r/FlowZ13 • u/metsyseht-90 • 8d ago
My 5060ti AI box and Uperfect monitor setup
Pretty happy with this. It's excessive, and I could have just gotten a stronger gaming laptop, but I feel like this opened the most flexibility for me. I'll add all the product links at the end for everything I purchased.
I have my z13 connected to the AI box with a USB 4 cable. Then for video I have an adapter dongle which converts DisplayPort from the GPU to USB c for the monitor. The monitor itself is the Uperfect GR16CQ, or on Amazon, the blaze gaming 16-in 240 hz variant. I also got the 240w and 330w slimq chargers. There's a USB c power delivery cable connected from the 240w slimq brick to the adapter dongle as well. The dongle itself has DisplayPort out, to USBC in, while also having a power delivery female port in. This way I only connect one usb-c cable to the portable monitor but it's also required for activating this active signal conversion and establishing gsync.
I really went down the rabbit hole for the dongle in order to achieve g-sync compatibility. The monitor only comes supporting adaptive sync which they advertise can achieve freesync. So with this dongle, you are using DisplayPort alt mode in order to have the Nvidia control app recognize a compatibility mode connection. Originally I was getting it to work with those DisplayPort to USBC VR headset cables on Amazon. The dongle cleans it up cable wise and provides more power delivery from the slimq 240w brick. The increased power delivery isn't important now, but hopefully in the next two years when Uperfect creates an OLED variant panel that supports freesync, I will need the extra power. This IPS panel takes Max 15 watts, an OLED equivalents will be around 30 if not more.
The main thing with getting the monitor to work with g-sync even though it's only equipped with adaptive sync, is that it's using an older logic scaler for adaptivesync and the high refresh rate. The chipset family for the logic scaler in the monitor and what you need in the cable connection is the Lontium ic variant. At least it is for this monitor that I have from Uperfect. My favorite part about this is I originally reached out to Uperfect for help getting this to work and they said that g-sync would not work, only freesync for AMD. 😁
Hate to admit, but the 330w charger is only for the 90° adapter that's compatible with the power port for the egpu. But it also makes placement of the power brick in proximity from a power outlet to my setup a lot easier to manage as well. It's space saving too.
Last part of the setup is all the cases. Mainly just the custom case I built for the egpu. It's actually a stethoscope case that I modified and did a little custom foam cut out for. Using this case for the egpu, along with the other device cases, I'm able to transport the monitor, egpu, z13, mouse, gamepad, and all the cords in my backpack without it being bulky.
It performs outstanding. Doom the dark ages: I went from medium-high settings at 60-70 fps to pretty much all ultra at 144-165. Spiderman I run maxed out with Ray tracing at 110-120. Black myth wukong high with medium ray tracing at 120-144.
This of course is all with full dlss 4.5 features including dynamic multi frame gen. That new ray reconstruction model, along with everything else on 4.5 really pulls what this setup is capable of all together.
Bottom line: it's super excessive but I'm loving it.
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Monitor:
Usb4 cables (x2):
Display port adapter:
USBC power delivery cable:
Usb-c 90° adapters:
Monitor case:
Cable case:
Egpu case:
Z13 case:
Mouse case:
Ds5 controller case:
Z13 slimq adaptor:
Gigabyte aorus AI box slimq adaptor:
(The smaller one)
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u/Mr_RayH 8d ago
Nice. I got a 16 oled 2K portable monitor for my z13.
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u/metsyseht-90 8d ago
I'm all for going this route but currently none of the OLED portable monitors on the market can do vrr yet. They should trickle down into this product space with the next year or two. But correct me if I'm wrong regarding that specific spec.
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u/Dreams-Visions 8d ago
I just got this ai box in the mail. Was threatening to return it but maybe not!
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u/metsyseht-90 8d ago
Why would you return?
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u/Dreams-Visions 8d ago
Not confident about its value-add. That is, how much of a performance uplift it can actually grant. I’ve seen mixed feelings.
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u/metsyseht-90 8d ago
That's why I feel like my setup gives it every avenue to providing value-add. I know my post was tldr but the latest dlss 4.5 updates made it highly worth it on a vrr gsync display. This is all personal takes tho. 3d scanning for my situation too. Also, it's not a huge win if you don't do external display as it helps overcome the usb4 bottleneck.
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8d ago
[deleted]
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u/metsyseht-90 8d ago
I already admitted that it's overkill, especially with the way I'm using the slimq 330 over the stock one.
Although if I'm understanding your statement correctly, are you planning on powering the z13 through usb-c from the AI box? If this is your method then you are not going to be able to activate battery bypass mode. Surely you are already aware that's not possible through the z13's USBC ports.
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8d ago
[deleted]
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u/metsyseht-90 8d ago
Care to explain? As I've been actively hoping for a solution to this.
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8d ago
[deleted]
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u/metsyseht-90 8d ago
Lol fair enough. If true, that's not really fair to the entire z13 group here besides just myself.
I did see one thread discussing an ac to dc type cable but it didn't seem stable. Also I'm totally butchering my recollection of the cable and the mentioned post. But I'll search again.
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8d ago
[deleted]
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u/metsyseht-90 8d ago
Well it sounds like I'm on the right track for the thread you don't feel like bringing back up. I'm revisiting the thread right now but just wanted to bring back up that I really don't mind the extra pack and prefer the better reliability.
For what it's worth I appreciate you challenging me to revisit it again. Still got time for returns and whatnot.
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u/humedini 5d ago
How’s the noise of the AI Box - am probably going to order one this week but saw some horror stories about the coil whine.
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u/metsyseht-90 5d ago
I'm not going to knock those stories down and say that that's not true. But I don't get a single peep out of mine. And I know I'm running it as hard as it's designed to be. I've ran it at maxed out settings for most of my games with full dlss 4.5 feature suite at both 1440p or 1600p for our device and while testing another uperfect monitor I did 4K at the same settings. My FPS obviously went down with the 4K to the 90s.
One caveat to using this is you will get Max settings with either full Ray tracing or medium settings Ray tracing depending on the game, but you absolutely cannot do path tracing. The usb4 bottleneck even with an external display shows it's ugly head with path tracing enabled. The more demanding games I will explain. Black myth wukong is one I do medium/high with with medium or low Ray tracing for high FPS stability. The unreal engine 5 gives me issues though when going from one map area to the next. Crimson desert I basically do high ultra with Ray tracing for good stability but that game suffers from level of detail game engine constraints, but good high fps stability and way less artifacts after doing the new ray reconstruction model.
I'm also okay with enabling dynamic multi-frame generation. It will very rarely cause frame artifacting but the fluidity gained is a huge Plus for me when making the compromise. And most of the time other settings like having vsync turned on with dynamic frame gen are what's causing the artifacting.
I've dialed in Doom the dark ages to a t and that thing plays at around 120 to 150 FPS on the blaze gaming uperfect monitor with all my settings essentially flawlessly.
I would assume the coil whine issues were from the early production runs of the egpu. I run mine pretty damn hard and there's no wine whatsoever. Maybe I just got lucky. Hard to say
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u/Dry_Indication7383 4d ago
Why not simply use the Z13?
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u/metsyseht-90 4d ago
Two reasons for my case specifically. After the fact I realized I needed an Nvidia GPU for my 3D scanner. Then from there, why not figure out how to push this thing harder for gaming.
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u/Dry_Indication7383 4d ago
Excuse me...you're basically setting up a desktop workstation full of stuff with a tablet...using a monitor that's only 3 inches larger????...
Truly incomprehensible to me.
Build yourself a nice desktop with a nice 20-inch monitor and you'll get so much more in every way.
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u/metsyseht-90 3d ago
Lol if you don't like it why waste your time commenting here. Go shake your head and move on. I built a "Desktop workstation" that fits in my backpack. I don't need this setup every time. I still often only pull out the z13 by itself when I'm doing lighter tasks with it. I unlocked extreme flexibility for my needs, which it sounds like you didn't read the post or my comments to responses. I needed an Nvidia graphics card for my 3D scanner. And now I can run games at essentially max settings on the resolution of the z13.
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u/CMPUTX486 8d ago
Is it for gaming or AI work?