Would you like to disable the integrated graphic card of your computer but do not know how to do it? Here we will explain how to disable the integrated graphic card of a PC.
HOW TO DEACTIVATE THE INTEGRATED VIDEO CARD OF A PC
There are times when, for one reason or another, there is a need to disable the integrated graphic card that is already on board your PC. This can happen, for example, when you buy a dedicated NVIDIA or AMD graphic card and decide to disable the integrated Intel or AMD graphic card to take full advantage of the new graphic card, or simply because there are hardware and/or software conflicts with the dedicated graphic card and therefore you want to disable the integrated graphic card that is on the motherboard or processor.
Regardless of why you want to do it, here we will explain how to disable the integrated graphic card on any PC.
FIRST PART: INSTALL THE DEDICATED VIDEO CARD
First of all, all you have to do is mount the dedicated graphic card on your desktop, then attach the monitor to one of the ports behind the dedicated graphic card, and then install the appropriate NVIDIA or AMD drivers for your new graphic card. Regarding the drivers of the integrated graphic card, it is not necessary to uninstall them by force but if you want you can also do it, perhaps following the procedure described in this article.
Before continuing with this guide, I would also like to point out that once the dedicated graphic card has been installed, To stop using the integrated graphic card, simply unplug the monitor from the integrated graphic card and then attach it to one of the ports behind the dedicated graphic card. By doing this simple operation the computer should already in fact automatically deactivate the integrated video card. If this is not the case, or you still want to make sure that you have disabled the integrated graphic card, you can then continue to follow what is said in this guide.
SECOND PART: DISABLE THE INTEGRATED GRAPHIC CARD THROUGH DEVICE MANAGER
Now, after having mounted the dedicated graphic card, you must proceed to disable the integrated graphic card of your computer using Device Manager. Once the computer is started, press the Windows + R key combination and type:
devmgmt.msc
At this point, after clicking OK, a window called Device Manager will open . Click now on Graphic cards, highlight your integrated graphic card, then click on it with the right mouse button and from the menu that appears choose Disable. Once you have confirmed your choice, restart your computer and follow the third part of this guide.
THIRD PART: DISABLE THE GRAPHIC CARD INTEGRATED BY BIOS OR UEFI
After deactivating the integrated graphic card through Device Manager, now you just have to disable the integrated video card also from the BIOS or from the UEFI of your computer. To enter the BIOS or UEFI of a certain computer, just press a certain key on the keyboard as soon as you start the computer. The key to be pressed changes from computer to computer but is generally F1, F2, F12, Delete/Delete or Esc, and is usually shown during the POST phase of the computer in question. If you can not figure out which key to press, check the instruction manual of your motherboard, do some research online, or, at most, contact the manufacturer of your motherboard directly.
Regardless of the key pressed, once you enter the BIOS or UEFI of your computer, now you have to look for a section containing the list of devices integrated into the PC. In particular you should look for a section under the Advanced menu usually called Onboard Device Configuration, Integrated Peripherals or something similar.
After finding the correct section, you must now change the Primary Graphics Adapter, the Primary Video Controller, the Initiate Graphic Adapter, the Display Boot Priority, or a similar entry, giving the lowest priority to the integrated video card, sometimes called integrated graphics processors (PGI) or unified memory architecture (UMA). In other words, at the first place of this list there should be AUTO, GFX0, PEG or PCIE, that is the dedicated video card, while to follow all the other entries like PCI, GPP, IGP, UMA, IGFX, iGPU, and so on. If there is an entry such as Onboard Graphics or Internal Graphics, then you can set this item directly to Disable to disable the integrated graphic card. In addition, if there is any option like Multi Monitors and use only one monitor, you can then proceed to disable this item.
That done, you just have to leave the BIOS or UEFI saving the changes made and then restart your computer again. In this way the integrated video card should no longer appear even in the Device Manager.
CONCLUSIONS
Although it refers to Windows operating systems, excluding the second part of the procedure described above, this, in principle, can easily be applied to other operating systems, such as Linux and MacOS. In addition, it should be noted that the above procedure works only on desktop computers because on a laptop it is not possible to completely disable the integrated graphic card. At this point, however, you should finally understand how to disable the integrated video card of a PC.