Does using a second monitor eat GPU power???

Wiredchild

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Hey. I set up my second monitor the other day for the pure reason that, i can...hehe. It's just a 15" CRT which i like having there because i think it makes me look all technical and my little brother marvels at how impressive two screens working on one computer is!

...Ok, i do actually use it because i do quite a bit of multi-tasking so it's useful. ...Still makes me look cool though.

Stiiillll....I was curious to know if it uses GPU power when it's not being used as such. For example, if i load up Quake4 the second monitor just displays the desktop, however...Is it still using GPU power to do this??
 
A lot? I mean, will it make a difference? And...If so, is there anyway to like, automatically shut the other screen down when playing games?
 
I would like to know, becuase if it doesn't totally kill your pc you could have a game on on monitor and msn or something on the other, save alt tabbing :D
 
yes it does use gpu power because its having to render 2 monitors at once but it shouldnt be to bad as long as u just stay on the desktop with the other monitor
 
What happens if you have 2 Sli'd Or Crossfire'd Cards? Then will it be better? Cause on card is on one monitor and other on the other monitor.
 
Ah...Do you reckon that's why Quake4 runs so slowley on my PC?

I've got a 6600GT GPU, 3500+ CPU, 512 RAM (i know that's s**t and i need an upgrade)...But, it runs Doom3 ok, but Quake4 when i got it the other day, awfully. Is it because i put on a second monitor a couple of days before i got the game...I've not checked it without.

Is there any way to shut off the other monitor to stop it rendering besides unplugging it? That's a real pain for me. (i'm lazy).
 
When I play a game , the other monitor turns off, unless you have it set on it high res.
 
Both are set on 1280x1024 because it's annoying otherwise when i move mouse from screen to screen because the edges don't meet. I.e, if the mouse is at the top of the higher resolution screen if i try to move it to the other it can't because the resolution is smaller and has less height to move on to it.

...does that make sense???

I want it to turn off when i play games, but keep them both at the same resolution.

I suppose, as always, what i want can't be achieved???
 
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