Multiple monitors are a great thing to have in your PC setup, but you might wonder if your hardware is sufficient enough to run an extra monitor or two. Additionally, there is a question regarding losing the framerate with multiple displays.
Adding a second or third monitor will reduce fps at least by a little bit. However, it can be as little as 1-2 fps or as much as 50 percent fps loss because it depends on how the monitors are set up within the operating system and what they are being used for.
Since the answer to our question isn’t simple, we have no choice but to explore it in a bit more detail down below.
Fps Drop With Dual Monitor: Extend vs. Duplicate Display
The first thing to mention is how you set up a second monitor. Windows and Mac both have the option to duplicate the display or extend it.
Duplicating the display doesn’t affect fps unless the performance is somehow bottlenecked by having old PC hardware. It doesn’t affect fps because the GPU doesn’t need to render the graphics two times. Instead, it renders the graphics once and sends the content to two different screens.
Using the option to extend displays, meaning you can have different content on both monitors, will affect the fps. However, in most cases, you won’t even notice because you will lose 1-2 fps.
However, that doesn’t give us a complete answer because the number of fps you lose can vary from 1 to 99% of the fps you would typically have. It depends on your hardware and what content is rendered and displayed on the 2nd monitor.
Additional Monitors Causing Fps Drop: 2D vs. 3D Rendering
The most significant difference in fps you will ever notice when using multiple monitors is between 3D and 2D rendering on the 2nd or 3rd screen.
3D rendering is performance-heavy because the GPU has to generate programmed vector graphics, as you see in games. Therefore, playing games on both monitors will significantly impact fps.
2D rendering, on the other hand, is insignificant in terms of GPU resource usage. That is because 2D rendering includes everything based on images rather than programmed graphics. So, for example, if you are only browsing the web, your GPU only needs to display already-generated images and simple 2D web graphics.
Dual Screen Fps Drop: Dedicated GPU vs. CPU Graphics
In general, dedicated GPUs are designed specifically for graphics processing. As a result, they can significantly outperform integrated GPU (iGPU) or CPU graphics in terms of fps, especially when playing games with demanding graphics.
Dedicated GPUs come with their own memory (VRAM) and are optimized for high-performance gaming. In contrast, integrated GPUs or CPU graphics typically have less memory and are designed more for general-purpose computing tasks.
As a result, plugging in a second monitor while using CPU graphics will have a more significant impact on fps than having a dedicated GPU.
However, CPU graphics have an additional purpose in tandem with a GPU. You can use CPU graphics to run your 2nd monitor; that way, the GPU can dedicate its full capability to the game you are playing on your primary monitor.
You can also see many streamers using CPU graphics to stream content on Twitch.
Streaming isn’t as VRAM intensive as video recording, but it still affects your graphics card performance.
Using a CPU to stream can allow the GPU to run games at higher FPS. Conversely, using a GPU for gaming and streaming a game that already takes all graphics card performance will lead to lower FPS in games.
However, when the CPU handles the video encoding for the stream, the GPU can be fully dedicated to the game, resulting in higher FPS and improved gaming performance.
I might add that the actual increase in FPS will depend on various factors, such as the CPU and GPU specifications, the stream quality settings, and the demands of the game you are playing.
Can Older GPU Support 2 Monitors?
Like everything we discussed so far, it’s a similar comparison to a dedicated GPU vs. CPU graphics.
Any GPU can support two monitors if there are slots to plug them in. Ultimately, it comes down to what you want both monitors for and how graphically demanding it is.
I used to play less demanding games like Dota 2 on my office laptop, which had an old Nvidia 940mx graphics card with only 2Gb of Vram while keeping the office monitor plugged in with my worksheets.
It ran fine, and there were no noticeable fps drops unless I opened something on my office monitor that the old GPU couldn’t handle while playing a game.
In fact, we actually tested whether adding an external monitor lowers FPS. So, if you are interested, make sure to check Does External Monitor Slow Down Laptop? We Tested It
That leads us to the cause of multiple monitor fps drop.
Fps Drop When Playing Video on Second Monitor
When I would open a full-HD Youtube video on my office monitor, the game I played in the previous scenario would instantly lose 30-50% of fps because that old GPU couldn’t handle it. Not to mention, the graphics card would quickly overheat.
Luckily, this doesn’t affect newer GPUs which don’t get affected by decoding videos on the second screen even while playing graphically demanding games. You may notice a tiny drop of fps with 4K videos, but that would be several fps in the worst cases.
Borderless Causing Fps Drops With Dual Monitor Setup
Many users have observed fps drops with multiple monitor setups even when there are no reasons to have them. Their GPUs were more than good enough, and the games they played weren’t as demanding.
By experimenting with video settings in several games, I found that some games lose a noticeable amount of fps while being played in borderless window settings. For some reason, it only happens when having more than one monitor connected.
I couldn’t find an explanation for why this is happening, but if you are having the same issue and are sure it shouldn’t be happening, changing the game settings to full-screen mode should solve the problem.
Solutions to Fps Drops With Multiple Monitors
Reduce graphics quality: The first thing I would do is reduce graphics quality within the game settings. I know everyone likes beautiful graphics, but game performance is always more important than looking pretty. Lowering the graphics quality settings in your games will undoubtedly reduce the load on your GPU and improve FPS.
Lower resolution: Resolution works the same way as graphics quality. The lower the resolution, the higher the frame rate. However, unlike graphics quality, lowering resolution often makes games blurry, and I recommend doing it only as a last resort.
Upgrade hardware: Ideally, you want to upgrade your hardware, primarily a GPU. Even though it is the most expensive piece of hardware within a PC, it will solve all your problems.
Optimize game settings: Some games have specific settings you can optimize for better performance. I would look for someone known on Youtube or Twitch for playing that game and search on google for their settings. Experienced players tend to publicly release their settings to help others optimize the game as best as possible.
Update drivers: Updating drivers seems like a generic solution every website would recommend, and I have thought like that for a long time. Until recently, when I had problems with stuttering in PUBG caused by fps drops, and after trying every possible solution, I realized my GPU’s drivers were almost two years out of date. After updating, there were no more fps drops.
Conclusion
We can conclude that fps will always drop when you connect additional monitors. However, if your hardware, especially the GPU, can easily handle the game, you will likely lose only 1-2 fps.
In case of a more noticeable fps drop, you have almost certainly pushed your hardware to the limit, either by what’s displayed on the primary or your additional monitors.