Trouble getting a display going on a new build

[helloitsjf]

Hello all,
Today I got all the parts in to complete my build and finally put it all together. It’s my first build and I’m proud of it, but of course I’ve already made some mistakes. Here’s the brief on my hardware situation:

1) The motherboard (MSI Z370-A Pro) comes with 3 main display types: VGI, VGA, and DisplayPort. (The diagram in the amazon advertisement said it had “HighRes DisplayPort and HDMI” so I thought I was okay)

2) My graphics card (EVGA GeForce GTX1060 6gb) only has a DVI port and I didn’t know it had ports any until I got it installed.

3) My monitor that I ordered only supports VGA and HDMI.

So in the end, I’m stuck with trying to get a VGA cable to work since there’s no HDMI on the computer, but I can’t, for the life of me, get the monitor to say anything other than “No Signal”. I just want to install the OS and drivers. The motherboard’s inbuilt debug lights don’t say anything isn’t installed or failing either.

So after reading some threads here about getting a display working, you’re apparently not supposed to use the motherboard ports, but rather the one on the graphics card, correct? If that’s right, then all this boils down to a big adapter question.

1) Do I return the monitor and get one that supports DVI, or do I just buy a DVI to HDMI adapter and use it with the monitor?
If so, how would this affect performance for gaming?
2) Why won’t plugging it into the motherboard ports work?

And finally: If the posts I’ve read are wrong, what do I have to get to make this work?

Thanks for reading my long stupid question, but I just wanted to get all the information in one post.

Full specs:
Processor: i5-8600k
RAM: 16gb (2x8) DDR4 2400
Mobo: MSI Z370-A Pro
Graphics: EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 SC Gaming
PSU: EVGA 600 80+ Bronze
HDD: Western Digital Blue 1TB 7200RPM
Case: Corsair Carbide Air 540

 

[QwerkyPengwen]

I'm sorry... but what now? how in the world does an EVGA SC 1060 not have an HDMI port on it?
Should have HDMI, DVI, and DP

 

[QwerkyPengwen]

this is what the back of your card should look like.
I've circled the one that is an HDMI port.

 

[helloitsjf]

Oh my god I’m such a blind freaking idiot. Those ports were covered the whole time, and that’s why I never saw them. Holy Christ. Thank you.

 

[Shektron]

Hello all,
Today I got all the parts in to complete my build and finally put it all together. It’s my first build and I’m proud of it, but of course I’ve already made some mistakes. Here’s the brief on my hardware situation:

1) The motherboard (MSI Z370-A Pro) comes with 3 main display types: VGI, VGA, and DisplayPort. (The diagram in the amazon advertisement said it had “HighRes DisplayPort and HDMI” so I thought I was okay)

2) My graphics card (EVGA GeForce GTX1060 6gb) only has a DVI port and I didn’t know it had ports any until I got it installed.

3) My monitor that I ordered only supports VGA and HDMI.

So in the end, I’m stuck with trying to get a VGA cable to work since there’s no HDMI on the computer, but I can’t, for the life of me, get the monitor to say anything other than “No Signal”. I just want to install the OS and drivers. The motherboard’s inbuilt debug lights don’t say anything isn’t installed or failing either.

So after reading some threads here about getting a display working, you’re apparently not supposed to use the motherboard ports, but rather the one on the graphics card, correct? If that’s right, then all this boils down to a big adapter question.

1) Do I return the monitor and get one that supports DVI, or do I just buy a DVI to HDMI adapter and use it with the monitor?
If so, how would this affect performance for gaming?
2) Why won’t plugging it into the motherboard ports work?

And finally: If the posts I’ve read are wrong, what do I have to get to make this work?

Thanks for reading my long stupid question, but I just wanted to get all the information in one post.

Full specs:
Processor: i5-8600k
RAM: 16gb (2x8) DDR4 2400
Mobo: MSI Z370-A Pro
Graphics: EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 SC Gaming
PSU: EVGA 600 80+ Bronze
HDD: Western Digital Blue 1TB 7200RPM
Case: Corsair Carbide Air 540

As mentioned above, it is impossible that your EVGA card doesn't have an HDMI port.

No need to return the monitor, perhaps you just missed the HDMI port on the card.

In general, if you want a VGA monitor to work with a modern GPU(10 series and newer), you need an active adapter. So you'll be looking at an HDMI to VGA active adapter - the HDMI end goes into the GPU, the VGA end into your monitor. But since your monitor has an HDMI port, you don't need to do this. Look carefully, there has to be an HDMI port on that GPU.

Plugging the display into the motherboard doesn't work because when you install a GPU, the onboard graphics automatically get disabled, and the display output goes through the GPU.