Solved which monitor connection to use, or can use, best to use?

[xyz]

My son got his first computer, a low end gaming computer, a present from an Aunt. He got a price limit so chose:

Gaming / Multimedia COMPUTER | Quad-Core! AMD A10-5800K 4 x 4200 MHz | 8192MB DDR3 | 1500GB S-ATA II HDD | AMD Radeon HD 7660D 4096 MB Displayport/HDMI/DVI/VGA with DirectX11 Technology | USB3 | eSATA | ASUS FM2 Mainboard (F2 A85-M PRO) | 22x Dual Layer DVD-Brenner | All-In One Card-Reader | 9 USB | Windows 8.1 - in an Sharkoon Vaya PC Midi Tower

the onboard Graphic Card is:
AMD Radeon HD 7660D, 4096 MB HyperMemory, DirectX® 11, VGA, HDMI, DisplayPort

However the Aunt decided to get a:
HIS ATI Radeon HD5450 Silence Graphic Card fitted into a slot

The computer now has two sets of connections for a monitor – the onboard – and the slotted HD5450

QUESTIONS:

Which of these can/should the monitor get connected to?

And if there is an option – which is best?

(no money at moment to buy another better Graphic Card)

 

[chris1neji]

The integrated GPU is a better graphics component for gaming. The 5450 is GPU card that I install on machines as a bare minimum if the CPU does not offer integrated graphics. It is used mainly for HD video playback and ensure the machine runs. Return the 5450 if it's still possible and use the connections on the actual motherboard. Use whatever connection your monitor has in this order Display Port > HDMI > DVI > VGA

if he is unable to spend more money but wants to play games tell him to crank down the resolution to 720P+/- instead of 1080P

 

[xyz]

...Return the 5450 if it's still possible and use...

"...Return the 5450 if it's still possible and use..."

thanks a lot for your reply I really appreciate it


That was what I was thinking too - But what I don't quite understand in your reply is the "...Return the 5450 if it's still possible and use..." ???

Why would it not be possible?

Or how do I go about this (just connect to the onboard and try if it works, or?? and should I first remove the HD5450?)

would really appreciate a little clarity on this - and many thanks

 

[chris1neji]

Return the 5450 if you still can: they may ask for a receipt, full packaging, and usual stuff needed for a return.

Open device manager, press the windows key and type devmgmt.msc under display adapters what shows up? A screenshot or smartphone picture will do just fine. I need to know what steps you have taken, in order to help you proceed as smooth as possible. We may need to remove HD 5450 from the system and enable HD 7660D from the bios. I am hoping it does all of this automatically but it may not.

If you connect to the onboard and it works just fine that's good still upload the picture however. Don't be afraid of connecting the cables it won't cause any harm.

 

[xyz]

Really confused now! Radeon HD 8350

[FONT=&amp]Really confused now!
[/FONT]
[FONT=&amp]The Graphic card is shown in Device Manager as being = Radeon HD 8350 1GB DDR3 650 Mhz[/FONT]

[FONT=&amp]This is in line with what the Aunt says she ordered instead of the onboard [/FONT][FONT=&amp](Please see snipping tool photo)[/FONT]

[FONT=&amp]However in one of the slots I see the following: HIS ATI Radeon HD5450 Silence Grafikkarte (PCI-e, 1GB DDR3 Speicher, DVI, HDMI)[/FONT]

[FONT=&amp](please see picture copy of this Graphic Card from Amazon)[/FONT]

[FONT=&amp]As far as I am aware this was not ordered - but this is where the monitor is connected to at this moment!!! [/FONT]

[FONT=&amp]So what is what – really confused?

UPDATE: the onboard VGA connection does not work - monitor only works on slot card
[/FONT]

 

[chris1neji]

I believe the HD5450 & HD8350 use the same technology. I also believe they perform about the same. Some people would say they are the same but rebranded. The integrated chipset 7660D would still beat the 8350, inside device manager (devmgmt.msc), check CPU I want to confirm what CPU you have. When the HD 8350 was installed they probably disabled the integrated chipset(7660D), this is correct procedure. However because it is disabled we may need to enable it in order to connect our monitor the onboard connections.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtDkczrf5fI Please do not touch anything that you do not understand or are sure about. Take pictures, ask us, use google but search before making changes.

When you enable the onboard GPU, remember to connect to the onboard gpu & remove the GPU card. HD 7660D should appear in device manager not HD 8450

 

[xyz]

Once again my many thanks chris1neji for taking the time and trouble to help us!

Okay thanks, so that clears up my confusion about the graphic cards (HD5450 & HD8350)

The CPU is as described in my first post above (you can also see the computer here: Shinobee - Gaming / Multimedia COMPUTER mit 3 Jahren Garantie! | Quad-Core! AMD A10-5800K 4 x 4200 MHz | 8192MB DDR3 | 1500GB S-ATA II HDD | AMD Radeon HD 7660D 4096 MB Displayport/HDMI/DVI/VGA mit DirectX11 Technology | USB3 | eSATA | ASUS FM2 Mainb)

Unfortunately the computer is no longer by me at home. I am only a weekend father and my son took it with him when he returned to his mother – who lives in another part of Germany. My son (almost 15) had been waiting for this present from an Aunt (not related to me) for weeks, but it kept getting delayed – so I managed to get it for him on the weekend, and was busy setting it up for first time use, and doing all the loads of updates. Time ran out – and my son refused to leave without it!

He forgot to take the ASUS F2 A85-M Pro User Guide for the Motherboard (there was also a ASUS BIOS Software disc, but I never got time to install or check it out) and under the heading AMD Dual Graphics Technology ( I am aware that this is not what I want or should do) there is a part that mentions about using the software to select either an add-on graphics card or Using the onboard graphics card - I am aware that this is for another purpose that I don’t want – but it might be possible to easily switch using this software for my needs (just switching back to the OnBoard)?
I have put this part of the User Guide into a PDF

 

[chris1neji]

What you are reading, talks about using both the onboard & integrated. It is a real thing AMD calls this "Dual Graphics", it's when you use the power of the onboard GPU (IGFX) + discrete card. The limitations being that it does not support high end GPU cards, only lower end ones. In many cases even the combined power of both little guys is not as good as a single discrete GPU card (usually $170+).

Section 6 of your manual talks about CrossfireX this is referring to when we have two GPU discrete card that are compatible or when you have an Integrated Graphics (IGFX) and discrete card that are compatible. The rest of this section talks about how to properly configure it, however this will not apply to us. We will have to do it through the motherboard settings.

You will need to read your manual Section 3-16 it talks about NB Configuration

• IGFX Multi Monitor is diabled by default. I suggest not touching it. I don't really know what it does. Maybe this is related to "Dual Graphics Technology"
• Primary Video Device it may be on set to PCIE/PCI, later we will want to change it to IGFX Video
• Integrated Graphics It will be set to Auto, unless we have issues I say we leave it alone
• UMA Frame Buffer Size Also set to Auto due to previous setting
• HDMI/DVI Port Output Also set to auto
• PCIEX16_1 Also set to auto

To learn more about Dual Graphics : Recommended graphics cards for AMD dual-graphics
I believe the HD 6670 & 7670 are the same cards just rebranded. I can look into this if we need to.

 

[xyz]

are any of these a possible option?


*** - Sapphire Radeon R7 240 Boost - ***

MSI Radeon R5 230 2048MB DDR3 64bit PCI-E x16 HDMI

Asus NVIDIA GeForce GT 620 (PCI-e, 1GB GDDR3, DVI, D-Sub, HDMI, 1 GPU)

PNY Nvidia GeForce GT720 797 MHz 1GB PCI-Express 2.0 (GF720GTLP1GESB)

2048MB NVIDIA GeForce GT610 2GB

GIGABYTE AMD Radeon HD 7770 (1 GB) GDDR5 GHz Edition OC

MSI V212-066R ATI Radeon HD 5450

nVIDIA Geforce 9300 GS Grafikkarte, 1024 MB TC

I am not interested in Dual Graphics or Raid or anything else - I just saw that they mentioned being able to activate OnBoard Graphics from the AMD CATALYST(R) Control Centre in connection with Dual Graphics - so I thought it might also be possible to activate OnBoard in the same place without the Dual Graphics Option - but it was just an idea. My son does not play the really top end games as he is not old enough for most of these - he plays games like World of Tanks / War Thunder / Minecraft / Kerbal Space Program / Space Engineers (the last two are pretty demanding graphic games)

Updated 10 June 2015:

I had written to the company who put this computer together to ask how to switch back to OnBoard!

They say just remove the Graphic Card and connect the monitor to the Onboard! However, they also say that they don't think the computer will be any faster with the Onboard graphics as it is now with the slotted Graphic Card