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cyberpunkrocker

Member

From: Birckala, Finland

Registered: 2019-09-16

Posts: 36

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Nvidia card primary display on multihead systems?

I have a Nvidia card (GTX 1070) with a DVI-D, HDMI and three DisplayPort connectors. The current single monitor is connected to the HDMI (because I need the sound output to monitor), but I'm considering adding a second monitor. This is my first card with DisplayPort connectors, so I'd like to know in which order the hardware assigns the primary display. By "primary" in this case I mean the display on which BIOS/UEFI, grub etc. displays their output. I know, for example, on an older Nvidia card with DVI and HDMI connectors DVI is always the primary, if both are connected. But how is the case with DisplayPort connectors? I'd like to keep the current HDMI monitor as "primary", but if I connect the second monitor to DisplayPort, which one becomes the primary display? I haven't found any information on this elsewhere.

I'm asking this here because I don't want to waste money for wrong kind of cables

Lone_Wolf

Administrator

From: Netherlands, Europe

Registered: 2005-10-04

Posts: 15,096

Re: Nvidia card primary display on multihead systems?

For a laptop the internal screen is always primary , but I think you're talking about a desktop system ?

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cyberpunkrocker

Member

From: Birckala, Finland

Registered: 2019-09-16

Posts: 36

Website

Re: Nvidia card primary display on multihead systems?

Well of course . Have you ever seen a laptop with that many connectors?

seth

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From: Won't reply 2 private help req

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 76,050

Re: Nvidia card primary display on multihead systems?

This is board specific, so recorded in the manual for your graphics card. At best. And it's usually not configurable either.
I'd expect DVI > DP > HDMI, so hdmi will always be the last element, but there's no way to tell except trying :-(

*Mild* indicator: order in the output of "xrandr -q"

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cyberpunkrocker

Member

From: Birckala, Finland

Registered: 2019-09-16

Posts: 36

Website

Re: Nvidia card primary display on multihead systems?

Vendor's documentation (MSI) did not help at all, but xrandr -q lists them in order DVI > HDMI > DP, so this may work after all. As you said, I just have to try...
Thanks for your help, I'll post the results whenever I have some.