Games wont launch when laptop plugged into D6000 dock

[Tom.H]

I have a dell XPS 15 9560 and I have a Dell D6000 dock that i plug into it via the thunderbolt port. Ever since I updated drivers for the dock and laptop interface (while also updating the BIOS for the laptop and the dock) I now cant open games like civ 5 or 6 or beyond earth while games like skyrim and the halo package still run fine. I also cant open matlab when plugged into it but thats another problem. I use the dock to connect my laptop to 2 24 inch acer monitors and accessories like a webcam, mouse, keyboard, and headphones. I had some issues with frame rates being really low (skyrim at 24 FPS on near min settings) before the updates, and saw improvement of 40-60% FPS for games that run, but I still have a whole lot that dont. Any help would be supper appreciated. Also this is my first time in one of these forums so if this is the wrong place for this problem or if there is a dell forum youd recommend for me to get help please lmk.

[󠀡󠀡󠀡⁧⁧the.jester]

It sounds like some of your games could be running on the intel integrated GPU. You'll probably need to set those where the frame rates are low to run on the Nvidia card, set the power management mode to prefer maximum performance in Nvidia control panel (you might also need to look at the Windows power settings too).

[Tom.H]

Maybe I didnt explain properly @the.jester The issue seems to be the drivers/software/firmware between the dock and the laptop. Some games run, other games/programs dont when plugged into the dock. thats the issue

[crunchyfrog]

Originally posted by Tom.H:

Maybe I didnt explain properly @the.jester The issue seems to be the drivers/software/firmware between the dock and the laptop. Some games run, other games/programs dont when plugged into the dock. thats the issue

The Jester's probably not wrong though.

It is commonly how games would behave when the wrong graphics card is being chosen. I've seen it a number of times on my own laptop which has the inevitable inbuilt Intel chipset, plus a GTX1050.

You might get them not run at all, you might get weird black screens or graphical issues, or you might get strange error messages.

So you'd need to demonstrate how this cannot be this problem, because to me, that sounds the most likely as that's precisely the change you're making to your system - adding a graphics card via the dock.

[Cromi]

The D6000 is a productivity dock, not a gaming dock. I would highly suggest plugging your monitor directly into your laptop's HDMI port (Dell's HDMI ports are linked directly to their dedicated GPUs).

Here's a more in-depth explanation:
https://www.dell.com/community/Alienware/Docking-Station-D6000-Very-Bad-Video-performance-for-gaming/td-p/6193369

It’s because the Dxxxx series docks use DisplayLink rather than tapping into native GPU outputs. DisplayLink uses a driver to have the CPU and GPU compress video for transmission as regular USB traffic, and then a chip in the dock decompresses it and transmits it to the displays. That’s why you’re seeing all that CPU activity and horrible performance.

[crunchyfrog]

Originally posted by Cromi:

The D6000 is a productivity dock, not a gaming dock. I would highly suggest plugging your monitor directly into your laptop's HDMI port (Dell's HDMI ports are linked directly to their dedicated GPUs).

Here's a more in-depth explanation:
https://www.dell.com/community/Alienware/Docking-Station-D6000-Very-Bad-Video-performance-for-gaming/td-p/6193369

It’s because the Dxxxx series docks use DisplayLink rather than tapping into native GPU outputs. DisplayLink uses a driver to have the CPU and GPU compress video for transmission as regular USB traffic, and then a chip in the dock decompresses it and transmits it to the displays. That’s why you’re seeing all that CPU activity and horrible performance.

Good catch there.

I'm not up with thte tech so I was rather taking it on face value it was up to the task. Nicely done.

[Tom.H]

Originally posted by Cromi:

The D6000 is a productivity dock, not a gaming dock. I would highly suggest plugging your monitor directly into your laptop's HDMI port (Dell's HDMI ports are linked directly to their dedicated GPUs).

Here's a more in-depth explanation:
https://www.dell.com/community/Alienware/Docking-Station-D6000-Very-Bad-Video-performance-for-gaming/td-p/6193369

It’s because the Dxxxx series docks use DisplayLink rather than tapping into native GPU outputs. DisplayLink uses a driver to have the CPU and GPU compress video for transmission as regular USB traffic, and then a chip in the dock decompresses it and transmits it to the displays. That’s why you’re seeing all that CPU activity and horrible performance.

Is there a docking station youd recomend for gaming?

[Iceira]

Im not sure what this is about, to my knowledge people with docking station was to get better keyboard and monitor, and that is all , rest is user setup , and as above point out wrong card selected . and ofc i dont know every docking station and what port they are using.

could it be a charge up station and somehow it reduce its performance while docking ?
maybe other know this better, but if you can play the games then not docked it do sounds you switch configuration while it doing it

[crunchyfrog]

I'm not personally experienced with any docks, but I'd say as a rule of thumb, you're not going to get many because of teh nature of what they are. You're going to be connecting to a graphics card that isn't directly and closely connect to your mainboard. That's faught with problems that the laws of physics rule over.

Yes, you can get some that can give you such an experience to a point, but they're going to be horrendously expensive, to the point that you might as well save money and buy a whole new laptop.

[Cromi]

Originally posted by Tom.H:

Is there a docking station youd recomend for gaming?

I just plug everything directly into my laptop myself. But for multi-monitors, then you'll want one that has Display Port over USB (NOT Display Link). If your laptop has a Thunderbolt 3 port, then defiantly go with a dock that makes use of it. Maybe look into the Dell WD15, WD19, or WD19TB.

[crunchyfrog]

Originally posted by Cromi:

Originally posted by Tom.H:

Is there a docking station youd recomend for gaming?

I just plug everything directly into my laptop myself. But for multi-monitors, then you'll want one that has Display Port over USB (NOT Display Link). If your laptop has a Thunderbolt III port, then defiantly go with a dock that makes use of it. Maybe look into the Dell WD15, WD19, or WD19TB.

Fair points, but I'd still maintain that just byugina suitable laptop would be cheaper and probably easier.

I bought an MSI GF62 back in February. Though I'm not particularly interested in up to date games (as I play them mostly on console), I'm surprised that it will happily play anything I've thrown at it on High settings. Cost me a grand sum of £500 delivered, new old stock (it's actually only just over a year old).

And I run it from my bed sat on a table, with seperate keyboard, marble mouse, and via Panasonic TV and Rotel amp. Cables ahoy, basically. But it works really well.

[Cromi]

Originally posted by crunchyfrog:

Originally posted by Cromi:

I just plug everything directly into my laptop myself. But for multi-monitors, then you'll want one that has Display Port over USB (NOT Display Link). If your laptop has a Thunderbolt III port, then defiantly go with a dock that makes use of it. Maybe look into the Dell WD15, WD19, or WD19TB.

Fair points, but I'd still maintain that just byugina suitable laptop would be cheaper and probably easier.

I bought an MSI GF62 back in February. Though I'm not particularly interested in up to date games (as I play them mostly on console), I'm surprised that it will happily play anything I've thrown at it on High settings. Cost me a grand sum of £500 delivered, new old stock (it's actually only just over a year old).

And I run it from my bed sat on a table, with seperate keyboard, marble mouse, and via Panasonic TV and Rotel amp. Cables ahoy, basically. But it works really well.

Hard part is finding a laptop that supports multiple external monitors without a dock. Best performance one can get for multiple monitors on a laptop is a Thunderbolt 3 dock that uses it's own GPU. But, just thinking about one of those makes my wallet cringe in fear.

[crunchyfrog]

Originally posted by Cromi:

Originally posted by crunchyfrog:

Fair points, but I'd still maintain that just byugina suitable laptop would be cheaper and probably easier.

I bought an MSI GF62 back in February. Though I'm not particularly interested in up to date games (as I play them mostly on console), I'm surprised that it will happily play anything I've thrown at it on High settings. Cost me a grand sum of £500 delivered, new old stock (it's actually only just over a year old).

And I run it from my bed sat on a table, with seperate keyboard, marble mouse, and via Panasonic TV and Rotel amp. Cables ahoy, basically. But it works really well.

Hard part is finding a laptop that supports multiple external monitors without a dock. Best performance one can get for multiple monitors on a laptop is a Thunderbolt 3 dock that uses it's own GPU. But, just thinking about one of those makes my wallet cringe in fear.

Sadly, that is true.

There's no good answer here really, it's an either/or thing.

Although maybe if the tech takes off or the idea proves useful, maybe in the future?

[Tom.H]

Originally posted by crunchyfrog:

Originally posted by Cromi:

I just plug everything directly into my laptop myself. But for multi-monitors, then you'll want one that has Display Port over USB (NOT Display Link). If your laptop has a Thunderbolt III port, then defiantly go with a dock that makes use of it. Maybe look into the Dell WD15, WD19, or WD19TB.

Fair points, but I'd still maintain that just byugina suitable laptop would be cheaper and probably easier.

I bought an MSI GF62 back in February. Though I'm not particularly interested in up to date games (as I play them mostly on console), I'm surprised that it will happily play anything I've thrown at it on High settings. Cost me a grand sum of £500 delivered, new old stock (it's actually only just over a year old).

And I run it from my bed sat on a table, with seperate keyboard, marble mouse, and via Panasonic TV and Rotel amp. Cables ahoy, basically. But it works really well.

yeah but I dont have cash to drop on a brand new machine. docks are usually in the $200-$300 USD range so I was hoping to do that. The D6000 I use now is plugged in via thunderbolt/USB-C but I guess it doesnt have the right internal components?

[crunchyfrog]

Originally posted by Tom.H:

Originally posted by crunchyfrog:

Fair points, but I'd still maintain that just byugina suitable laptop would be cheaper and probably easier.

I bought an MSI GF62 back in February. Though I'm not particularly interested in up to date games (as I play them mostly on console), I'm surprised that it will happily play anything I've thrown at it on High settings. Cost me a grand sum of £500 delivered, new old stock (it's actually only just over a year old).

And I run it from my bed sat on a table, with seperate keyboard, marble mouse, and via Panasonic TV and Rotel amp. Cables ahoy, basically. But it works really well.

yeah but I dont have cash to drop on a brand new machine. docks are usually in the $200-$300 USD range so I was hoping to do that. The D6000 I use now is plugged in via thunderbolt/USB-C but I guess it doesnt have the right internal components?

Again, I have no personal experience with them. But there's two main factors that I see in your case.

One, it depends on the specs. For 100-200 dollars you're not going to get one that would contain gaming quality graphics cards as that would make no sense. It doesn't add up economically.

But furthermore, assuming you can get one, whatever the price, you are NOT going to get the same performance as you would if the included graphics card was either inbuilt on your laptop already or in a desktop.

The simple physics here is that when you look at a motherboard (or any digital circuit board), things like memory are located RIGHT NEXT to the cpu and any other processor involved (including graphics processors). Any graphics processor will also be close to the main CPU and the reason is simple - with the number of calculations per second that go on, signal can only travel as quickly as the laws of physics prescribe.

When you add a dock, even if that thunderbolt connection is hardwired directly to data lines to that CPU, or whatever, you have a PHYSICAL connection that is far longer, plus an "exposed" thunderbolt cable flapping around in the air able to pick up stray rf interference.

Conclusion - you will NEVER get the performance equivalent to a gaming laptop or desktop by spending even a bit more on a dock. They're not designed for that. They're designed essentially to be like a kjind of Nintendo Switch for the working world, where you take your portable and less capable unit out and about to do work on the fly, then come home, and plug it to get the full features out of it.

They aren't designed for gaming. So you'll only ever scrape by. I hope you get what I mean. You simply won't get such performance in a 100-200 dollar dock. It makes zero sense.

[Tom.H]

Originally posted by crunchyfrog:

Originally posted by Tom.H:

yeah but I dont have cash to drop on a brand new machine. docks are usually in the $200-$300 USD range so I was hoping to do that. The D6000 I use now is plugged in via thunderbolt/USB-C but I guess it doesnt have the right internal components?

Again, I have no personal experience with them. But there's two main factors that I see in your case.

One, it depends on the specs. For 100-200 dollars you're not going to get one that would contain gaming quality graphics cards as that would make no sense. It doesn't add up economically.

But furthermore, assuming you can get one, whatever the price, you are NOT going to get the same performance as you would if the included graphics card was either inbuilt on your laptop already or in a desktop.

The simple physics here is that when you look at a motherboard (or any digital circuit board), things like memory are located RIGHT NEXT to the cpu and any other processor involved (including graphics processors). Any graphics processor will also be close to the main CPU and the reason is simple - with the number of calculations per second that go on, signal can only travel as quickly as the laws of physics prescribe.

When you add a dock, even if that thunderbolt connection is hardwired directly to data lines to that CPU, or whatever, you have a PHYSICAL connection that is far longer, plus an "exposed" thunderbolt cable flapping around in the air able to pick up stray rf interference.

Conclusion - you will NEVER get the performance equivalent to a gaming laptop or desktop by spending even a bit more on a dock. They're not designed for that. They're designed essentially to be like a kjind of Nintendo Switch for the working world, where you take your portable and less capable unit out and about to do work on the fly, then come home, and plug it to get the full features out of it.

They aren't designed for gaming. So you'll only ever scrape by. I hope you get what I mean. You simply won't get such performance in a 100-200 dollar dock. It makes zero sense.

do you think I'd get better performance by plugging in one monitor via usb-c to display port and another one HDMI to HDMI direct into the laptop?