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I am planning to buy a new notebook for myself and to setup a good working environment at home with 3 external FHD (1920x1080) displays (4 displays in total with the laptop display itself).

However I am kind of confused if this will even work out.

I want to purchase a ThinkPad T440s FHD with i5-4300U (model number: 20ARS0XL00), which uses the Intel HD Graphics 4400 and the NVIDIA GeForce GT 730M as its GPUs. It has one miniDP port and one VGA port. Unfortunately this specific laptop model does not have a docking port, so I cannot use the docking station for connecting 3 external displays.

With only one miniDP on the T440s and no docking capability I am forced to purchase "Multi Stream Transport (MST) Hub" OR "Matrox TripleHead2Go DP Edition".

When you click on the NVIDIA GeForce GT 730M hyperlink, you will see that it supports up to 4x active monitors, unfortunately this only works if the Intel GPU will do too.

If you google "i5-4300U ark intel" (sorry can't post further links, I'm new) you will see, that Intel states that it supports up to three displays. Do they count the internal one too? And if not, will my setup work when I close the lid of the laptop, because the internal display would then shut off allowing for all three external displays to work independently?

BUT WAIT, THERE IS MORE !

I've read that these DP splitters only trick the computer to be only one display. So for the computers it seems like one BIG monitor with a resolution such as 5760*1080. The splitter just displays them on three different monitors. However I've never owned such devices and therefore not completely sure about this.

TL;DR

I want 3x FHD external displays on my desk with my ThinkPad T440s (FHD too) running all independently (or the lid closed if I have to). And all displays running at least at 50Hz. Am I on the right track or did I miss something?

Thanks! :)

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If you're really hellbent on having multiple displays coming from one laptop, that CPU/GPU combo will only do three, sorry. Yes, when they say three they're include the built in display. Be careful shopping around, lots of low end systems can't do three displays, when you dock you can do two though on most models these days. Look for a model that has a dock, you'll thank me later. I refuse to buy laptops that don't dock, and if multiple displays on a laptop are that important to you, I would advise you refuse to buy laptops that don't dock as well.

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  • Thanks for info! Unfortunately I want a dGPU .. but there is no better option for me than the T440s. Well what I've found out after I posted this question is: * Intel HD 4400 really supports only 3x dispalys in total * The "Multi Stream Transport (MST) Hub" can output with DP 1.2 up to four FHD independent displays, however only with AMD. With Nvidia only 3 are possible. * With Nvidia the 3 displays can only be recognized as 3 native displays; mirroring or extended desktop does not work. * 3 displays works OOTB, but when the third display is connected the internal will shut off. Mar 2, 2014 at 19:14

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