Installing video card disables Intel GPU

vailr

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
5,365
54
91
Hello,
I'm looking for some information about getting the on-board Intel integrated GPU to remain functional on a Z87 Haswell board (being used for crypto-mining) with two nVidia graphics cards also present. A fresh Windows install was successfully done with only the on-board Intel GPU connected to an HDMI connected monitor, and with no video cards connected. Powered off the machine, plugged in the 2x nVidia cards (including 8-pin power cables), and the on-board video now only works for bios setup and for a few seconds during the Windows boot phase where the circling white dots appear. Then the screen blanks out with "no video signal". Switching the HDMI cable to one of the nVidia cards (while the system power is still on) works fine, but since these nVidia cards are only there for crypto-mining, would prefer to instead utilize the on-board Intel GPU, for the HDMI monitor connection.
So: my question is: is this behavior "normal" and occurs the same with all Intel IGPU boards, or is there maybe a bios setting that needs changed?
Thanks in advance.
 

mikeymikec

Lifer
May 19, 2011
19,423
12,960
136
The behaviour you describe is completely normal, and unless some feature comes along that allows a graphics card to be connected and not used as the primary graphics device, there's not much you can do about it.

Is the reason for you wanting to do this because you want to keep say your browsing usage off the mining cards? If it was that important to me, I think what I'd do is switch off graphics hardware acceleration in my browser's configuration and dump that work on the CPU. Sure, the graphics cards will need to do a tiny amount of 2D work to draw a web page, but TBH I doubt that graphics hardware acceleration is much more work for a decent graphics card.
 

TheELF

Diamond Member
Dec 22, 2012
4,027
753
126
The iGPU should work normally,bios settings seem to be ok since it works at all,the problem will be with the drivers and their settings, make sure to install the intel hd drivers and make sure to go to windows's display settings and set up multiple displays.
I only have one nvidia but my iGPU is happily working on one of my monitor's three ports.
 

coercitiv

Diamond Member
Jan 24, 2014
6,981
15,724
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would prefer to instead utilize the on-board Intel GPU, for the HDMI monitor connection.
Enter BIOS and look for an item in Settings called "Integrated Graphics Configuration" or something similar. (wording used changes from one vendor to another)

In this section you should find one or two settings that affect iGPU behavior:
  • one of them dictates which GPU is used to output video signal when computer is booting up (BIOS included), example name would be "Initiate Graphic Adapter". In your case this is likely configured to output via iGPU and you should leave it this way.
  • the other option should contain the wording "Multi-Monitor". This option enables the iGPU while a dGPU is installed for the purpose of using it in multi-monitor configurations, and in your case it is likely disabled. Enabling it should solve your problem, since it will allow Windows to see the active iGPU.
 
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lifeblood

Senior member
Oct 17, 2001
999
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I have an H110 board and IGP definitely works with a dedicated GPU installed (most of the time). If I turn on the monitor attached to the IGP after it has already boot up, it doesn't work, but if the monitor is on at startup then it works. I forgot how I did it but coercitiv is correct, I had to go into the bios and tell it to use both of them for it to work.