Many motherboard manufacturers have used onboard video adapters in their system boards since the mid-1990s. However, most onboard graphics adapters included on motherboards before the mid-2000s were simply used to reduce the price of lower-end PCs. Furthermore, onboard chipsets made before the mid-2000s were not compatible for multi-monitor or multi-adapter setups. However, modern onboard graphics chips made by ATI (now AMD), Intel and NVidia offer better performance and BIOS options that allow you to set them as secondary video devices for use with a discrete video card to display on multiple monitors.
Instructions
1. Shut down the computer and restart it. As soon as the computer restarts, press the key used to access the BIOS setup menu. Depending on the model of your computer and the motherboard your system uses, the BIOS access key varies. Commonly used BIOS access keys are "Delete," "F1" and "F2." If you don't which provides access to the BIOS, look for a message during startup that displays the "BIOS," "System Setup" or "Setup Menu" key. Alternatively, refer to the manual for your system.
2. Click the "Advanced" or "Advanced Settings" menu option in the BIOS setup menu. If your system BIOS does not support use of a mouse, use the arrow keys to navigate to the correct menu option and press the "Enter" key.
3. Select the "Onboard Devices," "Integrated Devices" or similar BIOS menu option. Select the "Onboard Graphics Adapter" or "Onboard Video" option.
4. Navigate to the "Primary Video Device," "Primary Graphics Device" or "Initiate Graphics Adapter" option. Click the option or press the "Enter" key.
5. Change the value setting to "PCI," "PCI-X," "AGP" or "PEG" depending on the card interface of the discrete video card you want to use as the primary graphics adapter. Modern main boards usually only offer "PCI," "PCI-X" and "PEG" options. Older motherboards offer the "AGP" and "PCI" options for discrete video cards, rather than "PEG" or "PCI-X."
6. Click "Save" or "Save Changes and Exit" in the BIOS menu screen. Alternatively, scroll to the "Exit" or "Save and Exit" menu option, then press "Enter." The BIOS saves the changes and your computer restarts. The onboard video card is now set as the secondary display device. Install the discrete video card according to the manufacturer directions.
Tags: discrete video, menu option, video card, discrete video card, press Enter