The Plugable USB4 Dual HDMI Docking Station for Windows UD-4VPD relies on DisplayPort MST to support two HDMI external displays from a single USB Type-C connection when used with a compatible host computer.

Compatible Windows 11 notebook computers with USB4 or Thunderbolt 4 and support for DisplayPort 1.4 with HBR3 (High Bit Rate version 3) and DSC (Display Stream Compression) can support up to two 4K 120Hz displays. Unfortunately these technologies are not required to be implemented on all computers with USB4 or Thunderbolt 4 capability and not all systems will be capable of supporting these high resolution displays.

This docking station is also compatible with Windows USB 3 Type-C with DisplayPort Alternate Mode, and Thunderbolt 3 systems.  These host systems will have reduced external display resolution or refresh rate.

Apple Mac systems will only be capable of supporting a single extended display with this docking station at up to 60Hz refresh rate.  When connecting two displays to the docking station, both displays will show the same desktop, applications, and mouse movements ( just like mirrored mode ) however only one will be detected within the macOS Display Settings window.

Multiple display capabilities for USB4/Thunderbolt 4 systems:

• USB4/Thunderbolt 4 Windows systems with DisplayPort 1.4 HBR3 DSC (High Bit Rate 3 with Display Stream Compression) can support a single 8K (7680x4320) 60Hz display, or dual 8K 30Hz displays. Dual 4K (3840x2160) 120Hz displays, or dual 1080P 120Hz displays.
• Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3) Mac computers do not support DisplayPort MST (Multi-Stream Transport) technology, this can support a single display through this docking station, however if two displays are connected their outputs will be mirrored (the same desktop workspace will be displayed, with the same applications and they will not be individually usable displays, mirroring occurs in the docking station hardware and is not configurable within macOS).  Apple Silicon computers can support a HDMI display up to 4K 60Hz.

Multiple display capabilities for Thunderbolt 3 systems:

• Thunderbolt 3 Windows systems  can enable up a single 4K 30Hz display, or two 1080P 60Hz Displays in extended HDMI displays.
• Thunderbolt 3 Apple Macs with Intel processors can enable a single 4K 30Hz display, or mirrored 4K 30Hz displays (mirroring occurs in the docking station hardware and is not configurable with macOS).

Multiple display capabilities for USB-C only Windows systems:

• USB-C DP Alt Mode MFDP Windows systems with DisplayPort 1.4 HBR3 with DSC (High Bit Rate 3 with Display Stream Compression) can support up to two external displays at 4K 60Hz, or one 8K 30Hz display.
• USB-C DP Alt Mode MFDP Windows systems with DisplayPort 1.4 HBR3 without DSC (High Bit Rate 3 without Display Stream Compression) can support up to two 1440P (2560x1440) 60Hz displays, or one 4K 60Hz display.
• USB-C DP Alt Mode MFDP Windows systems with DisplayPort 1.2 HBR2  (High Bit Rate 2) can support a single 4K 30Hz display, or two 1080P 60Hz displays.

Display Capability Table

System Specific Capabilities

Important Notes:

• Windows 10 and Windows 11 systems will try to mirror/clone attached displays by default upon first connect, it will be required to separate any mirrored/cloned displays and change them to be extended in the Windows Display Settings.
• Some Thunderbolt 3 Windows systems will only support a single DisplayPort stream, this limits the maximum refresh rate to 30Hz when using two 4K displays. Please check with your system manufacturer to verify dual displays via Thunderbolt 3 are supported. (a common example would be the popular Intel NUC hosts which usually only support a single display through Thunderbolt 3)
• High Refresh Rates (above 60Hz) may cause reduced system performance especially with multiple high refresh rate displays, this is most often a limitation of the computer's graphics hardware, not all computers can support high refresh rate displays.
• We do not support HDR (High Dynamic Range) or adaptive sync/variable refresh rate (such as AMD FreeSync or Nvidia G-Sync technologies)
• Notebook computers with dual-graphics controllers, for example Intel and NVIDIA, in a switchable graphics mode may have reduced maximum resolutions and refresh rates compared to either of the individual graphics controllers.
• Apple macOS does not support DisplayPort MST and can only support a single display connected to this docking station. If two displays are connected they may be mirrored (showing the same content) or only one display will be active and the second display will remain blank.
• Linux is not supported with this docking station, in testing Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, 23.04 and Fedora 38 were not able to reliably detect or enable the external displays connected to the docking station, capability may change with future releases or Kernel updates and we will reassess support as time goes on.

Terms and definitions:

• MFDP or Multi-Function DisplayPort: A USB Type-C port with DisplayPort 'Alternate Mode' capability to transmit native DisplayPort formatted video signal to a connected display or docking station. 
   
• DisplayPort MST: Multi-Stream Technology, effectively "splits" the DisplayPort bandwidth between multiple displays, allowing a single DisplayPort connection to support multiple external displays.
• USB Type-C DisplayPort Alternate Mode or "Alt-Mode" for short: this is an optional USB Type-C port feature which allows for the USB Type-C port to support external displays like a native DisplayPort
• Thunderbolt DisplayPort: similar to USB Type-C DisplayPort Alternate Mode this allows for a display to be connected to a host computer through a Type-C port, however Thunderbolt tunnels DisplayPort data instead of providing dedicated conductors for video data.
• DisplayPort HBR2, HBR3: DisplayPort High Bit Rate 2 and High Bit Rate 3 sets the available bandwidth for a DisplayPort connection, HBR3 doubles the bandwidth of HBR2 allowing for higher resolution displays.
• Display Stream Compression or "DSC" for short: is a VESA developed "visually lossless" video compression technology to provide additional bandwidth on both DisplayPort and HDMI connections.  This allows for higher resolutions and refresh rates using the same physical hardware.
• CPU the Central Processing Unit is the computer's main processor handling most of the computational operations, manufacturers include Intel, AMD (Advanced Micro Devices), and Apple (M1/M2 Apple Silicon).
• GPU the Graphics Processing Unit is the computer's graphics processor handling graphics computations like drawing the display, and rendering 2D and 3D images. Manufactures include Intel, AMD, NVIDIA, and Apple (M1/M2 Apple Silicon).

If you have any questions please feel free to contact us at support@plugable.com and we'll be happy to assist!