I switched to a different cable from the computer to the docking station and it connected both screens - however, they were locked to 30fps. I could not make them work at 60fps (and this is a major dealbreaker, I cannot live with 30fps).
This isn’t really a tech support question, I’m more trying to understand what fundamentally causes this situation. Why is Linux still struggling with pretty basic functionality that Windows does with zero setup? Is it the vendor of the laptop and docking station that aren’t properly supporting Linux? Or is it some other problem?
Any virtual graphics on any dock is going to suck for any OS. They don’t play well when you ask them to do “graphics stuff,” and some don’t even play well just doing regular old web browsing, word processing. Laggy, choppy, imprecise, etc. With a laptop (only reason I can think you’d be using a dock in the first place), you’re better off using an external enclosure with a dedicated real GPU of your choosing.
Agreed. Which is why I recommended a different dock.
For the most they work fine for productivity applications and video - but even on windows you get frequent disconnects from the monitors.
The external enclosure is unnecessary with modern laptops as they should support multiple display’s over usb-c. So instead of using a dock with a virtual card you want a usb-c display capable laptop with a dock that is also capable.
Oh sure, if you’ve got something that will pass through the onboard video, you should be good, though you would still be limited to your onboard GPU capability.
I’ve been real happy with my enclosure and RX580 8GB (it was cheap as a “used, not used” takeoff). Keep in mind that if you decide to go with an external enclosure over USB-C, the GPU you use is going to operate at about 80% of what it would do installed directly in a desktop case. It’s still head and shoulders above the onboard performance.
It was perfectly fine on my M1 Mac + Thunderbolt 3 / DisplayLink dock for 2x1080p@60. You could feel slight input lag and a hint of judder in video games but for video and office work you wouldn’t be able to tell it wasn’t native.
I had a similar experience with a couple of Dell USB-C docks. The “good” one was as you describe, although I was running higher resolution displays, so games were off the table, and the slight input lag you saw while gaming, I could see while doing office work. Way too annoying. The “bad” one was just unusable. That’s what drove me to the external enclosure with Thunderbolt, which I am now using with three displays, two at 1920@60, one at 2560@144.
Yeah, it was Dell D6000. I switched to a single big monitor while my gf is using my old setup for remote work and she’s never noticed anything off. We’re also using some Lenovo DisplayLink docks in the office and those are ever so slightly laggier but still OK for that type work. Obviously it’s a bit of a niche case and last resort for personal use but I wouldn’t write them off wholesale.