[Help] Is this a monitor issue or GPU issue? (HP E231 + Palit GTX 1070 Ti)

Diagnosing Display Issues: Is Your Monitor or GPU the Culprit?

Understanding and troubleshooting display problems can be a perplexing experience for many users. When encountering screen glitches or artifacts, it’s essential to methodically identify whether the issue stems from the monitor itself or the graphics processing unit (GPU). This guide will walk you through a common scenario and suggest practical steps to diagnose and resolve potential hardware issues.

Case Study: Identifying the Source of Display Anomalies

Consider a user with the following setup:

Monitor: HP E231, purchased second-hand in 2020, with approximately five years of service.
GPU: Palit GTX 1070 Ti, acquired new in 2021.

Recent symptoms include sporadic screen glitches and visual artifacts. Initially suspecting loose or faulty cables, the user replaced them but continued experiencing the problem. This situation raises a critical question: Is the monitor failing, or is the GPU the root cause?

Potential Causes and Diagnostic Steps

Assess the Symptoms Carefully
Screen glitches/artifacts can indicate issues with either the display hardware or the GPU.
If the glitches appear across multiple types of content and persist after cable replacement, further investigation is warranted.
Examine the Nature of the Artifacts
Do the glitches occur randomly or consistently?
Are they localized (e.g., only at certain screen areas) or global?
Are they present during boot, in the BIOS, or only within specific operating system environments?
Check for Evidence from Screenshots and Video Outputs
If screenshots captured from the system appear clean, but the display shows artifacts, this suggests the problem may be hardware-related rather than software or driver issues.
Perform Hardware Swaps and Tests
Connect the monitor to another computer or device to determine if the issue persists.
Test the GPU in another compatible system, if possible, to verify whether the artifacts follow the GPU.
Monitor Health and Aging Factors
Since the monitor is approximately five years old, LCD panels can develop issues over time, such as dead pixels or backlight failures.
However, display artifacts introduced by monitor aging often look different from those caused by GPU problems.
Update and Check Drivers
Ensure the latest graphics drivers are installed.
Try rolling back to previous driver versions if the problem started after