Init Display First – The BIOS Optimization Guide

Init Display First

Common Options : AGP or PCIe, PCI

 

Quick Review

The Init Display First BIOS feature allows you to select whether to boot the system using the PCIe / AGP graphics card or the PCI graphics card. This is important if you have both PCIe / AGP and PCI graphics cards.

If you are only using a single graphics card, the BIOS will ignore this BIOS setting and boot the computer using that graphics card. However, there may be a slight reduction in the time taken to detect and initialize the card if you select the proper setting. For example, if you only use a PCIe / AGP graphics card, then setting Init Display First to PCIe or AGP may speed up your system’s booting-up process.

If you are only using a single graphics card, it is recommended that you set the Init Display First feature to the proper setting for your system :

  • PCIe for a single PCIe card,
  • AGP for a single AGP card, and
  • PCI for a single PCI card.

But if you are using multiple graphics cards, it is up to you which card you want to use as your primary display card. It is recommended that you select the fastest graphics card as the primary display card.

 

Details

Although the PCI Express and AGP buses were designed exclusively for the graphics subsystem, some users still have to use PCI graphics cards for multi-monitor support. This was more common with AGP motherboards because there can be only one AGP port, while PCI Express motherboards can have multiple PCIe slots.

If you want to use multiple monitors on AGP motherboards, you must either get an AGP graphics card with multi-monitor support, or use PCI graphics cards. PCI Express motherboards usually have multiple PCIe slots, but there may still not be enough PCIe slots, and you may need to install PCI graphics cards.

For those who upgraded from a PCI graphics card to an AGP graphics card, it is certainly enticing to use the old PCI graphics card to support a second monitor. The PCI card would do the job just fine as it merely sends display data to the second monitor. You don’t need a powerful graphics card to run the second monitor, if it’s merely for display purposes.

When it comes to a case of a PCI Express or an AGP graphics card working in tandem with a PCI graphics card, the BIOS has to determine which graphics card is the primary graphics card. Naturally, the default would be the PCIe or AGP graphics card since it would naturally be the faster graphics card.

However, there are situations in which you may want to manually select the PCI graphics card instead. For example – you have a PCIe / AGP graphics card as well as a PCI graphics card, but only one monitor. This is where the Init Display First BIOS feature comes in. It allows you to select whether to boot the system using the PCIe / AGP graphics card or the PCI graphics card.

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If you are only using a single graphics card, the BIOS will ignore this BIOS setting and boot the computer using that graphics card. However, there may be a slight reduction in the time taken to detect and initialize the card if you select the proper setting. For example, if you only use a PCIe / AGP graphics card, then setting Init Display First to PCIe or AGP may speed up your system’s booting-up process.

If you are only using a single graphics card, it is recommended that you set the Init Display First feature to the proper setting for your system :

  • PCIe for a single PCIe card,
  • AGP for a single AGP card, and
  • PCI for a single PCI card.

But if you are using multiple graphics cards, it is up to you which card you want to use as your primary display card. It is recommended that you select the fastest graphics card as the primary display card.

 

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