Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by ior4uiofrjnev 1138 days ago
A "hacker" is someone who makes something do what it wasn't intended to do. Plugging a high-end laptop into the correct number of monitors is not hacking.

Maybe stick to Intel chipsets if you must have 4 screens. Or maybe cover over the 4th port, and pretend you have 3 fully-functional ports?
1 comments
rektide 1138 days ago
That's a pretty good definition. It think there's more an element of being able to pull off the not forseen. A good code hacker isn't exactly defying computer architecture to extract their wins; they're finding brilliant solutions & cobbling together interesting systems that happen to meet the needs.

I think AMD needs the pressure. 4x Thunderbolt 4 is amazing. AMD offering 2x USB 4 is such a massive downgrade. Just a shake of the head & saying "go buy Intel" as if this is some natural expected unnoteworthy situation doesn't cut it for me.

link
tracker1 1138 days ago
IIRC, USB4 Full is pretty much TB3 plus some extensions... So probably shouldn't really be a deal breaker. You can still use a TB dock and an eGPU. USB4 can support 20-40gbps, TB3 is 16, and TB4 is 36.
link
0x457 1138 days ago
Not quite. USB4 is based on TB3, but interoperability with Thunderbolt 3 is optional for hosts and devices. You could use any TB4 dock and USB4 dock that have USB4 upstream ports.

40gbps, 20 gbps (in 3.2 mode), PCI-E are all optional for host.

It's a mess, but I assume "fully capable USB4 ports" means that they are indeed fully capable. 2 "full" USB4 ports imo enough. I'm not plugging 4 monitors into my laptop directly, that's what the dock is for.

link
tracker1 1135 days ago
That's what I meant by "full" USB4... in that you get TB compatibility and higher speed... One third port on one side also has displayport mode over usb or can use an hdmi adapter on that port. Only 1 isn't capable of display out, and 2 are capable of high speed connections (external gpu or dock).

In the end, I do think the connectivity, while less than the Intel option, is probably enough for most people for most uses. I honestly don't use my personal laptop much and my work laptop is pretty much always docked to my TB3 dock at my work desk.

link