The PC produces a signal for the monitors. The monitors themselves have there own internal power supply. That means that the performance of the PC is the same whether a monitor is connected or not.
If the PC slows when you make a change on the screen, it is due to a lack of resources in the system. That is usually either high usage of the CPU or Memory.
You can go to the task manager and then under the startup menu. Look down the list for programs that have high impact on startup. If the program isn't used often, high light it and select disable. This doesn't mean that you can't use the program. It just takes a few seconds longer to load. Then repeat down the list.
Another item that is often missed is virtual memory. This uses a small amount of drive space as memory. It helps greatly when a system slows down as you described.
Virtual memory in Win 10 is a bit buried. It is under System>Advanced System Settings>Advanced>Performance>Settings> Virtual Memory. Then select custom and then set it to 5000 -10,000 MB (set the Max to around 5000 over the minimum). You can do this on one drive or spread it out over several drives.