[SOLVED] 240hz Display locked at 144hz refresh rate.. Help?

Jul 19, 2020
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Hi,

I recently bought a 240hz 1440p monitor, alongside a Thunderbolt3 -> DP1.4 cable to support the bandwidth requirements. I wanted to power it with this gtx1070 fitted gaming laptop. I plugged it in, set it up, but the monitor is locked at 144hz refresh rate, because the laptop shoved it onto the Intel(R) integrated GPU. I cannot for the life of me figure out how to enable the 1070 on this monitor to get it to support 240hz, because that one is dedicated to the laptop screen. When I play games, it uses the 1070 but the fps are limited to 144.. There seem to be no posts about this specific situation anywhere within the last few years.

I figure it might be the fact the 1070 doesn't have Thunderbolt3 output, so maybe it's on the motherboard. But the laptop itself doesn't have Display port outputs anywhere so I don't know how to test if it's a limitation of the cable/port.

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
 
Solution
I think I found the issue, my laptop does not have any output ports that support 1440p @240hz, which requires a bandwidth of 26.54 Gbps. The best it offers seems to be HDMI 2.0b which I switched over to, and now have the nvidia display options.
Do you think a miniDisplayport -> displayport1.4 would carry the necessary bandwidth? I'm unfamiliar with minidisplayports, and I don't even think they're on the GTX 1070, so that would repeat the same problem I had before.
Mini DP is just a connector, it's still a DisplayPort output. The capabilities of DisplayPort are the same regardless of whether it is a full-size or a mini connector.

The DP output should be connected to the NVIDIA GPU. Thunderbolt outputs are generally...
Jul 19, 2020
17
1
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have you tried opening Nvidia control panel and going to the resolution section and seeing if you can select the monitor and change the refresh rate to higher than 144?
I tried downloading nvidia control panel but it's apparently incompatible with the nvidia driver I have currently installed and so I can't open the application..
 

QwerkyPengwen

Splendid
Ambassador
you need to install latest drivers from website.
If you want GeForce Experience, download from here

If you want just the drivers and control panel (meaning you gotta update manually. GeForce Experience can notify you if there's an update and install it for you)
Then download from here
https://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx
 
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Jul 19, 2020
17
1
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you need to install latest drivers from website.
If you want GeForce Experience, download from here

If you want just the drivers and control panel (meaning you gotta update manually. GeForce Experience can notify you if there's an update and install it for you)
Then download from here
https://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx
I have GeForce Experience on here, I checked just now and it's on the newest driver as well.
 
Jul 19, 2020
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Ah I'm dumb. Weird, when I searched for it, it didn't show. But when I try to open it on the monitor that's stuck on the Intel(R) graphics it says I'm not using a monitor supported by Nvidida, and so when I open it using the laptop screen it says it can't find any other monitors
 
Jul 19, 2020
17
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then you should be able to right click the desktop and go into the control panel.
If not, then try using DDU to uninstall the drivers, then re install them fresh
I think I found the issue, my laptop does not have any output ports that support 1440p @240hz, which requires a bandwidth of 26.54 Gbps. The best it offers seems to be HDMI 2.0b which I switched over to, and now have the nvidia display options.
Do you think a miniDisplayport -> displayport1.4 would carry the necessary bandwidth? I'm unfamiliar with minidisplayports, and I don't even think they're on the GTX 1070, so that would repeat the same problem I had before.
 

QwerkyPengwen

Splendid
Ambassador
what outputs does your laptop support?
You just mentioned HDMI 2.0, and Thunderbolt 3 (I'm assuming 3).
Anything else?

As it stands, HDMI 2.0 can do 1440p 240hz, but you need HDMI 2.0 input on your monitor to do this.
If your monitor doesn't have HDMI 2.0 and only has an earlier version of HDMI but has DP 1.4, then I need to know what other output options your laptop has to see if there's something we can adapt output wise to DP 1.4 to try and get you the refresh rate you want.
 
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what outputs does your laptop support?
You just mentioned HDMI 2.0, and Thunderbolt 3 (I'm assuming 3).
Anything else?

As it stands, HDMI 2.0 can do 1440p 240hz, but you need HDMI 2.0 input on your monitor to do this.
If your monitor doesn't have HDMI 2.0 and only has an earlier version of HDMI but has DP 1.4, then I need to know what other output options your laptop has to see if there's something we can adapt output wise to DP 1.4 to try and get you the refresh rate you want.
HDMI 2.0 only supports up to 1440p 144 Hz, not 240 Hz.
 
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I think I found the issue, my laptop does not have any output ports that support 1440p @240hz, which requires a bandwidth of 26.54 Gbps. The best it offers seems to be HDMI 2.0b which I switched over to, and now have the nvidia display options.
Do you think a miniDisplayport -> displayport1.4 would carry the necessary bandwidth? I'm unfamiliar with minidisplayports, and I don't even think they're on the GTX 1070, so that would repeat the same problem I had before.
Mini DP is just a connector, it's still a DisplayPort output. The capabilities of DisplayPort are the same regardless of whether it is a full-size or a mini connector.

The DP output should be connected to the NVIDIA GPU. Thunderbolt outputs are generally provided by the CPU because they are also combined with USB signaling which is provided by the CPU. Using a DP to Mini DP cable should work as long as the cable is VESA certified, and rated for HBR3.
 
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Solution
Jul 19, 2020
17
1
15
Thanks for the help yall but I think I'm just gonna take the L on this one.

It's okay though because it's a temporary problem involving dual monitors. I'm fairly certain there isn't a way to run the second monitor at 1440p 240hz because the outputs from the laptop that are capable of supporting it are on the motherboard, which defaults my display to the support of the CPU integrated graphics card like with the Thunderbolt3 and miniDP ports. And the Intel(R) integrated GPU is only capable of supporting 1440p at 144hz even at lower bit rates like 8bit color. I'm not sure if color depth matters with bandwidth/throughput stuff but the same Gbit terms are used so I'm guessing they are.

I think I see what the problem was, thank yall for the help!