How To Confirm What Is Rendering My Graphics

Greetings,

I have a Giga-Byte GA-X58A-UD3R MoBo with onboard graphics.

I also have an AMD Radeon HD 5700 Series graphics card installed.

In the tray, I have a utility called AMD Catalyst Control Center. This is something I never use. (Maybe I should? Although I'm a photographer with a really nice IPS display, I don't have any calibration tools.)

Here's my silly curiosity/question: Is there some way to verify which graphics capability (the card or the MoBo) is controlling my displays?

Feel free to chime-in with answers to questions I am not quite smart enough to ask! - lol -

TIA

DrCarl
Win7x64 Home

 

If this is a laptop, then the display will be connected to the graphics card.
If it's a desktop, look at the back of the tower case.

 

It's a desktop, and I am pretty sure I know where I connected my displays. (I connected them to the graphics card. Surprise?)
(I also know where I plugged the AC cord! - lol - Hint: WALL)

I'd like to discover the answer to this:

Is there some way to verify which graphics capability (the card or the MoBo) is controlling my displays?
​

I am pretty sure it's the AMD card; I'd just like to verify this curiosity.

Thanks

 

Sorry, maybe it IS that simple?

If I'm connected to the card, the card is running the show? (I suppose it is unreasonable to think that the board could run the display through the card)

Also, changing settings in the Catalyst Control Center do take effect.

Chime-in if I am being stupid.

 

It is the AMD card and its drivers which are controlling what you see on the monitor; but, if your primary usage is for photo editing, you may not be getting any benefit from it. It may, in fact, be giving you a poorer image than the onboard would do.
GPU's (Graphics Processing Units) are now designed to draw things on the screen much faster than the CPU can; but, that becomes key because, with photo editing, you don't draw anything. Drawing consists of defining the corners of a triangle and applying a fill. This is great for gamers as every computer game animation consists of gazillions of triangles, each with its own shading or fill. Still images; on the other hand, are rows of dots and the REAL qualifier is in the color purity of the DAC (Digital to Analog Converter) which is taking the colors from the original file and converting them to the colors sent to the display.
Unfortunately; what seems to have disappeared from the internet, are any reviews relating to the color purity of the various devices used in the video cards.

 

DavisMcCarn - that's interesting. Thanks.