How to disable the second monitor when game is running

graphics card

I have 2 screen setup for my computer… and I think the cold hard fact that the second monitor is running while I'm running games kills my FPS.

So, is there a way to automatically disable my second screen when I start a game on the first screen? And when I'll close it, to automatically reenable the second screen?

Best Answer

It is hard to answer this question generically. Display "Mode Persistence", as it is called in the biz, is a notoriously fickle and config dependent feature. Key factors to consider:

  1. Display mode (Clone, or Extended Desktop)
  2. Graphics adapter (nVidia, ATI, etc)
  3. Version of Windows (generally pre-Win 7 or post-Win 7)

Display modes are handled differently for these different configs. I'd also suspect that the FPS hit for running in these different configs varies.

All that said, if you want an easy way to turn off your second (or third/fourth etc) displays, most modern graphics cards provide it. Look for a "hotkey" menu in the graphics adapter GUI. For example in Catalyst:

Hotkey GUI

Here you can set keystrokes for various display mode switching. I believe you'd be looking for "Disable all non-Primary displays". There many other hotkey-able capabilities you may also find useful, if you are switching between gaming and "regular" computer use.

Related Topic