Thunderbolt 3 confusion and 4k monitor

Associate
Joined
10 May 2009
Posts
221
I'm looking to replace my almost 7yr old 3rd generation i7-3700 PC with the following:
  • Inter Core i9-9900K 3.6GHz (Coffee Lake) Socket LGA1151 Processor - Retail
  • Gigabyte Z390 Designare Intel Z390 (Socket 1151) DDR4 ATX Motherboard
I'm also looking to reaplace my dual screen setup (one 27" and one 23") with a single large 4k screen.

I don't play games so want to use the motherboards onboard graphics. This is where I need some help...

The Gigabyte motherboard above has two Thunderbolt 3 USB type C ports on the motherboard which, form what I understand can be used with a monitor (or as a video output). Is this correct?

I don't want to use the onboard HDMI as it only supports 4k@30hz but the Thunderbolt 3 supports 4k@60hz.

Also, can I use a Thunderbolt 3 to HDMI cable with the motherboard/screen to get 4k@60hz?

Thanks for eny help.
 
Soldato
Joined
1 Dec 2015
Posts
18,514
@xy16644

should help if you scroll down

https://www.gigabyte.com/uk/Motherboard/Z390-DESIGNARE-rev-10#kf

havent personally used the Designare and not sure if gigabyte rep has personally @GIGA-Man

in theory, should work fine with 2 4k monitors thats Use Thunderbolt 3 inputs !!!

The Z390 DESIGNARE is able to support two displays in 4K resolution at 60 FPS

If your going Thunderbolt 3 to HDMI- you'd need a Active converter. Thunderbolt 3 monitors are few and far between .

you can buy active adapters for one Thunderbolt 3 to 2 HDMI 4K but at 30hz each!


*******

ah...

https://www.sonnettech.com/product/thunderbolt3-to-dual-hdmi-adapter.html


**********

sorry, miss read you using dual 4k screens... your going from 2 standard to one 4k

as a heads up, aorus ITX has displayboard on for onboard display , as well as HDMI 4K at 60Hz

also cheaper!

https://www.gigabyte.com/uk/Motherboard/Z390-I-AORUS-PRO-WIFI-rev-10#kf

and if your not using K intel CPU then H370 version

https://www.gigabyte.com/uk/Motherboard/H370N-WIFI-rev-10#kf
 
Last edited:
Soldato
Joined
16 May 2005
Posts
6,509
Location
Cold waters
Seems a right hassle, given that under the covers it is the DisplayPort protocol that gets tunnelled over Thunderbolt anyway. So TB3 is not bringing anything to the table for this use case.

Presumably you like that motherboard for other reasons, but just getting one of the many motherboards that have normal DisplayPort and/or HDMI 2.0 ports would sidestep this whole issue.

---

Here's an example of some native TB3 monitors that can go straight through without any adapters: https://www.lg.com/us/ultrafine-monitors
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom