Hooking up a TVPC, Integrated Graphics vs External Graphics
Hooking up a TVPC, Integrated Graphics vs External Graphics
Good morning! I am setting up a new TVPC using an Intel Core i7-9700T processor and an NVIDIA RTX 3050 with 8GB of video memory. The big graphics card (RTX 3050) will plug into the PC using m.2 to PCIe connection. This TV has several HDMI ports that I can switch between remotely.
I want to connect my TV via one HDMI port to the RTX 3050 and use another HDMI port to connect directly to the integrated graphics on the i7-9700T. Will this work like this: if I select the HDMI connected to the RTX 3050, the TV shows video from the big card; and if I switch that input back to the integrated graphics connection, the TV will show the built-in graphics? This seems pretty easy to figure out for me. Please give me some advice, and thank you in advance! TIA Larry
Sometimes, yes. If a dedicated GPU is already in the system, your built-in graphics card will turn itself off automatically. For laptops, you can choose to keep both the built-in and the external GPU running together. However, on desktops it all depends on what your motherboard BIOS supports. Which specific ATX model does your board have? If you use a PCI-E adapter to plug an RTX 3050 into your system but cut off half of its power lanes, that matters because the 3050 needs full PCI-E x8 support. Most M.2 slots only give you four lanes (x4), so this setup loses some performance. Some adapters even offer just two or one lane instead. This situation looks like you're using a laptop motherboard to act as an external GPU, which would explain why your CPU is low TDP and runs at 9700T instead of a higher speed model. The RTX 3050 uses 130 watts for power. Where does it get that extra electricity? An M.2 slot can give you maybe up to 30 watts, but the GPU actually needs way more than that. A standard PCI-E x16 slot provides about 75 watts, which is still not enough for a high-end card like this one.
Hey, thanks so much for your reply. My computer is an HP Elite Desk 800 G5 Mini and it doesn't have a dedicated graphics card (GPU), but I can run things over m.2 instead. Also, the power comes from outside my case. Back then, I thought you only needed to see a monitor turned on for your GPU to start working whether it was inside or outside the box. Larry
I don't think it works like that. Either the GPU turns on and is ready to show pictures, or it stays off. Power saving happens if they are still working but not showing images, yet that isn't exactly being turned off. So why does this happen? If you want a home theater PC (HTPC), I'm sure your integrated graphics chip is enough for that job. But if you plan on switching back and forth between gaming and watching movies, it makes more sense to let the dedicated RTX 3050 run while keeping the iGPU turned off all the time. When I used a chip with built-in graphics back in the day, I installed a separate GPU just for decoding videos anyway and used that instead. My current HTPC doesn't have integrated graphics built in, so I bought a dedicated A380 (even though buying it was kind of a lucky guess; it started as an old GT1030 after years of use).
No, I've heard this for AMD so it might happen there, but on intel the igpu stays active, the dGPU will just be assigned as the main GPU even when both are connected at the same time during installation, or any other time. This is the setting you can change in bios, which one to activate first (and thus will be the main) . No, you assign a main GPU in windows settings ( actually you select the main display ) and every app/game that can choose GPUs will use whichever GPU is connected to that display. With your display being the same one with both GPUs you have to go into windows graphics settings and set up every single app/game individually to whatever you like it to use, well only those that don't run on the one you want them to.
You are right that it makes no difference with either the screen or the apps/games, they don't care about that at all. You can try it on your own by playing a game or watching video and unplugging the HDMI cable for just a few seconds. When you plug it back in, everything looks exactly the same as before, like nothing ever stopped happening to the picture or sound.