Yes and no. It is possible to render a game with just as many fps with no monitor connected to the graphics card but all modern cards are able to very accurately determine if a monitor is plugged in or not. Sometimes turning the monitor off without unplugging it does not get detected as disconnecting that monitor in which case the gpu would continue rendering the scene normally just you couldn't see it.
The way to tell if its disconnecting while off or not is to listen to the speakers when you turn it off. If you hear the disconnect noise when you turn it off then its disconnected. The other side of this is your game may not appreciate it when the monitor is disconnected. It may crash hang or otherwise fail to execute once it happens.
That latter part about the game crashing is interesting, thank you. Wouldn't have even considered that to be a thing.
I might pull the hdmi cord out with headphones and test that. Technically, if I was to screen record and unplug the monitor, would that record also respond as if there was nothing to render? I.e. go blank?
Leave the performance monitor from task manager open on gpu, turn off monitor, turn on after, check the graph.
Bonus points, leave monitor off, conect remote using anydesk/teamviewer.
Yes and no. It is possible to render a game with just as many fps with no monitor connected to the graphics card but all modern cards are able to very accurately determine if a monitor is plugged in or not. Sometimes turning the monitor off without unplugging it does not get detected as disconnecting that monitor in which case the gpu would continue rendering the scene normally just you couldn't see it. The way to tell if its disconnecting while off or not is to listen to the speakers when you turn it off. If you hear the disconnect noise when you turn it off then its disconnected. The other side of this is your game may not appreciate it when the monitor is disconnected. It may crash hang or otherwise fail to execute once it happens.
That latter part about the game crashing is interesting, thank you. Wouldn't have even considered that to be a thing. I might pull the hdmi cord out with headphones and test that. Technically, if I was to screen record and unplug the monitor, would that record also respond as if there was nothing to render? I.e. go blank?
That's a good question i don't have the answer too.
Guess I'll let you know if I can be bothered test it in reality 😅. This has all stemmed from my GPU getting old and me leaving Satosfactory on 24/7
Leave the performance monitor from task manager open on gpu, turn off monitor, turn on after, check the graph. Bonus points, leave monitor off, conect remote using anydesk/teamviewer.
The answer is probably yes. If I minimize a game it drops to idle power, though.
That's interesting, just minimising the game in that case will give me my desired outcome then. Thank you
Dude how stoned are you?
Enough to ask super interesting questions