If i add a second monitor to navigate on the internet while i game on the other one, will my performance be affected?

[Weegee Bros]

/title pretty much.

I sold my PS4 limited edition with some games and bought a GTX 1070 Windofrce OC + a Razer Blackwidow Chroma for myself, and since i'm upgrading from a GTX 970 i thought it'd be cool if i added a second monitor to search on the web and watch some videos while gaming on the other monitor. 😀

Both monitors would be 1080p.

 

[greens]

Adding a second monitor increases load on the GPU VERY little.

The only instance this affects performance is in multi gpu setups where fullscreen is required to take advantage of SLI/Crossfire. Because of this, playing a game in fixed window to allow the game to lose focus and still run - does impact performance greatly.

but for single GPU, adding a second monitor does very little to the load.

 

[Chugalug_]

It is rendering a second 1080p display, it may reduce frames by anywhere from 5-10% depending on how intensive your browsing is.
If you're playing a game across both monitors (not a good idea) you'll halve your frame rate.

 

[greens]

That isn't true at all. Gaming in widescreen adds minimal load as well!

Think about this. Adding a second monitor doesn't increase GPU rendering loads.

The game scene is already rendered. Increasing FOV by adding another monitor does nothing more than increasing your FOV via in-game settings. The only reason people don't increase their FOV in game settings is because it squishes the image if you don't have multi monitors.

But again, the scene is rendered in the same detail, with the same accuracy, same distances, everything. The only difference is your "window" into the world. Increasing the window size does not DOUBLE the rendering load of the GPU, not even close.

 

[Chugalug_]

Adding a second monitor doubles the resolution, FOV scaling is just stretching the image, that isn't truly using two monitors to play a game.
Using two monitors to play a game is rendering 2x 1920x1080p panels across a wider ratio.

 

[greens]

Doubling the resolution would be going to 1440p, which is an increase in resolution used to render the game.

The game is still rendered in 1080p - just your view into it is wider. Multiscreening is a FOV extension, always is, always has been. Can you see more on screen? Yes. Does that increase load? Absolutely not! - the stuff was already there! Does moving your mouse back and forth increase rendering loads? of course not! its already there. Multimonitor is no different than if you were to shake your mouse back and forth, increasing your view. The load doesn't increase because the scene is rendered, not the view.

That just isn't how GPUs work at all. The whole scene is there, rendered at 1080p. I hope this makes sense to you. Get a multi *monitor setup or watch some youtube videos to see exactly what i mean.

 

[Chugalug_]

There's a reason why Ultrawides have their own aspect ratio of 21:9, it isn't simply an FOV extension with no penalties, otherwise everyone would be doing it, you're adding horizontal pixels to the rendered image. I have a multi monitor setup (4k and 1440p, used to be triple borderless 1080p), they can either render as separate entities or a single surround screen, trust me though it DOES increase GPU load, it isn't that simple.

Higher FOV = larger view rendered = less performance.