Instead of plugging the monitor cable into the HDMI port on the graphics card, the gamer used the motherboard port. This can have serious consequences for gaming performance, but it doesn't have to.
The flexibility of PCs can sometimes be both a blessing and a curse. Due to a simple mistake, Reddit user Alternative Essay880 was an example of this for years without realizing it.
What mistake did the player make?
He did not use his PC's dedicated graphics card, which was installed in the PCI Express slot of the motherboard. Instead, he used the significantly slower GPU of his processor for about four years (also iGPU
called).
These are the exact components of the PC:
In the corresponding Reddit post, he estimates his gaming time with the slow iGPU to be around 2,000 to 3,000 hours. Over a period of four years, this corresponds to a daily gaming time of around one and a half to two hours.
A notice: This article has already appeared in an earlier version on GameStar.de. Due to the great interest, we have revised it and republished it with an optimized structure and additional information.
The player's Reddit account is still active, by the way. He is currently playing Fallout London, among other games, as a recent comment from him shows.
You can see how the other end of the GPU performance spectrum performs when we run Cyberpunk 2077 in 8K resolution in the following video:
2:05
Will Nvidia's €2,000 graphics card and Cyberpunk 2077 fail in 8K?
How did the player notice his mistake?
He didn't realize he had a problem all these years. He finally discovered it through another Reddit post, as he himself explains:
Someone told me that their PC was slow after their parents removed cables. I'm pretty sure the solution is that the HDMI cable was connected to the motherboard and not the GPU. This made me think about building my own PC […] exactly.
While he quickly recognized the solution to the problem in another case, for a long time he didn't even realize that he was sacrificing a lot of performance on his own PC.
But how is something like this possible?
How this error could have occurred
Alternative_Essay880 states that he built the computer when he was 16 years old and knew very little about PC hardware at that time.
Three other factors may have contributed to him not noticing the error for so long:
- No comparison values: He started the error right away. Therefore, he was used to the modest performance of his new PC from the start.
- Entry-level GPU meets relatively fast iGPU: On the one hand, the GTX 1050 Ti was only an entry-level model even back then. On the other hand, Vega 11 was one of the fastest iGPUs ever. More on the direct comparison follows below.
- He played rather undemanding titles: According to his own statements, the Reddit user has played titles such as Call of Duty: Warzone, GTA (presumably part 5), Dota 2 and Civilization 6, which do not place too high demands on the hardware.
Nevertheless, switching to his desktop graphics card has made a big difference, which we can confirm based on our own tests.
A difference like day and night
Very high details: Battlefield 1
Full HD, Ultra, TAA, DX11
- Average fps
- minimum fps
Intel UHD Graphics 630
Intel® Pentium® 4700U
8.2
3.0
- 0.0
- 10.0
- 20.0
- 30.0
- 40.0
- 50.0
The dedicated graphics card Geforce GTX 1050, marked yellow in the benchmarks above, beats Vega 11 by far. The measurements were taken as part of our test of the Ryzen 5 2400G.
- In less demanding games such as Counter-Strike and League of Legends, the Vega GPU also easily achieves playable FPS values.
- The desktop graphics card is still about twice as fast as the graphics unit integrated in the Ryzen processor.
- The Reddit user opted for an even faster model in the form of the GTX 1050 Ti. It beats the GTX 1050 by about 20 to 25 percent.
Not surprisingly, Alternative Essay880 says that after fixing the bug, games are more enjoyable at around 80 FPS, and with significantly higher graphics quality settings.
How can such an error be prevented?
An example of the graphics card section in Windows Device Manager when an iPGU is present in addition to a desktop graphics card (in this case the new AMD Ryzen 9 9950X).
On the one hand You should make sure that your monitor is connected to your graphics card and not to a video port on the motherboard.
on the other hand You can deactivate the iGPU completely. This is possible in several ways:
- It works either via the device manager, which you can see in the screenshot above (accessible by right-clicking on the start menu) or via the BIOS or UEFI (usually accessible by pressing the “Delete” key when booting the PC).
- The exact name in the UEFI varies depending on the motherboard. You have to look for items like “Integrated Peripherals” or “Integrated Graphics Adapter”.
If you are not sure whether your PC has an active iGPU, you can also find out in the device manager. You can find out more in the guide Which graphics card do I have?
.
Do you always have to use the graphics card connection?
In our tests, Assassins Creed: Valhalla used the slow Vega GPU instead of the desktop graphics card without asking.
No, it is generally possible to use the performance of a dedicated graphics card if the monitor is connected to the PC via one of the mainboard connectors.
In our experience, whether this is the case can vary from game to game and depending on the exact combination of motherboard, CPU and graphics unit.
If you want to be on the safe side, deactivate the integrated GPU as described in the section above and use the connection of the desktop graphics card.
47:57
Our (and your) biggest tech fails
Everyone makes mistakes. In the video above we prove this not only to ourselves, but also to you, thanks to your honest help.
Please let us know in the comments what other mistakes you or your friends have made with your PC or other technology. Because as the saying goes: You learn from your mistakes – and if you share your experience with others, everyone can learn from it.
