I'm experimenting with retro gaming and CRT displays, and I'd like to add a VGA output to my PC. The system already has an RTX 4070, while an older GT 710 provides VGA. Ideally, I'd connect my three modern monitors to the 4070 and a CRT to the GT 710, with the 4070 doing all the rendering and the GT 710 acting only as a display-output device. Is it possible to run both GPUs simultaneously this way and pass the rendered desktop or applications from the 4070 to the GT 710? I know a simple HDMI-to-VGA or DisplayPort-to-VGA adapter would be easier, but I'm intentionally going for the more elaborate setup because it sounds fun.
1 Answer
You can usually run displays from both graphics cards at the same time, but the GT 710 cannot really be a completely passive VGA adapter. Anything shown on the monitor connected to it has to be rendered or composited by a GPU and then copied across to the other card, which adds complexity and some overhead. The operating system may let applications choose the RTX 4070 for rendering, but the final desktop image still has to be transferred to the GT 710 for display. Driver compatibility between a modern RTX card and an old GT 710 could also be an issue, depending on the exact GT 710 model and operating system. In practice, a DisplayPort-to-VGA adapter would be much simpler and more reliable, though using both cards may be possible with some configuration and experimentation.
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