Guides/Display
Is your monitor plugged into the graphics card or the motherboard?
Most gaming PCs have two sets of video ports on the back. Only one of them belongs to your graphics card. Plug the monitor into the other, and your game can end up on the processor's weak built-in graphics.
Tell the ports apart#
- Motherboard: a column of ports at the top of the back panel, next to the USB ports and audio jacks. If there's an HDMI or DisplayPort among them, that's the motherboard's.
- Graphics card: a row of ports lower down, on a metal bracket lying sideways, usually several DisplayPorts and one HDMI.
If you get a picture from the top ports at all, your processor has built-in graphics. That's exactly the case where this matters. Processors without built-in graphics show nothing on those ports.
Why it costs performance#
Plugged into the motherboard, Windows either runs the game on the built-in graphics, which is far slower, or renders on the graphics card and sends every frame through the built-in graphics to the screen. Both cost frames, and the second can add latency.
Check in Windows#
In Windows 11, Settings → System → Display → Advanced display shows Display information, including which graphics adapter the screen is connected to. It should be your graphics card, for example an NVIDIA GeForce or AMD Radeon, not the processor's graphics.
Laptops#
On laptops the built-in screen is often wired through the built-in graphics. Some gaming laptops have a MUX switch (sometimes called Advanced Optimus or a “dGPU only” mode) that connects the screen straight to the graphics card. If yours has one, turn it on for gaming. For an external monitor, check the manual for which port is wired to the graphics card.
Questions#
Can I use both the motherboard and graphics card ports?
My monitor shows no picture on the graphics card.
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