Need help setting up dual screen for the first time

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
B

Brudarion

Commendable
Aug 22, 2016
93
0
1,630
Hello guys.
I have a question and I will inevitably sound like an idiot but I need to know regardless.
So at work I got dual monitors at I like the idea actually to use it at home. Now I bought a very cheap 1080p (24inch, costed me only 15 bucks) second screen, I have never installed a dual screen set up before. These are my PC specs:

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor
CPU cooler: CRYORIG R1 Ultimate 76.0 CFM CPU Cooler
MB: Asus MAXIMUS VIII HERO ATX LGA1151 Motherboard
GPU: MSI GeForce GTX 1070 8GB Video Card
PSU: Corsair Professional Gold 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply
OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit
Case: Fractal Design Define R5 Blackout Edition ATX Mid Tower Case

My question being how do I install this second monitor? I know it sounds simple just plug the hdmi in and play but are there any settings in windows that need to be done and also how will this impact my performance? I am playing heavy gpu and cpu games (I think) like fully modded skyrim, ark evolved, witcher 3, gta 5 and so on. Will my card handle these 2 screens or will I need a second card? I mean I got an older gtx 680 laying around to dedicate to my second screen if absolutely needed or I can sell it.

I need someone knowledgeable to give me an explanation of what the best way to install this setup without losing to much performance. Also what about power. Can my current system handle this setup with 2 screens? Is having a 1070 and 680 in 1 system even possible?

What are my options? Thank you in advance for the help guys.
 
Solution
Wolfshadw
Depends on what you intend to use the second display for. You could probably go any of three routes:

1) Connect both to your GTX 1070 (most common)
2) Connect one to your GTX 1070 and the other to your on-board graphics output
3) Install your older card and connect the second card to that (least common).

I would probably try the first one and see if there is a significant impact. Shut down your system, connect the second display to an available output of your graphics card and boot your system back up. If both displays are showing, great! Nothing more to do. If not, then you will need to go into the NVidia Control Panel and set up multiple displays.

-Wolf sends
Sort by date Sort by votes
Depends on what you intend to use the second display for. You could probably go any of three routes:

1) Connect both to your GTX 1070 (most common)
2) Connect one to your GTX 1070 and the other to your on-board graphics output
3) Install your older card and connect the second card to that (least common).

I would probably try the first one and see if there is a significant impact. Shut down your system, connect the second display to an available output of your graphics card and boot your system back up. If both displays are showing, great! Nothing more to do. If not, then you will need to go into the NVidia Control Panel and set up multiple displays.

-Wolf sends
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
So what you want to do is easy. Helps to have both screens the same size and resolution. After plugging in and booting you will need to change/adjust your setup. Control panel > display > screen resolution. Multiple display options are duplicate these displays (mirror), probably not what you want. Extend the display (can place multiple windows on each display (might be what you want), and since you have a nvidia card you might want to enable surround which will give you one big display like a 3200x1200. All depends on the capabilities of the monitors and what you want to accomplish
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Gaming on two monitor is a horrible idea. Your crosshair will be in the bezels of the monitors and shooting people will be nearly impossible. That's why Eyefinity was developed with 3 screens in mind.

With your setup I suggest gaming on your best monitor only. You'll go into windows and extend your monitor to the second screen. Properties, display or something like that. You can also move the monitors around in windows to get them the way they are on your desk. Windows will show them as either 1 >2, or 2>1, doesn't matter. Just make sure when you go from one screen it moves correctly to the other. By just gaming on the one screen you won't lose your crosshair, but you'll still have that other monitor for when you need it. (writing code, comparing things, etc.)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Thanks for the great feedback so far, sorry that I have not stated my intentions earlier. I will be using my first monitor to play games on full screen and the second monitor for my stream, in other words, live chat, youtube if needed, videos music but no games on the second one.
The question is will performance/fps drop a lot? Will my pc heat up even more? Are there things I need to worry about? Maybe my pc needs more power from the PSU? What do you guys think?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You should be ok with just about everything there. Your processor should be able to handle anything you throw at it. Youtube videos are going to cause you the biggest headaches and performance drops, due to the extra graphic power required to render the videos. I'd avoid that if possible.

Using just the outputs from your graphics card or the card and on-board graphics will not require a more powerful power supply. The one you have is more than enough to run your entire system at full load without issue. Only if you added the second graphics card, would you need to start to be concerned about the power supply.

-Wolf sends
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Ah ofcourse. Well I checked out my gtx and it seems it only has hdmi port, dissapointing. I tried putting hdmi from GPU to my main monitor and hdmi from my MB to my other monitor but the second one doesnt seem to work. Any known issues here?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Some motherboards will automatically disable the on-board graphics when a discrete graphics card is detected in the PCI-Ex16 slot. There may be a BIOS setting which will allow you to re-enable your on-board graphics. Otherwise, I'd recommend a DisplayPort to HDMI cable to connect your second display to your graphics card.

-Wolf sends
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom