How To You Add Multiplr Displays To A Chromebook

Help Me, Laptop: How Exercise I Add a 2nd (or third) Display?

You lot know your laptop can do a lot, but you might not always know all the details that tell you how to do it. Example in point: How the heck do you add a 2d or third display to your estimator?

Tom's Guide forum user ziyan.tejani1107 is trying to figure out this very problem.

I have an Acer Aspire V Nitro 17.3 laptop with a GTX 965m graphics card. I currently accept it connected to an external monitor via a HDMI cable. I want to connect a second external display (1080p 60hz) to my laptop. I take multiple USB 3.0 ports, and I accept a USB C (Thunderbolt 3) port available. How could I connect my other display to my laptop? Which cable would I need and would I need any adapters? Am I actually able to have 2 external displays usable for my laptop at one time?

Thanks

This isn't an uncommon question. No affair how nice the display is on your laptop, even the best looking 17-inch brandish won't offer the view-filling real estate that a larger display will. While we might honey 4K displays and big-screen monitors, fifty-fifty a elementary 20-inch, 1080p monitor will offer a big comeback over the brandish on your laptop.

But connecting your extra monitors may not exist as simple every bit just plugging into an HDMI port. The vagaries of hardware and software back up may leave some users out of luck when they try to add an extra brandish, or you might run into the simple (yet frustrating) problem of having one plug on your monitor and a different connection on your PC.

Whether or not y'all tin can connect a 2nd or third brandish comes down to a few fundamental factors:

Graphics Hardware

The first question is whether or non your PC's hardware will support multiple monitors. If yous've got a system that's only a few years quondam, you should be fine, since dual and triple displays are supported both past integrated graphics from Intel and AMD, every bit well as discrete graphics cards from AMD and Nvidia.

However, if you're using an older system, or a current organization that uses depression-end processing and graphics hardware, you may come across some limitations.

Since ziyan.tejani1107 has a laptop with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 965M graphics card, it's safe to say that information technology should be able to support a second, external monitor.

Display Connectivity

The next issue is more obvious: Y'all need to brand sure that your monitor uses the same connection every bit the video outputs on the PC. HDMI is mutual, only it'due south non unusual to run into systems that rely on DisplayPort (both full size and mini), DVI or Thunderbolt 3 instead. Older systems may besides offer VGA output. If you don't take a matching connection, you won't even be able to plug in a second monitor. This becomes an even larger consequence when you're connecting a third display, as the main video connection volition already exist in use, leaving y'all to make do with whatever connections are still available.

Virtually monitors are likewise compatible with multiple connection types, but yous may demand to invest in a new cable or fifty-fifty an adapter in club to match the brandish with the figurer's available outputs. These vary in cost, from $10 to well over $100, depending upon the connections involved, and ordering online volition inevitably include waiting for a package to be shipped to yous. If you desire to get a second monitor up and running right away, make certain you have the necessary cable or adapter alee of time.

More than: Which GPU is Right For You

In ziyan.tejani1107's instance, the laptop has an HDMI port that is in use, leaving a USB Type-C Thunderbolt 3 connection as the remaining video output. This is where things get a little tricky, considering we don't know what connectedness is used on the 2d external display they want to connect. If it'due south a newer model that offers USB-C or Thunderbolt 3 connectivity, so plugging in should be a straightforward matter. If it uses the far more common HDMI or DisplayPort, however, then an adapter volition be needed. A quick search of Amazon or Newegg for "Thunderbolt 3 to HDMI adapters" will yield plenty of options that will work.

Another excellent option is to use a Thunderbolt 3 docking station. These are modest accessories that connect to a unmarried port, only offer multiple connectivity options. Recollect of it as a multiple port adapter, which frequently includes video outputs such as HDMI or DisplayPort. In addition, a adept dock will offering actress USB ports and frequently, an SD card slot, making them a slap-up choice for PCs that don't have all of the connections yous want built in.

Display Settings

One time yous've got your monitor connected, you may nevertheless need to conform your settings in order for the extra display to work properly. You tin usually do this right from the desktop, either by right-clicking on the desktop and selecting Brandish Settings or the Windows + P shortcut, which pulls up the menu for multiple displays.

On some systems that use discrete graphics, y'all'll demand to make these setting changes in the GPU settings instead of through the operating organization. On an Nvidia-based motorcar, you can do this by right-clicking the desktop and selecting Nvidia Command Panel. In the control panel menus, where several options volition exist listed under Brandish, observe the entry for multiple displays, and it will walk you lot through the procedure of calculation screens.

MORE: The Best Computers That Can Fit in Your Hand

On AMD-based PCs, you can do the same through AMD'due south Catalyst Control Middle dashboard, which can likewise exist accessed by correct-clicking the desktop. In Catalyst, select Displays Manager, and you can again add or remove displays.

By and large speaking, you'll want to extend your desktop to all connected monitors, and so adapt the resolution for each monitor individually then that text and icons display correctly on each. Y'all'll also want to make certain that the guild of monitors set in your control panel matches the concrete setup you lot have on your desk — otherwise, you'll see issues as yous try to move windows from 1 screen to another.

Intended Use

Finally, y'all may want to think about how you intend to employ your multimonitor setup. Pretty much anything that supports multiple monitors volition exist able to handle documents and spider web browsing across two or three screens, just once you throw gaming or other graphically intensive uses into the mix, you may hit a wall.

Here the question isn't and so much, "Will the monitors work?" merely whether or non you tin can support those external displays while even so getting the sort of functioning you want. Driving a loftier-resolution display for basic utilize is easy plenty, but driving multiple displays at high resolution in a game dramatically increases the amount of work your GPU has to practise.

A loftier-powered graphics carte du jour may be able to handle information technology without breaking a sweat, only if yous're running an older card, such as ziyan.tejani1107'south Nvidia GTX 965M, you may really find that gaming performance drops off when the game is running on more than one brandish. Take the time to try out games individually, and be ready to dial down the center candy – running a game at lower resolution, or with less demanding settings tin exist the divergence betwixt playing on one screen, or playing on three.

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