Can I connect a monitor to two different GPUs on the same computer?

[pullman]

This is possibly a daft question so apologies in advance.

Would a monitor suffer damage from being connected to two GPUs on a computer?

I use a non-EFI GPU and was thinking of adding an old GT120 and then connecting my Eizo to both so that I could switch (in the monitor's menu settings) to the GT120 input whenever I need to boot to recovery mode for instance.

TIA
Philip

 

[bobnugget]

Yep, that's fine, although you may find the monitor switches inputs on restart/wake from sleep. You will probably want to set the displays as mirrored so you don't lose windows of the side of one display onto the other.

 

[pullman]

Thank you Bob, excellent points. I'll give it a try.

Yep, that's fine, although you may find the monitor switches inputs on restart/wake from sleep. You will probably want to set the displays as mirrored so you don't lose windows of the side of one display onto the other.

 

[Erehy Dobon]

I do this with my Mac mini 2018, an eGPU and an LG 4K UHD monitor (model 27UL650-W).

The LG monitor has four inputs: DisplayPort 1.4, two HDMI 2.0, and one Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C upstream connector). The monitor itself doesn't care what source is connected to each input. It could be another computer, game console, Blu-ray player, whatever.

I boot up my Mac mini currently connected via HDMI. If desired, I can power up the eGPU which is connected to the monitor via DisplayPort. The LG monitor automatically detects the new incoming DisplayPort video signal and prompts me if I want to switch inputs.

Computer monitors/TV sets, etc. have managed multiple inputs for decades. If your monitor has four occupied inputs, it's not like it's getting four times the video bandwidth and will explode. It only processes and displays one input at a time. In fact, if you send a video signal the monitor can't handle (like an 8K/60p signal from a high performance GPU to a 1080p HD TV), it won't display it.