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Review on ABLEWE KVM Switch HDMI 2 Port Box - Share πŸ”€ Keyboard, Mouse, Printer, and HD Monitor between 2 Computers, UHD 4K@60Hz Support by Darnell Nahabet

Revainrating 3 out of 5

Doesn't work with mixed 4K@60Hz and 4K@30Hz

I have a Dell laptop (Win10) with an integrated Intel graphics chipset that maxes out at 3840x2160@30Hz. My desktop system (Ubuntu Linux) has an nVidia 1050-Ti and supports the same resolution at 60Hz. I have a Samsung 4K monitor (U28E590). This combination makes the KVM switch go crazy. If I connect the laptop first and then the desktop system, the monitor looks fine at first. Then I click the button to switch to the desktop and it looks fine too. When I switch back to the laptop everything stays 100% blank on both systems until I unplug all power supplies from the KVM and start over. the lines jump around and the first switch to the laptop makes everything go blank again forever. My solution was to run the desktop at 30Hz over HDMI and use a separate DisplayPort connector directly with the monitor to run at 60Hz if I just wanted to use the desktop (switching the source on the monitor itself). This configuration is reliable and stable, switching between desktop and laptop with a refresh rate as low as 30Hz. I had to convince the Linux nVidia driver to always drive the cloned screen on DisplayPort and HDMI outputs, regardless of whether it was thought something was connected or not, but that's another problem. In a stable 30Hz configuration, this device performs well (hence 3 stars). USB switching is fast and reliable with my wired keyboard and mouse, although I can't speak with lag as I don't play with it. Overall, if they just dropped the 4K @ 60Hz claim I would give this one 5 stars because it's good at 30Hz. Of course I would buy another one if I knew it didn't run at 60Hz so that pisses me off a bit. But it works well enough to stay that way for my purposes.

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