Laptop onboard monitor mod to discrete gpu.

[Ginnotsuyo]

Ok, here's the thing... My laptop comes with two different video cards, the one from intel (integrated gpu) and an Nvidia card (discrete or dedicated graphics), when I connect an external monitor to the HDMI port, it connects straight to de discrete graphics, but the onboard monitor of the laptop is connected to the integrated graphics... Question: Has anyone tried or is it possible to do something or mod, I don't know, maybe the motherboard or anything to connect the onboard monitor of the laptop directly to de discrete graphics? I mean change the connection to the dedicated gpu only?

[Moonzy]

probably not, but why would you do that?

games should render on your dGPU, unless settings are wrong

the iGPU is used only as a passthrough in that case

[Ginnotsuyo]

There are options for the monitor provided by the dedicated gpu control panel only available if the monitor is connected to the discrete graphics. Also, it's been proven that games get better performance when they are running on a monitor connected to the dedicated gpu (case of connecting to an external monitor in my case) than when they are being run using the onboard monitor connected to the igpu. This is important for me, just to know if it's possible or has anyone tried to mod the connection of the onboard monitor to the dedicated gpu.

[Guest]

On Laptops, the iGPU is used most of the time to save battery life. If you start doing something that needs a lot of GPU power then it will switch to using the dGPU.

[Ginnotsuyo]

Just now, Darpyface said:

On Laptops, the iGPU is used most of the time to save battery life. If you start doing something that needs a lot of GPU power then it will switch to using the dGPU.

I understand that, I just want to know if the mod is possible, so the onboard monitor gets connected directly to the dGPU, because that way the game doesn't need to get bypassed by the iGPU to the monitor and also would be nice to have the settings offered by the dGPU on the onboard monitor. Just want to know if someone that works with hardware is capable of doing that mod or maybe it could be done by a bios mod idk. I am not tech savy, I just know basic stuff.

[Moonzy]

12 minutes ago, Ginnotsuyo said:

it's been proven that games get better performance when they are running on a monitor connected to the dedicated gpu

hmm... by how much? can i get a link? cant find it, idk the right keyword (definitely not igpu vs dgpu)

if u meant thunderbolt docks then NVM, those are limited by other factors

[Ginnotsuyo]

3 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

hmm... by how much? can i get a link? cant find it, idk the right keyword (definitely not igpu vs dgpu)

if u meant thunderbolt docks then NVM, those are limited by other factors

Here's the link testing what I mean:

 

[Moonzy]

7 minutes ago, Ginnotsuyo said:

Here's the link testing what I mean:

interesting, it affects higher fps more

interested to know why this happens though

i suspect CPU bottlenecks, having to handle more traffic from pcie and already working harder on high fps, but hard to know for sure

 

but as for hardwiring your laptop's screen to the dgpu, still dont think it's possible, but maybe someone out there could help you

[igormp]

It sure is, along as you're fine with going some funky soldering if both the dGPU and monitor share a common communication protocol (laptop monitors are usually wired through eDP or LVDS), or do a custom PCB to bridge and connect both together.

[Ginnotsuyo]

1 hour ago, igormp said:

It sure is, along as you're fine with going some funky soldering if both the dGPU and monitor share a common communication protocol (laptop monitors are usually wired through eDP or LVDS), or do a custom PCB to bridge and connect both together.

All I want to do basically is disconnect the laptop's monitor from the iGPU and connect it to the dGPU. What you're saying, even tho I don't understand all the terminology, sounds like getting closer to what I wish could be possible. So that means modding the motherboard or something like that, by soldering, to make those connections possible?

[Ginnotsuyo]

I wish that the guys from that make the YouTube videos see this topic and start experimenting on this, if they haven't tried before, in which case I don't find the video on their channel.

[Roswell]

It's not possible. Laptop motherboards only have one video output and that's all there is, unfortunately. 

[Pixel5]

4 hours ago, Ginnotsuyo said:

Here's the link testing what I mean:

 

this does not mean that the laptop would be any faster if the laptop screen was connected to the other GPU directly.

This could also be a side effect of the internal display being turned off freeing up more power to be used by the CPU and GPU while also keeping the temps lower.

[igormp]

10 hours ago, Ginnotsuyo said:

All I want to do basically is disconnect the laptop's monitor from the iGPU and connect it to the dGPU. What you're saying, even tho I don't understand all the terminology, sounds like getting closer to what I wish could be possible. So that means modding the motherboard or something like that, by soldering, to make those connections possible?

Yes, some people usually do similar things when modding Thinkpads with newer screens, or swapping motherboards.

 

6 hours ago, Pixel5 said:

This could also be a side effect of the internal display being turned off freeing up more power to be used by the CPU and GPU while also keeping the temps lower.

No, there's a performance penalty when rendering off screen and bypassing that output to another graphics adapter. 

[Ginnotsuyo]

55 minutes ago, igormp said:

Yes, some people usually do similar things when modding Thinkpads with newer screens, or swapping motherboards.

 

No, there's a performance penalty when rendering off screen and bypassing that output to another graphics adapter. 

Exactly.