Can I use a 144Hz HDMI 2.0 monitor with my GL503VM HDMI 1.4 port?

[zanecz]

I have a GL503VM and after doing some research I found that the HDMI port is 1.4

I want to buy a 144Hz monitor, and I found one but the output is HDMI 2.0

Can I connect it using a 2.0 cable and get the full 144hz? Or am I locked to 60hz with the laptop port?

Thanks in advance

[cl-Albert]

Hi,

According to the global website specs below (please be sure to switch to the specs page for your notebook model), the GL503VD has HDMI 1.4 output, but the GL503VM should have HDMI 2.0 output.
https://www.asus.com/ROG-Republic-Of-Gamers/ROG-Strix-GL503/Tech-Specs/

In addition to HDMI output both models appear to also have Mini DisplayPort output according to the website specs above and user-manual p24-25 below, so you may have this option as well assuming your monitor also has DisplayPort input although you may need to find a Mini DisplayPort to DisplayPort adapter.

https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/GamingNB/GL503VD/E13530_GL503VD_VM_GL703VD_VM_V2_A.pdf?_ga=2.2652...

[zanecz]

cl-Albert wrote:
Hi,

According to the global website specs below (please be sure to switch to the specs page for your notebook model), the GL503VD has HDMI 1.4 output, but the GL503VM should have HDMI 2.0 output.
https://www.asus.com/ROG-Republic-Of-Gamers/ROG-Strix-GL503/Tech-Specs/

In addition to HDMI output both models appear to also have Mini DisplayPort output according to the website specs above and user-manual p24-25 below, so you may have this option as well assuming your monitor also has DisplayPort input although you may need to find a Mini DisplayPort to DisplayPort adapter.

https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/GamingNB/GL503VD/E13530_GL503VD_VM_GL703VD_VM_V2_A.pdf?_ga=2.2652...

That's right, I just checked and according to the tech specs of 7th gen CPU, the GL503VM does have the HDMI 2.0, which is great news. Thanks a lot for clearing it out! And yes, I knew about the mDP, albeit mDP to DP adapters are not sold in my region, in the case that the HDMI doesn't work, I'll search more extensively for the adapter.

[cl-Albert]

Glad to help.

fyi.
Not sure that you are worried about this, but according to the GL503VM vga downloads, there are both Nvidia and Intel vga drivers which tells me the model supports both vga cards or 'optimus' as some people may call it.

The possible concern related to this is that your HDMI and mDP output may either be connected to the Nvidia graphics or the Intel graphics, so if you are planning to play games, you probably want to make sure the display output is connected to the Nvidia graphics to get the best performance.
We may be able to check this by figuring out which vga chip suports HDMI 2.0 output and is probably the reason the GL503VD does not support HDMI 2.0 output.

If you have a monitor lying around, you can check this easily by hooking up the external monitor and check the display properties/settings to see which graphics chip the external monitor is connected to on that port.

Anyway, hopefully it will not be an issue, but thought I would mention it.

[zanecz]

cl-Albert wrote:
Glad to help.

fyi.
Not sure that you are worried about this, but according to the GL503VM vga downloads, there are both Nvidia and Intel vga drivers which tells me the model supports both vga cards or 'optimus' as some people may call it.

The possible concern related to this is that your HDMI and mDP output may either be connected to the Nvidia graphics or the Intel graphics, so if you are planning to play games, you probably want to make sure the display output is connected to the Nvidia graphics to get the best performance.
We may be able to check this by figuring out which vga chip suports HDMI 2.0 output and is probably the reason the GL503VD does not support HDMI 2.0 output.

If you have a monitor lying around, you can check this easily by hooking up the external monitor and check the display properties/settings to see which graphics chip the external monitor is connected to on that port.

Anyway, hopefully it will not be an issue, but thought I would mention it.

Hey, late reply. I asked the store and they wouldn't accept returning the monitor if I do happen to have hdmi 1.4.
However, I did a lot of research and looked into different retail websites, and I came up with this conclusion:

If your GL503VM (GTX 1060) supports Optimus, then you likely only have HDMI 1.4 as the signal has to go from the nvidia card through the Intel one, and Intel can only output the 1.4. My laptop oddly only has the Nvidia card, so basically no GSync and no Optimus either, which is really bad for my battery life, but from what I read online, the GTX 1060 mobile almost certainly always outputs HDMI 2.0. But as I said, I didn't pull the trigger cus I didn't want to buy an expensive monitor and be forced to stay with it despite not getting the high refresh rate. I do wish that laptop manufacturers can be more clear about the version of the outputs of these ports, because the actual Asus store page has a couple inaccurate depictions that don't align with my exact model number, making these investments a hit or miss.

[cl-Albert]

Hi again, yes, it's a good idea to be sure if you will be stuck with the monitor otherwise.

If you weren't already aware of it, all the GL503VM units would be the same (Edit 7/14/20: As long as they are using the same GL503VM motherboard/bios model, but if you continue reading the posts in this thread, it appears we do have another version of the GL503VM using the GL503VMF motherboard/bios model, so this part needs to be checked as well) regarding the HDMI output version, so the website specs would either be correct for all the GL503VM units or wrong for all the units and would hope we would correct any errors that we know about.

Anyway, one other way to check this may be to attach any external monitor (or TV which may not work great, but may still be able to help you with the information discussed below) that you can 'borrow' or test through the HDMI port even if it supports only a lower refresh rate since you will be able to see in the Windows, Intel, or Nvidia display properties if that external monitor is connected to the Intel or Nvidia graphics and may be able to give you more confidence about that.
If you have the time, you may even want to run a benchmark to confirm which graphics chip that external monitor (disable your notebook display) is connected to and confirm the performance is as expected.

This probably will not be any easier to find than an external HDMI monitor, but if you can get your hands on an VR headset like the Oculus Rift that uses HDMI input (Oculus has newer VR headsets that don't use HDMI inputs, so just something to watch out for) that is another way to check since the Oculus Rift will just refuse to run on HDMI output controlled by Intel graphics although I heard you may see a duplicate display of your desktop in the Oculus RIft headset when it's running on Intel graphics (as if it is just another monitor), but that's not what you would want to use it for and you cannot use it for VR.

[zanecz]

cl-Albert wrote:
Hi again, yes, it's a good idea to be sure if you will be stuck with the monitor otherwise.
If you weren't already aware of it, all the GL503VM units would be the same regarding the HDMI output version, so the website specs would either be correct for all the GL503VM units or wrong for all the units and would hope we would correct any errors that we know about.

I'm glad you pointed that out. I think it's a difference between different model numbers of the same GL503VM.
I'll remind you that my GL503VM comes with no Intel integrated GPU. Only the GTX 1060.
As you can see on this French website, it's a GL503VM, but this one has an integrated GPU. It also mentions that the HDMI version is 1.4
https://www.laptopspirit.fr/comparateur/Pc-portable/26168/Asus,Rog-strix-gl503vm-fy013t-noir-gtx-106...
On Italian Amazon, my model number that I bought from this exact link has an HDMI 2.0 and doesn't come with an integrated Intel GPU
https://www.amazon.it/Asus-GL503VM-ED032T-Notebook-Processore-i7-7700HQ/dp/B077D99XM6
(It's not found in the specs sheet, but it's mentioned in some thorough reviews that tried it with high refresh rate monitors or 4k)

Also from reading somewhere on the internet, someone mentioned that when a laptop uses an Intel integrated GPU, the HDMI output has to conform to that, i.e any laptop with a GTX 1060 and an integrated Intel GPU would always have HDMI 1.4

This is just speculation and conclusions derived from long research, and by no means I claim it's all 100% true, but it seems from what I just said that not all GL503VMs come with an HDMI 2.0. Of course the link you provided for the Tech Specs is an American host, and what I mentioned is more of a worldwide different factories thing, which could explain the misunderstanding.

[cl-Albert]

zanecz wrote:
I'm glad you pointed that out. I think it's a difference between different model numbers of the same GL503VM.
I'll remind you that my GL503VM comes with no Intel integrated GPU. Only the GTX 1060.
As you can see on this French website, it's a GL503VM, but this one has an integrated GPU. It also mentions that the HDMI version is 1.4
https://www.laptopspirit.fr/comparateur/Pc-portable/26168/Asus,Rog-strix-gl503vm-fy013t-noir-gtx-106...
On Italian Amazon, my model number that I bought from this exact link has an HDMI 2.0 and doesn't come with an integrated Intel GPU
https://www.amazon.it/Asus-GL503VM-ED032T-Notebook-Processore-i7-7700HQ/dp/B077D99XM6
(It's not found in the specs sheet, but it's mentioned in some thorough reviews that tried it with high refresh rate monitors or 4k)

Also from reading somewhere on the internet, someone mentioned that when a laptop uses an Intel integrated GPU, the HDMI output has to conform to that, i.e any laptop with a GTX 1060 and an integrated Intel GPU would always have HDMI 1.4

This is just speculation and conclusions derived from long research, and by no means I claim it's all 100% true, but it seems from what I just said that not all GL503VMs come with an HDMI 2.0. Of course the link you provided for the Tech Specs is an American host, and what I mentioned is more of a worldwide different factories thing, which could explain the misunderstanding.

Hi,
Thanks for pointing that out and it appears you may be correct about this and I was unaware of some other models that are sold worldwide, so apologize for the confusion.

After checking the GL503 download site again, noticed it includes downloads for both the GL503VM as well as the GL503VMF which appear to both share the same GL503VM model name.
https://www.asus.com/Laptops/ROG-Strix-GL503/HelpDesk_Download/


Also notice the GL503VM vga downloads include both Intel and Nvidia vga drivers while the GL503VMF downloads only includes the Nvidia vga drivers, so it sounds like the GL503VMF does not support the onboard Intel cpu graphics.

The GL503VM and GL503VMF also use different bios models, so you can check your bios model (through msinfo32 or system information, or you can also run the bios flash program to see this and just exit without flashing the bios) to see which version of the GL503VM you really have.

Assuming the download site is correct, we can really just check device manager to confirm your notebook does not include the Intel Display adapter to determine you have the GL503VMF model, but a good idea to check the bios model as well to be sure.

=============

Still a little curious about the GL503VM motherboard HDMI output though since we can design the output to be from the onboard Intel graphics when supported or the Nvidia graphics, so believe it may still be possible that the HDMI output is connected to the Nvidia graphics which customers with GL503VM models using the GL503VM motherboard/bios can just connect an external monitor to check in the display settings.

[evolveDLL]

anyone know how I can set up another monitor to my laptop? the laptop is a

ASUS ROG Strix Scar II GL704GM-EV001T 17.3"

thanks guys... I tried but it wouldn't allow me to separate the screens like on PC, and when I extend screen resolution is bad on my monitor because it can't go to 1920x1080

any advice is greatly appreciated thanks

Edit by cl-Albert 7/15/20: Since a separate thread has been created for this (that was moved from the General section), please reply at the thread here regarding this model and post: https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?119617-GL704GM-dual-monitor-setup-question

[zanecz]

cl-Albert wrote:
Hi,
Thanks for pointing that out and it appears you may be correct about this and I was unaware of some other models that are sold worldwide, so apologize for the confusion.

After checking the GL503 download site again, noticed it includes downloads for both the GL503VM as well as the GL503VMF which appear to both share the same GL503VM model name.
https://www.asus.com/Laptops/ROG-Strix-GL503/HelpDesk_Download/


Also notice the GL503VM vga downloads include both Intel and Nvidia vga drivers while the GL503VMF downloads only includes the Nvidia vga drivers, so it sounds like the GL503VMF does not support the onboard Intel cpu graphics.

The GL503VM and GL503VMF also use different bios models, so you can check your bios model (through msinfo32 or system information, or you can also run the bios flash program to see this and just exit without flashing the bios) to see which version of the GL503VM you really have.

Assuming the download site is correct, we can really just check device manager to confirm your notebook does not include the Intel Display adapter to determine you have the GL503VMF model, but a good idea to check the bios model as well to be sure.

=============

Still a little curious about the GL503VM motherboard HDMI output though since we can design the output to be from the onboard Intel graphics when supported or the Nvidia graphics, so believe it may still be possible that the HDMI output is connected to the Nvidia graphics which customers with GL503VM models using the GL503VM motherboard/bios can just connect an external monitor to check in the display settings.

Hey. My DxDiag says "System Model: GL503VM" "BIOS: GL503VM.311" Also my exact model number is GL503VM-ED032T as mentioned in a previous reply, so I don't think my model has anything to do with the GL503VMF model? I've also tried the eSupport of the VMF after losing mine and had an error about the model not being the same.

On the same DxDiag window, it normally would have 2 display tabs, one for Nvidia and the other for the integrated Intel, while I only have NVidia. Also the right click on the desktop where I only have the control panel option for Nvidia. Device manager > Display adaptors also only shows the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060. It's possible that no VMF model has an integrated intel gpu, but a few VMs similarly don't.

Also by reading your last paragraph, am I correct to understand that a laptop with both a GTX 1060 and an Intel integrated GPU (say an HD 630) and have a 2.0 HDMI output? If that existed then it wouldn't not make sense, after all it would be a manufacturing choice whether to pass the HDMI output signal from the Nvidia or the Intel GPU...What's kinda unfortunate is with all this information, you still can't really tell the version of the HDMI output until you go to extra lengths, or if your specific model number spec sheet mentions it which isn't the case for many retail pages.

In any case, thank you for looking into the matter and helping clear the fog about this matter. It's a reasonable argument to just recommend the use of the mini DP port for those who find the very rare adapters/cables