Having a dual-monitor setup can be convenient, regardless of what you’re using it for. With two monitors connected to the same GPU, commonly known as the graphics card, the GPU has to work harder in order to display your screen on both of these monitors.
Now, add in a couple of applications running in the background and a game running on one of the screens. With all of this going on at the same time, it’s understandable that some applications may start lagging or stuttering. However, there’s something you can do about it.
Let’s start by taking a brief look at the problem and what can be done about it. While there’s more that can be done, I’ve included the most common fixes in this first section.
Down below is a more detailed section where I go into detail and show you how to apply these methods to your computer.
When using two or more monitors at once you can experience lag when playing a game on one monitor while running other applications on the other. That’s because capturing two high-resolution screens at once uses up a lot of the graphic card’s resources.
You can reduce or remove the stuttering by running the game in a full-screen window, setting both monitors to the same refresh rate, closing other demanding applications in the background, changing the monitor’s framerate to 60 fps, disabling any overlay, turning on/off V and G-Sync, and replacing your current cables.
If I was given a dollar for every single time the monitor was the reason for this problem, I would be in serious financial trouble. The monitor is seldom the reason why the stuttering appears when there are so many applications running, especially when they’re demanding applications.
Well, it might be some of the monitor’s settings, but it’s rare that the monitor isn’t good enough or that it’s malfunctioning. This issue can, most of the time, be fixed (completely or to a certain extent) from within the computer.
Let’s start!
How Do I Stop My Second Monitor From Lagging?
Start troubleshooting the problem one step at a time. Here’s a list of solutions in no specific order. Before we begin, I want to inform you that some of the solutions in the list below work better for Nvidia cards than AMD, and vice versa.
1. Run the game in full-screen mode
Running the game in full-screen mode can remove the lag. You can set the game to run in borderless, windowed, or full-screen mode from within the game’s Options/Settings section.
The few games that don’t offer this solution are often smaller games developed by indie studios. Larger, more demanding games, almost always come with this option.
2. Change the monitor’s refresh rate
When you’re running a two-monitor setup including one gaming monitor at 144hz and a regular monitor at 60hz you may run into problems with Windows 10. The primary and secondary monitor’s refresh rates should be divisible by each other to help them work better together.
So, changing the 144hz monitor’s fresh rate to 120hz or even down to 60hz, could make a huge difference.
Now, I totally understand why you wouldn’t want to change your gaming monitor’s refresh rate from 144hz down to 60hz. You should be able to get the same results by setting it to 120hz. I recommend setting the monitor to 60hz if setting it to 120hz didn’t make a difference, just to see if that’s the issue.
Changing the monitor’s fresh rate has proven to be one of the most common solutions to this problem. That’s the conclusion that I’ve come to by fixing over a hundred Windows 10 dual monitor setups with this problem.
Follow the steps below to change the monitor’s refresh rate.
- Right-click on your desktop background and select Display Settings
- Scroll down and select Advanced Display Settings.
- Select Display adapter properties for Display x (1 or 2 depending on which one you’re going to change).
- Go to the Monitor tab.
- Select Screen refresh rate at set it to 120 Hertz then click Ok.
Read: Should Dual Monitors Be the Same Size?
3. Connect one monitor to the computer’s iGPU
Connecting your monitor to the computer’s internal graphic card is considered a more “advanced” method that requires a little bit of configuration.
With that said, I think we’ll do just fine if we take it slowly and do one thing at a time. I’ve already made it sound much more complicated than it actually is. This can, and has, fixed this issue in the past – both for me and for others.
Your motherboard must have an in-built graphics card in order for this to work. The idea is to let one of your monitors run off of the onboard built-in card for smaller tasks, such as running Chrome and other less demanding applications, while the dedicated GPU’s resources are used to run the game – or any other demanding application running on the primary screen.
In order to do this, you must first enable your integrated graphic card. This is done in the BIOS menu, which can be accessed by pressing one of the F1-12 keys during startup. The key will vary depending on the motherboard manufacturer.
Here’s a list of each brand’s hotkey used to get to the BIOS menu during startup. The list is taken from an article on HP’s website.
- Acer: F2 or DEL
- ASUS: F2 for all PCs, F2 or DEL for motherboards
- Dell: F2 or F12
- HP: ESC or F10
- Lenovo: F2 or Fn + F2
- Lenovo (Desktops): F1
- Lenovo (ThinkPads): Enter + F1.
- MSI: DEL for motherboards and PCs
- Microsoft Surface Tablets: Press and hold the volume up button.
- Origin PC: F2
- Samsung: F2
- Sony: F1, F2, or F3
- Toshiba: F2
Well within the BIOS menu, the interface will look slightly different depending on the brand of the motherboard, but the differences shouldn’t be astounding. Knowing one BIOS menu is often more than enough to understand the rest because of how similar they are.
- In BIOS, look for something along the lines of Integrated Graphics or Onboard Graphics.
- When you find the Internal Graphics, make sure they’re Enabled / Activated.
- Save the new settings and reboot the PC.
- Now you must force the App or Game to run on the Dedicated GPU or the Integrated GPU. Here’s how you do that.
Read: Monitor Doesn’t Work When Connected To the Motherboard
4. Close demanding applications in the background
If you’re running a game, a youtube video, and a bunch of other applications split between two high-resolution screens at once, you really want to make sure you’ve got any demanding background applications closed.
Having too much running at the same time will force both the GPU and CPU to work very hard. This may, in turn, cause your computer to stutter or lag because it’s being slowed down by the abundance of programs.
If the cables are connected to a docking station or hub, try connecting them directly to the GPU to see if that makes a difference.
5. Check your cable and try another connector
The cables could be what’s causing the lag. It’s important to check the cables to make sure they’re intact, and that there’s nothing in the graphic card’s slots preventing the cables from being inserted properly.
If your monitors are connected to the computer via VGA, try using Displayport, DVI, or HDMI, and vice versa. The problem can be fixed by using another connector, and sometimes it can be fixed by making sure that both monitors are connected with the same type of connector.
6. Turn off Hardware Acceleration in Chrome & Firefox
Browsers like Chrome and Firefox come with a feature called hardware acceleration. What does it do? Hardware acceleration utilizes the computer’s GPU to perform demanding tasks that require more resources, such as rendering pages, playing videos, games, and other tasks.
These tasks would otherwise require the CPU to work harder. But by offloading some of the work to the GPU, the CPU can remain in balance, as the work is divided.
However, it has turned out that this feature can cause multiple-monitor setups to start lagging. Turning off Hardware Acceleration will ensure that none of your GPU’s resources are being funneled elsewhere. Instead, Chrome’s requests will run on the CPU’s power.
Here’s how you turn off the feature in Google Chrome.
- In Chrome, click the three dots in the upper-right corner.
- Select Settings.
- Go to System or search for Hardware Acceleration in the search bar.
- Disable Hardware Acceleration by clicking the switch to the right.
This is how you turn off Hardware Acceleration in Firefox:
- In Firefox, click the three dots in the upper-right corner.
- Select Options
- Search for Hardware Acceleration
- Uncheck Use recommended performance settings
- Uncheck Use hardware acceleration when available
Done.
7. Check the graphic card’s drivers
Updating or uninstalling and reinstalling the graphic card’s drivers is also a good idea while you’re at it. Corrupt or outdated drivers can cause any of the computer’s components to act strangely.
You should be able to find the right drivers by going to the manufacturer’s website and looking for your graphic card. There’s always a Software or Drivers section.
If your computer has the graphic card’s software installed, you can most likely check if the drivers are up to date through the dashboard. I’m not sure how all of the different dashboards look, but I’m using Nvidia and it’s very easy to maneuver.
Uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers will provide a clean slate. Sometimes I simply update, other times I go with a clean slate.
8. Cap your in-game refresh rate below the monitor’s max refresh rate
If your in-game refresh rate hasn’t been capped below the monitor’s max refresh rate the game could surpass the monitor’s refresh rate at times. This can cause tearing caused by G-sync turning off every time you surpass the monitor’s threshold. Make sure to set the in-game refresh rate’s cap below the monitor’s.
9. Change the game’s Monitor Technology
The synchronization technologies that are commonly used now are G-Sync; FreeSync and V-Sync. When these aren’t working as intended, the user will experience tearing.
Tearing is what occurs when a GPU transmits a frame to the monitor before it has finished displaying the current frame. The monitor will then try to display both frames at the same time, giving one the upper half and the other the lower half.
I’ve had great success with Nvidia cards by changing the monitor technology from G-Sync to Fixed Refresh. This has stopped multiple-monitor setups from lagging in-game.
- Go to the Nvidia Control Panel
- Click on Manage 3D Settings.
- Click the Program Settings tab.
- Select your game under Select a program to customize. Click add and browse to the game’s exe file if you can’t find the game in the list.
- Look for Monitor Technology in the list of items that appears when you’ve selected the game.
- Change from the current setting to Fixed Refresh then click on Apply.
- Restart the game
10. Turn off VSync in-game
V-sync or vertical sync can be found within a game’s graphic settings. Not all games come with V-Sync but many do. Vertical sync is a technology that synchronizes the game’s frame rate with the monitor’s refresh rate to match them.
This can be troublesome when you’re running a dual-monitor setup with two different monitors with different refresh rates.
If the game you’re playing has V-Sync, turn it off to see if this fixes your problem. This has proven to work before, and the thesis is that V-sync has a hard time synchronizing because there are two different refresh rates to take into account.
11. Disable all overlays
Having overlays active when you’re in-game can cause stuttering. Regardless of what overlay it is, there is a chance for you to experience more input lag and fps drops when it’s active.
This has been a common problem with Steam, Discord, Geforce Experience, and Nvidia overlays. It seems like these overlays cause substantially more input lag than one would expect.
Try turning them off to see if the issue disappears. Even if the issue persists, you should expect an increase in performance by disabling the overlays.
For anyone using Windows 10: Turn off Xbox DVR as it can cause the same kind of issues when left turned on.
Bonus: Try disabling all types of “Instant Replay” features. They’re constantly recording the game.
12. Change GPU Performance Mode to Single Monitor Performance
If you’re running an Nvidia card, you’ve got access to Nvidia Inspector, a program that collects information from the card’s sensors to provide detailed data to the user.
In Nvidia Inspector, there’s something called GPU Performance Mode. Changing your Performance Mode to Single Monitor Performance has turned out to fix the issue in some cases.
Read: How To Tell If Your Computer Can Support Dual Monitors.
13. Disable the Transparency Setting in Windows
The transparency effect in Windows is what makes the taskbar transparent, making it possible to see the desktop and other things through the taskbar.
Having the transparency option enabled in Windows 10 can cause the monitor to drop frames, and disabling it has turned out to be quite successful in some versions of Windows 10. It’s definitely worth a try!
- Search for Personalization and select Themes and related settings
- Go to Colors
- Scroll down to Transparency Effects and disable it
- Save Changes
14. Uninstall Geforce Experience
GeForce Experience is a useful software for managing your GPU, however, the software has caused interference before and could be what’s making your second monitor stutter. Try removing the application from your computer and check if the issue persists.
15. Set the same resolution on both monitors
Capturing and displaying two screens at different resolutions translates into more work for the GPU. Configuring the monitors so they’re running on the same resolution has fixed this problem for me a bunch of times. Changing the monitor’s resolution is an easy task. Here’s how!
- Right-click on your desktop background
- Select Display Settings
- Click your primary monitor and make sure the second monitor has the same resolution
Read: Can Dual Monitors Have Different Resolutions?
Can Dual Monitor Cause Lag?
Running a dual monitor setup can cause your computer to lag, both in-game and out of the game. It’s more demanding for the GPU to display two or more images at once.
However, you shouldn’t experience lag when you’re running a dual monitor setup on an average computer. If you are, then you’re either running too demanding games and applications at the same time or having some non-performance-related issues.
Today, even the average graphic cards are quite powerful, and running two monitors in Windows isn’t very demanding, it’s the games and other background applications combined that force the GPU into overload.
Thank you for reading, I hope you found the fix to your problem in the list above. If you’ve found another way to fix this issue, please leave a comment so we can continue to educate one another.