GTX 460 and dual monitors

[Betatest]

Hello, this might sound stupid, but I would like to know, if plugging in my second monitor will decrease overall performance while gaming. I would normally play on my main and on my second I would have dunno for example word or something else, would it dramatically decrease the performance?

Thanks

 

[EVGA_MatthewH]

Shouldn't really decrease performance, but it will raise the temps

 

[LokutusofBorg]

I've been doing this for years. It does not decrease game performance (beyond a negligible amount) to have a second monitor on your single video card. Now, running your game in windowed mode so you can alt-tab to stuff on your other monitor, yes that can noticeably affect game performance but will depend on the game.

At the very least you can go into display properties and turn off the second monitor before launching your game if you want to make sure you are getting the absolute tip-top performance out of your video card. If you are running Vista/Win7 then Aero features are being GPU accelerated. And just having your desktop larger will increase the memory load on your GPU (frame buffers). But as I mentioned, these have negligible impact.

 

[KingFatty]

Do it, it's great and I wonder if you'll never go back to single-monitor once you go dual.

Any issues about increased power/heat due to two monitors can be solved by a simple Windows hotkey: [Winkey] + P

That hotkey combo allows you to instantly disable the secondary monitor and revert your settings back to a single monitor, conserving power at the touch of a button when you just need to do something simple. Or live it up and just leave all monitors activated.

Note that leaving all monitors active may cause the card to stay in a more active state when you are browsing windows etc. compared to just one monitor, but I don't know the specifics on your video card.

 

[EVGA_MatthewH]

The card won't downclock with 2 monitors, so it will idle hotter, however simply having a web browser on one screen and a game on the other won't do much if anything in terms of performance.