Questions about setting up external monitor Windows 10

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biggles

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Connecting a 27" 1440p monitor to an Asus 1080p laptop in extended mode. Questions:
1. Is it possible to set the 27" to 1440p resolution? The Windows settings menus only go up to 1080p.
2. Is it possible to set the 27" to 144hz refresh? The Windows settings are poor, only allows 24hz at 1080p and 60 hz if the resolution is lowered from 1080p.
3. Connecting using HDMI, is there a better method of connecting the laptop to the external monitor?
4. Would it be easier to connect a 27" 1080p monitor instead? In other words, is Windows easier to setup when external monitor matches resolution of the laptop? My wife has a 1080p Benq connected to her iMac, we could trade external monitors if this would be best.

When setting the laptop screen off and only using the 27" monitor I was able to set 1440p 144hz. But again the goal is to setup extended mode.

27" 1440p monitor model is Acer XF270HU.
 
There should not be any obstacles to doing what you want to do. The max resolution and refresh rate would be completely dependent on the capabilities of the HDMI port that you are connected to, and if it works at 1440p/144hz by itself, there is really no reason why it shouldn't work in extended mode also. I have a family member that uses a Lenovo thinkpad and I set them up with two external 1440p monitors, in addition to the built-in laptop display, for a triple-monitor setup. One of the external monitors is connected via HDMI, the other is connected via Displayport. It works great with all the monitors at their independent native resolution.

You didn't tell us much about the laptop. "Asus 1080p laptop" is not very descriptive. I'd be interested to know what GPU it's using, how many ports it has, what specifications those ports support, etc. If you have the option of using Displayport instead of HDMI, I'd try that first.

The only time the resolution of one monitor should have a direct impact on the other is when they are setup in duplicate/clone mode rather than extended. In extended, they should be completely independent of each other as far as the resolution and refresh rate are concerned.

biggles said:
The Windows settings are poor, only allows 24hz at 1080p and 60 hz if the resolution is lowered from 1080p.
Click to expand...

It sounds like you might have other issues going on. Even the oldest HDMI ports (aka single-link DVI with an HDMI connector) still support up to 1080P @ 60Hz. So if you can't even select 60Hz at 1080P, there has to be something else at play. If you try the 1080P panel, does it let you run it at 60Hz using that panel?

It shouldn't matter really, but I've had the best results setting up the monitor that I want to use as my main display first, and by itself, and then enabling side displays in extended mode while making sure that my main display is still set as Primary.
 
Good point, I guess the laptop specs are important here. Asus Scar Strix G17 2021 model with rtx 3070 and Ryzen 5900hx cpu. The link below says it has "USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 with displayport and power delivery". The HDMI port is 2.0b. Maybe the Asus HDMI port cannot run extended mode with the desired resolutions and refresh rates?
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-...etal-7-nm-AMD-Zen-3-Is-Stunning.540483.0.html

I have a spare displayport cable but it looks like it would need some sort of adapter in order to fit into the Asus laptop USB-C port.
 
Okay, after some more work I believe this is the solution: change laptop screen to 1080p 60 hz. Then Acer 27" screen will then work at 1440p 144hz. So, it appears that the Asus laptop is not capable of running 1080p 300hz on its screen while running 1440p 144hz on the Acer.
 
biggles said:
Okay, after some more work I believe this is the solution: change laptop screen to 1080p 60 hz. Then Acer 27" screen will then work at 1440p 144hz. So, it appears that the Asus laptop is not capable of running 1080p 300hz on its screen while running 1440p 144hz on the Acer.
Click to expand...
I'm pretty sure it's not capable of running anything at 300hz.
 
I hooked up a 1440p165hz monitor to my 1080p144hz laptop powered by a mobile GTX 1060 with absolutely zero issues.

Make sure that the HDMI/Display port cable you have is good enough for it.
 
TheSlySyl said:
I hooked up a 1440p165hz monitor to my 1080p144hz laptop powered by a mobile GTX 1060 with absolutely zero issues.

Make sure that the HDMI/Display port cable you have is good enough for it.
Click to expand...
How can I determine if the HDMI cable is good enough? Is there some text on the cable that would indicate it could handle the following:
300hz at 1080p laptop (display 1)
144hz at 1440p monitor (display 2)

I am assuming the laptop 3070 simply cannot handle that much video output. Perhaps not, I do not understand the HDMI cable aspect.
 
There's so many variables when it comes to cables that its basically impossible to determine what a cable is capable of unless it says it directly on it and you can trust the source. I'd just buy a well regarded HDMI 2.1 cable, which is backwards compatible with all 2.0 specs, and see if that works.

Text on the cable could say things like Ultra 8K compatible or 4K HDR compatible or whatever.
 
biggles said:
laptop 3070
Click to expand...
biggles said:
Acer XF270HU.
Click to expand...

A laptop 3070 should support hdmi 2.1 (4k-120hz) and your monitor has hdmi 2.0 that support 144hz at that resolution.

If you do not have a mini display port adapter or cable to test, maybe try other hdmi cable ?

If you have DP 1.4 it would be better than HDMI 2.0, but that protocol should be more than good enough for non 4K display.

You should be able to mix resolutoin without any issue.
 
Update: I tried switching from HDMI to USB-C to displayport. Result: the laptop can now run 300hz and external monitor 144hz at full resolutions. I did more reading on this, and it seems to be because HDMI goes from integrated graphics. USB-C bypasses that and goes directly from the 3070. Long story short, USB-C is the superior connection method.

Unrelated to this, I also learned that USB-C is needed to bypass Nvidia Optimus on external monitor and get max performance. HDMI has the same performance limitation as the laptop screen having to do with Nvidia Optimus. I could say more but will leave it at that unless others are curious about the Nvidia Optimus performance penalty details (this laptop has no mux switch).
 
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