What is the most efficient way to connect dual monitors?

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I have a dual monitor setup on Windows 10, and it works well most of the time, but I’m wondering about what is the most efficient way to connect the monitors? I have an NVIDIA Geforce 210 video card, and also of course the on board Intel graphics (Intel HD Graphics 4600), and at present I have both monitors connected to the NVIDIA card – one via the DVI port, and the other via the HDMI port. The Intel has the same ports, presently not in use.

Question 1: would it be more efficient to connect one monitor to the NVIDIA and the other to the Intel? If so, both to DVI?

Question 2: In the BIOS there is an option to disable the on board Intel graphics. Currently this is set to Enabled. If the Intel graphics is not in use, should I set this to Disabled, or does the system require it to be Enabled anyway?

I have 8 GB of memory, which is rarely even half in use, so I’m not worried about some system memory being dedicated to graphics. I don’t do gaming, but I do want to get the best video response on both monitors.

Are there any other considerations?

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It should be more efficient to use the Intel HD 4600 iGPU to drive both screens and uninstall and remove the GT 210, from both the screen display and power efficiency aspects:

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/compare.php?cmp%5B%5D=2451&cmp%5B%5D=1169

The GT 210 was designed to be a step up from iGPUs from the Core2Duo era, processors have changed a lot since then, both in 2D and 3D output.

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Thanks for that info. I have not seen this sort of comparison before, and don’t understand all the parameters, but it certainly looks like the 4600 is the better performer. I have connected both screens to the 4600, and have disabled (but not yet uninstalled) the GT. In the BIOS I have allocated the maximum amount of memory (1024MB) to the 4600. Both screens are running as expected, so I will run it like that for a week or so, and if it looks good I will uninstall the GT and physically remove it.

One thing is a bit strange now though. When I look at display settings, I now see three displays. Numbers 2 and 3 are my actual screens; number 1 is a smaller box with the caption “Display not detected”. I’m guessing that this will go away if/when I finally uninstall the GT?

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The ‘ghost’ monitor is likely to disappear once the 210 is pulled and the software uninstalled, ‘odd’ things are fairly common when setting up multiple monitors but the workarounds are usually pretty easy.

With graphics, it’s mainly the 2D/3D benchmarks that should concern you most, 3d being mostly gaming, 2D is more ‘normal’ usage. Where onboard/iGPU graphics are concerned, the speed of the System memory is a factor, faster being better. With discrete cards, System memory speed makes almost no difference.

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I had a few problems along the way. It looked good at first, but after a restart I did not see the BIOS screen where you can press DEL to enter setup. Both screens would remain completely blank until Windows started with the login screen, on the “main display” only. With a bit of fiddling around and swapping connections, I then had the opposite – the BIOS screen would appear, and it would go on to start Windows, but at the point where Windows takes over, both screens would go dark and nothing more seemed to happen. I knew that Windows had started, because of various beeps, but it was not displaying on the screens. Eventually I twigged that I had to change the initial display output, in the BIOS, from PCIe to IGFX, and to physically remove (not just disable or uninstall) the NVIDIA card. Having done all that, it seems now to be OK and the response on both screens is good. Just one minor annoyance – when I start the computer now, the initial BIOS screen appears on both monitors, and the startup stays on both screens until Windows starts with its login screen, at which point it reverts to the “main display” only. Is there a way to prevent the initial startup sequence from appearing on both screens? It doesn’t really matter, just annoying.

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…Just one minor annoyance – when I start the computer now, the initial BIOS screen appears on both monitors, and the startup stays on both screens until Windows starts with its login screen, at which point it reverts to the “main display” only. Is there a way to prevent the initial startup sequence from appearing on both screens?…

Sounds fairly normal to me. Windows controls dual-monitor setups, usually not the BIOS/UEFI.

But you could right-click on your Desktop then left-click “Display Settings” and look for an item to specify which monitor is your main display?

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One monitor is defined as the “main display”, and obviously I know which one it is. What is puzzling me is that before I made these changes, when I had both monitors connected to the NVIDIA card, the BIOS/UEFI would display on one monitor only – the one defined as the “main display”. Now that I have both monitors connected to the Intel 4600, the BIOS/UEFI displays on both monitors, until Windows starts on the “main display” only. If that’s the way it has to be, it’s of no concern.

Besides physically removing the NVIDIA card, I have uninstalled all the NVIDIA drivers and software. Using Revo, the uninstall found and deleted many leftover registry entries and files. So far, everything is working normally. Thanks for the assistance.

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I suspect it’s just a difference in way the the video cards are configured. Intel choose to display start up info on both screens, which is a good test of initial connections.

cheers, Paul

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The BIOS displaying on both screens is a feature necessary to support bilaterally symmetrical lifeforms. You have a left and a right eye, right? Now you have a left and a right screen, one for each eye! Why, you’d have to read those screens with just one eye otherwise…

:p

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