Question I Am Having Trouble Using Two Monitors With Two GPUs

[CannonBalllZ]

I have a reasonably powerful setup. I just got a 2070 gpu and want to use it as well as my 1060. I have them both installed and have each attached to one monitor. The 1060 is attached to my lower res monitor for looking at basic stuff and my 2070 is attached to my 1080p monitor but only the monitor attached to the 2070 is working the other one is black. Is this just an impossible setup I am trying to do or is there a way to make it work? Also I am getting a third monitor and was plannig on switching my other monitors, the ones previously mentioned in the issue, to the 1060 and keeping the 2070 for my 144hz monitor. Any ideas on what could go wrong there?

 

[Darkbreeze]

What is the EXACT model number of your power supply?

Have you enabled the multiple monitor configuration in your display settings? Right click desktop, display settings, and check there for any multi monitor settings. Might also be necessary to check your bios settings or your Nvidia control panel settings as well.

Normally using multiple graphics cards independently for separate displays should not be a problem. Also make sure you have the latest Nvidia drivers installed, and possibly it might not be a bad idea to do a clean install of the Nvidia drivers WITH both cards installed, using the DDU first.

Here are the first steps to take when trying to solve these kinds of hardware problems. If you have already tried these steps, all of them, exactly as outlined, we can move along to more advanced solutions.

If there are any you have NOT done, it would be advisable to do so if for no other reason than to be able to say you've already done it and eliminate that possibility.


First, make sure your motherboard has the MOST recent BIOS version installed. If it does not, then update. This solves a high number of issues even in cases where the release that is newer than yours makes no mention of improving graphics card or other hardware compatibility. They do not list every change they have made when they post a new BIOS release.

Second, go to the product page for your motherboard on the manufacturer website. Download and install the latest driver versions for the chipset, storage controllers, audio and network adapters. Do not skip installing a newer driver just because you think it is not relevant to the problem you are having. The drivers for one device can often affect ALL other devices and a questionable driver release can cause instability in the OS itself. They don't release new drivers just for fun. If there is a new driver release for a component, there is a good reason for it. The same goes for BIOS updates.

IF you have other hardware installed or attached to the system that are not a part of the systems covered by the motherboard drivers, then go to the support page for THAT component and check to see if there are newer drivers available for that as well. If there are, install them.

The last thing we want to look at, for now anyhow, is the graphics card drivers. Regardless of whether you "already installed the newest drivers" for your graphics card or not, it is OFTEN a good idea to do a CLEAN install of the graphics card drivers. Just installing over the old drivers OR trying to use what Nvidia and AMD consider a clean install is not good enough and does not usually give the same result as using the Display Driver Uninstaller utility. This has a very high success rate and is always worth a shot.

If you have had both Nvidia and AMD cards installed at any point on that operating system then you will want to run the DDU twice. Once for the old card drivers (ie, Nvidia or AMD) and again for the currently installed graphics card drivers (ie, AMD or Nvidia). So if you had an Nvidia card at some point in the past, run it first for Nvidia and then after that is complete, run it again for AMD if you currently have an AMD card installed.

Here are the full instructions on running the Display driver uninstaller and CLEAN installing new drivers.

Graphics card CLEAN install tutorial using the DDU

 

[CannonBalllZ]

Darkbreeze, I have an EVGA 650 Watt Supernova 80+. This is the model number
220-GS-0650-V1

 

[Darkbreeze]

Do you have the required PCI power cables connected to BOTH cards?

Honestly, I can't tell you for CERTAIN, but it may simply be a lack of adequate power. The RTX 2070 has a 500w power requirement. Even if we reduce that to 450w because we know that the specs are padded for safety and reasons of adequate overhead, and then add the power requirement of 450w (We'll call it 400w) for the GTX 1060, that's 850w for those two cards. GTX 1070 SLI configuration, which is probably the closest direct comparison as far as power consumption (Since there is no SLI for GTX 1060 or RTX 2070) still suggests that a 700w unit, minimum, is necessary.

Based on that there is a good chance you simply don't have adequate power, but again, for basic operation that still shouldn't stop some form of display for basic usage. Those power figures are generally assuming gaming loads.

I'd make sure you have all of the power connectors attached to both cards, make sure you have the latest motherboard bios version installed, try the clean install of the graphics drivers using the DDU WITH both cards installed and check all of the multiple display settings in desktop right click, Nvidia control panel and BIOS.

Other than that, the only things I could suggest are that perhaps you have one bad cable, or a bad slot on the motherboard. It should work, and it's likely to be a configuration problem, but check these other things to be sure.