What if one monitor is on a GPU and the other is on-board?

[nlightningmusic]

Hi guys, I've never had a dedicated graphics card (and won't be getting my first until the latter half of this year), but I thought of doing a 3-monitor setup using two outputs on my GPU plus one on the board.

But what would happen? Would the system default to using ONLY one OR the other GPU - causing the screens attached to the inactive outputs to be blank? Is this possible at all?

Just curious!

 

[SkyNetRising]

H but I thought of doing a 3-monitor setup using two outputs on my GPU plus one on the board.
But what would happen? Would the system default to using ONLY one OR the other GPU - causing the screens attached to the inactive outputs to be blank? Is this possible at all?

Why do you need that?
Modern graphics cards can support 3 monitors without problems.

Usually, when discrete graphics card is present, integrated gpu gets disabled automatically.
To enable it, you would have to modify BIOS settings.

 

[raisonjohn]

It's possible depending on the motherboard's features. I have an old Gigabyte H97 Gaming 3 motherboard. The 3 monitors (DP, DVI-D, and DVI-I) are all connected to the GPU (GTX 970). My 4th monitor (above the 3 monitors) is connected to the motherboard's iGPU HDMI output.

I did not modify any BIOS settings and the combined dedicated GPU and integrated GPU works flawlessly (screen/desktop is extended and no "blank screens" on any monitors while using/gaming/running an application on any of the monitors).

 

[dontlistentome]

My advice is never make things more complicated than they need to be. If you are doing a 3 monitor set up, plan for it by making sure the videocard you choose has the 3 kinds of outputs you need, and the monitors you choose have the 3 matching inputs, so you can run it all off one card.

 

[nlightningmusic]

It's possible depending on the motherboard's features. I have an old Gigabyte H97 Gaming 3 motherboard. The 3 monitors (DP, DVI-D, and DVI-I) are all connected to the GPU (GTX 970). My 4th monitor (above the 3 monitors) is connected to the motherboard's iGPU HDMI output.

I did not modify any BIOS settings and the combined dedicated GPU and integrated GPU works flawlessly (screen/desktop is extended and no "blank screens" on any monitors while using/gaming/running an application on any of the monitors).

What is "happening" in the background here, though? What would be the effect if you had a graphics-intensive software open in windowed mode, with for example 1/4 of the window on the two dedicated-GPU monitors, and then half the view on the motherboard-GPU's monitor? Would it default to using the lowest-level GPU then?

I'm actually reconsidering because of space. It would be cool to have three monitors though! Maybe sometime later.. and if so, I'll do it the right way!