Question Using external displays on a laptop ?

GVM2014

Prominent
Mar 29, 2022
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Hi, I have a question about the usage of gaming laptops with external displays.

When gaming, I often connect them to an external display through the HDMI port, because I prefer bigger screens in such a scenario. The question is: should I shut down the laptop internal display in this situation? I've heard something that, when using an external monitor, if the internal display is also on, there is a performance drop, but I'm not sure how accurate it is.

I've also heard that Nvidia Optimus could bottleneck performance, so could I be given some suggestions about how to get the best performance when using an external display? Would connecting through HDMI bypass Nvidia Optimus?
 

GVM2014

Prominent
Mar 29, 2022
31
2
535
You're fine to have both displays running without any issue/worry. What is the make and model/SKU of your laptop? Make and model of your external panel and how it's tethered to your laptop?

The laptop I am talking about is an Asus TUF A15 (2022) with Ryzen 6800H and RTX 3070 and a QHD display with 165Hz refresh rate. The external panel varies, either a QHD monitor with 100Hz, or a 60' inch TV 4k at 60 Hz. I always connect through HDMI.

I did not specify the models in the first post because I wanted a general answer (not tied to these specific models) whether laptops run fine in such a scenario, because I used external displays connected to laptops long before I had these models and I will keep doing so, long after I replace them.

It is just that I recently stumbled upon an assertion that there might be performance issues when laptops are connected to an external display and I wanted to get some opinions whether this could be true.