Interesting quandary over monitor connections

[jim45682]

So lets start with the facts, I have a Gigabyte Z97 Gaming 3 motherboard with an Intel i5 4690K CPU, I had my old graphics card go south on me so I have replaced it with a new R9 390 strix.

The trouble is I have 2 displays one of which has HDMI the other is an older one with only VGA connector, I am required to use this monitor for work so I must have it hooked up, I have ordered a VGA to DVI adapter but it will not be here for a week or more. I have been running the monitors off of the onboard graphics since the old card died but it barely works even for work applications.

Is it possible for me to hook up the new graphics card and connect the HDMI monitor to it while leaving the VGA monitor connected to the motherboard and have both functioning as they would normally? If so how do I do this?

 

[thently]

No this will not work most mother boards will boot up and say unsupported configuration if you have it plugged in like this.

Thent

 

[rhysiam]

You'll need to go into the BIOS and see if you can enable both onboard and PCIe graphics at the same time. Many BIOSes give you this option, but not all. If it's not in the BIOS, then you're stuck with your graphics card I'm afraid, unless you have a second old GPU lying around somewhere.

If you can find that option in BIOS, once you boot to Windows it will find the onboard graphics, install the drivers (possibly requiring a reboot) and then you should be good to go.

 

[jim45682]

You'll need to go into the BIOS and see if you can enable both onboard and PCIe graphics at the same time. Many BIOSes give you this option, but not all. If it's not in the BIOS, then you're stuck with your graphics card I'm afraid, unless you have a second old GPU lying around somewhere.

If you can find that option in BIOS, once you boot to Windows it will find the onboard graphics, install the drivers (possibly requiring a reboot) and then you should be good to go.

Where would i find this setting in the bios, I have not done much messing around in the bios for this board so I am not sure what I am looking for and where to look.

 

[rhysiam]

So I had a quick look at your manual. Under Peripherals you should have "Intel Processor Graphics", this should be "enabled" (though it's possible that gets overridden when a GPU is detected).

If it's already enabled you might need to change another setting. At the top you should see "Initial Display Output". You can set that to IGFX. Make sure you have a working monitor plugged in to the Motherboard display outputs, save and reboot.

That should work. Though it's possible it just disables your R9 390. You should be able to tell when you boot into Windows.
I've gotta go now, but good luck.

If you get completely stuck and lose both displays, (shouldn't happen, this is a just-in-case option), remove the 390 temporarily, boot back into the BIOS using a display connected to your onboard graphics, put all the settings you changed back the way you found them, put the graphics card back in with display attached, and you're back where you started.

 

[rhysiam]

Does that mean you got it working?

 

[jim45682]

Does that mean you got it working?

Not yet, I wont be installing the card untill the weekend, cant afford downtime during work schedule