2nd monitor -- affect FPS while gaming?

[ecklerov]

Hello,

I'm planning on setting up a second monitor on extend mode. When I play BF4, I will still only use my primary monitor and i'll turn off my second monitor while im playing.

Will this give me any performance drop (simply because the gpu is plugged into two monitors)? I guess the real question is whether the gpu still outputs through the 2nd monitor's HDMI even when the monitor is turned off.

Please help

 

[Gam3r01]

When on, about 2 FPS loss at most. You dont even need to turn off the second monitor while gaming, you will have no issue.

 

[Spectre694]

I know that on mine when playing in fullscreen it actually blanks out the second monitor. If I want it to display anything I have to set the game to run in windowed mode.

 

[Gam3r01]

Thats odd, when I go fullscreen(Or windowed fullscreen) I can see my second monitor, and alt tab with the game still open and do things over there.

 

[Spectre694]

Thats odd, when I go fullscreen(Or windowed fullscreen) I can see my second monitor, and alt tab with the game still open and do things over there.

Strange mine I can do stuff and see it but I have to alt tab first and when I switch back to the game it blanks out again. I do have SLI I wonder if that is part of it or maybe I found some obscure setting. I'll have to check that out once my new PSU gets here (old one died 🙁 )

 

[Nicolay Setre]

How much performance you'll drop depends on the monitor resolutions. At 1080p about 1-2 fps, 1440p maybe 3 etc.

The thing that mainly affects your gaming performance while having multiple monitors, is what you are doing on those monitors. F.eks watching videoes online is normal to use about 3-8% of your gpu depending on your card, so then you might see more like 10-15 fps drops.

I'm running 3x 22" 1080p monitors and a 40" 1080p Tv with a single 770 4gb card, and have no fps issues in any games at all.

 

[bryonhowley]

I run a SLI GTX 670 setup on 3x Asus 27" 1080p monitors and a 50" Panasonic 3D Plasma. I have not seen any fps loss even when running a full HD movie on my Plasma and gaming.

 

[Nicolay Setre]

I run a SLI GTX 670 setup on 3x Asus 27" 1080p monitors and a 50" Panasonic 3D Plasma. I have not seen any fps loss even when running a full HD movie on my Plasma and gaming.

Powering a monitor -> watch a movie will be using a certain % of your gpu's power.
So if you play a game where your gpu needs to work at 100% to maintain the maximum amount of fps, then your fps will drop when your gpu suddenly has to use say 4-5% of its power to run the video instead of only the game.

Now most people do still use 60hz monitors (and if they have more than half a brain, also has v-sync enabled), and your gpu can cap the 60 fps while working at below 100% load, then there won't be any game performance drops.

F.eks, pretty much all the games i play i can run at 1080p with maxed out settings AA and AF at full and maintain my 60fps cap at about 65-80% gpu load, leaving me with everywhere between 20 - 35% power for my 2 other monitors + the tv.

 

[Nicolay Setre]

Hello,

I'm planning on setting up a second monitor on extend mode. When I play BF4, I will still only use my primary monitor and i'll turn off my second monitor while im playing.

Will this give me any performance drop (simply because the gpu is plugged into two monitors)? I guess the real question is whether the gpu still outputs through the 2nd monitor's HDMI even when the monitor is turned off.

Please help

Yes, the gpu will still render the image for the 2nd monitor as long as the output is activated. Wether the monitor is displaying it or not is irrelevant. (one easy way to "verify" this is to run extended mode and then just turn off 1 of the monitors, and you will still be able to move your mouse cursor from 1 screen to the other.

But no worries, there is no way that you'll be able to notice any difference in performance by just having a 2nd monitor for web browsing, movies etc.