Screen setup. Mac and PC - three screens with hdmi switch. One screen both hdmi and displayport

[jrasbr]

Hi there.

I could use some help with my screen setup. I have 2 Samsung screens with HDMI and one Asus screen with both HDMI and displayport.

At this time i use an HDMI switch, to switch the middle screen (the Asus screen) between the mac and the PC. This works great - i can use two screens when i'm on my Mac, and switch the middle screen so i can use two screens when i'm working on my PC.

So basically i have one dedicated mac screen, one dedicated PC screen an i use the middle one as a shared screen.

Here is my problem:
My Asus screen can only use 144 Hz, when its plugged into the displayport - and i really want the 144Hz when i'm gaming. My graphics card is a nvidia 1070 strix, and it has a display port. So i'm wondering how i can set it up so the Asus screen can switch between HDMI and displayport.

I'm thinking two options:
1) connect the Asus screen with BOTH displayport and HDMI - and simply switch the output through the screen menu. My concern is frying my graphics card - and "confusing" the screen at bootup.

2) Invest in a multiswitch - although i would prefer not to (its so danm expensive).

Any advice would be welcome

 

[king3pj]

Does your monitor have an option to turn off the auto-detect input setting. I know the Dell monitor I'm sitting in front of at work right now does. By default it is set to auto-detect but I can manually select VGA or HDMI instead if I want.

I have never had a reason to change this setting but it seems like it would do what you want for free if it is available on your monitor. Just manually select DisplayPort when you are gaming on the PC and manually select HDMI when you are using your Mac.

 

[jrasbr]

Does your monitor have an option to turn off the auto-detect input setting. I know the Dell monitor I'm sitting in front of at work right now does. By default it is set to auto-detect but I can manually select VGA or HDMI instead if I want.

I have never had a reason to change this setting but it seems like it would do what you want for free if it is available on your monitor. Just manually select DisplayPort when you are gaming on the PC and manually select HDMI when you are using your Mac.

Hi there and thank you for your suggestion. Unfortunately it does not seem my monitor have that option :/... i need to manually switch

 

[king3pj]

Manually switching in the monitor's settings is what I was suggesting. All I was saying was that on my monitor I can either leave the monitor input set to auto-detect or manually select either VGA or HDMI.

If your monitor works the same way you would be able to manually switch between HDMI and DisplayPort depending on which computer you are using. This would be a better alternative than letting auto-detect take over your monitor on the wrong input if both computers are powered on at the same time.

 

[jrasbr]

Manually switching in the monitor's settings is what I was suggesting. All I was saying was that on my monitor I can either leave the monitor input set to auto-detect or manually select either VGA or HDMI.

If your monitor works the same way you would be able to manually switch between HDMI and DisplayPort depending on which computer you are using.

Ok. Sorry i misunderstood . I was hoping that would work. But would i need to worry about my graphics card, when dual linking to one screen?

 

[king3pj]

I'm not aware of any reason why that would be bad for your GPU. There is a chance it might confuse Windows a little bit though.

I have 2 monitors hooked up to my GPU. If I turn off the second monitor Windows thinks I only have a 1 monitor setup again and it moves all of my desktop icons back to my main monitor. This isn't a big deal since I basically never turn off my second monitor but when I do, or when I update my GPU drivers I sometimes have to put all my icons back where I want them.

There is a chance that the same thing could happen to you if you switch the monitor over to your Mac while the PC is powered on. It won't hurt any of your hardware though. It would just be a minor annoyance at worst.

 

[jrasbr]

I'm not aware of any reason why that would be bad for your GPU. There is a chance it might confuse Windows a little bit though.

I have 2 monitors hooked up to my GPU. If I turn off the second monitor Windows thinks I only have a 1 monitor setup again and it moves all of my desktop icons back to my main monitor. This isn't a big deal since I basically never turn off my second monitor but when I do, or when I update my GPU drivers I sometimes have to put all my icons back where I want them.

There is a chance that the same thing could happen to you if you switch the monitor over to your Mac while the PC is powered on. It won't hurt any of your hardware though. It would just be a minor annoyance at worst.

Ok nice. Just worried since i would hate to fry it. I will try your suggestion, and accept solution if it works. Ty