How to fix Second Monitor lagging issue

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No matter what you use your computer for, having two monitors can be helpful. When you connect two monitors to the same GPU, which is also called the graphics card, the GPU has to work harder to show your screen on both monitors. Now, run a couple of programmes in the background and a game on one of the screens. With everything going on at the same time, it’s easy to see why some apps might start to slow down or stutter. You can, however, do something about it.

When you use two or more monitors at the same time, you may notice lag when playing a game on one monitor and doing other things on the other. This is because capturing two high-resolution screens at once uses up a lot of the graphic card’s resources. You can reduce or get rid of the stuttering by running the game in a full-screen window, setting both monitors to the same refresh rate, closing other demanding applications running in the background, changing the monitor’s framerate to 60 fps, turning off any overlay, turning on/off V-Sync and G-Sync, and replacing your current HDMI cables.

Ways to fix Second Monitor lagging issue

Close bandwidth-hogging and graphics-intensive applications

It takes more work for the GPU to show two monitors at the same time. So, if you have too many applications running in the background, especially ones that use a lot of bandwidth and graphics, you’re more likely to have problems with lagging and stuttering. To stop these things from happening while playing online games, follow the steps below to turn them off.

1. On the keyboard, press the Windows logo key + R simultaneously to open the “Run” box.
2. Type “taskmgr” and press Enter.
3. In the Process tab, right-click on the application that is eating up resources. Then select “End Task“.
4. Click on “Network” or “GPU” to sort the processes by network usage or GPU usage to determine which application to terminate.

Update your graphics and monitor drivers

Next, you should make sure that your drivers, especially your monitor and graphics drivers, are up to date. Most of the time, manufacturers put out new drivers so that users can get the best performance. Also, your device drivers can sometimes get corrupted, which can cause a wide range of problems, from small graphics glitches to major system errors. You can update your graphics and monitor drivers in two main ways: by hand or automatically.

Manually update your drivers

1. On the keyboard, press the Windows key and the R key simultaneously to open the “Run” box.
2. Type “devmgmt.msc” and press Enter.
3. Double-click to expand the list of devices. Right-click on each device and select “Update Driver“.
4. Follow the on-screen instructions to download and install the latest drivers.

Automatically update your drivers

It can be a pain to update your drivers by hand. And if you run into any problems along the way, you’ll need some tech skills to fix them. In this case, we recommend that you use a dedicated updater tool like Driver Easy to help automatically find any outdated drivers, then download and install the latest drivers for your system.

1. Download and install Driver Easy.
2. Run Driver Easy and click the “Scan Now” button; Driver Easy will scan your desktop computer or laptop and detect devices with outdated drivers.
3. After updating the device drivers, restart the device. If your second monitor still lags when playing games, proceed to the next fix.

Change your monitor’s refresh rate

This seems to be a problem for people who have two monitors set up with 144Hz and 60Hz refresh rates. If this is also the case for you, try changing the 144hz monitor to 60hz, which has worked for many other users. Follow the steps below to change the refresh rate of your screen.

1. Right-click on an empty area on the desktop and select “Display Settings“.
2. In the right pane, find and click on “Advanced Display Settings“.
3. Next, click on “Display Adapter Properties” for Display 1 (or 2) of the 144hz monitor.
4. Select the “Monitor” tab. Under Screen Refresh Rate:, select 60 Hertz from the drop-down. Then click Apply > OK to save your changes.

Download and install all Windows updates

Most of the time, Windows updates fix bugs and add new features. So it makes sense to use them to get the best performance and maybe even solve your problems. Follow these steps to get the most recent news.

1. Type “check for updates” in the search box. Click “check for updates” from the list of search results.
2. Click on “check for updates. If updates are available, follow the on-screen instructions to download and install the updates for your system.
3. After the update is successfully installed, restart your computer and see if what you have done works. If the problem persists, proceed to the next fix.

Turn off hardware acceleration on Chrome & Firefox

By default, hardware acceleration is turned on so that your computer’s graphics processing unit (GPU) can be used for tasks that require a lot of graphics processing. But there are still mistakes in it. It can sometimes slow down, freeze, or even crash your browser. Also, turning on hardware acceleration can drain the battery of your computer. Turning it off in Chrome and Firefox might help you figure out what’s wrong. Then wait and see what happens.

On Chrome

1. Click on the three dots in the upper right corner and select “Settings“.
2. In the search box, type “hardware acceleration“. You will then see the option “Use hardware acceleration when available“. Turn off the toggle button.

On FireFox

1. Click on the menu button (three lines) in the upper right corner. Next, select Settings.
2. From the left navigation pane, select General. Scroll down to the “Performance” section and uncheck “User recommended performance settings” to view additional settings. Uncheck “Use hardware acceleration when available.

Final Words

That’s it with our article on how to fix Second Monitor lagging issue. Dual monitors can be fun, but the second screen often has problems with video lag. Having two monitors for your gaming PC is common, especially if you like to play games a lot or like to look at images with a lot of detail and on a bigger screen. The flickering video problem shows up on all GPUs, no matter how powerful they are or how fast the multiplayer game runs.

Also, this problem is especially common on setups with two monitors and refresh rates of 144hz and 60hz. Multiple monitors are better than one huge ultra-wide monitor in a lot of ways, including making you more productive and giving you more options for where to put them on your desk. But it’s not always a perfect time. When you connect a second monitor, it doesn’t always work, or it keeps minimizing your game when you accidentally move into it.