[room7]

I have two monitors (Dell 22'' (Primary) & Vizio 42" (Secondary). I have a NVidia 8800 GT (640MB).
I set up the Vizio as an extended desktop, and only use it when Im watching a video and working at the same time.

My Question: If I only have one monitor on, does my video card work as hard as if both monitors were on?

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My guess would be no, but to test it you could download a Benchmarking program, and run it single monitor, and then dual, and see what the outcome is. I don't think it would make a huge difference, unless you were gaming on it, when it would chew up alot of video memory.

[Pvt. Riches]

My guess would be no, but to test it you could download a Benchmarking program, and run it single monitor, and then dual, and see what the outcome is. I don't think it would make a huge difference, unless you were gaming on it, when it would chew up alot of video memory.

[PedroDaGR8]

My guess would be no, but to test it you could download a Benchmarking program, and run it single monitor, and then dual, and see what the outcome is. I don't think it would make a huge difference, unless you were gaming on it, when it would chew up alot of video memory.

If the monitor is off, then the video card only renders what goes to the display that is turned on. Otherwise, it would be VERY wasteful.

[Pvt. Riches]

Sorry, I misunderstood the question. I thought you meant if the video card was set up for single monitor only, as opposed to dual monitor. I didn't realize you meant just by turning the monitor off. The video card will send a signal to the video output regardless of whether or not the monitor/television is on, if that what you are asking.