Does a modern PC require a graphics card to run?

Question

As I can remember, on old systems (Pentium II or III) it was not possible to boot and run the PC if the graphics card was missing (AGP cards were used in those days).

Many years from then, I'm using motherboards with integrated graphics and I have no experience related to this subject, the "graphics card" always was present.

Currently I intend to build a home/private "server" for my purposes and most of the motherboards I want to buy have no integrated graphics (AMD 870 or 970). I can take a normal graphics card from my friends for a few hours/days and use it when installing the necessary software.

Can I boot and run the PC without problems after I install everything I need and the graphics card is removed? If a general answer cannot be given, at least some examples of manufacturers/MB series/MB models will be helpful.

I think it's obvious, but for completeness, I mean cheap desktop components and not real servers.

Answer 1

Does a modern PC require a graphics card to run?

I believe that many motherboards can boot without a video system. (but I have no actual experience of this)

Wikipedia says

During bootup, some (especially older) PC BIOS versions will wait indefinitely for a user to press a key before proceeding if some basic devices are not installed or connected, effectively halting an unattended system. These can include:

• a video card;
• a keyboard.

On more modern systems, the BIOS factory setting will typically be configured to behave this way as well, but this setting can be changed via a BIOS setup facility to proceed without user intervention. Even in cases where a system has been set up to be managed remotely, a local keyboard and video card may still be needed from time to time, for example to diagnose boot problems that occur before a remote access application is initialized.

Certainly many server-grade motherboards are designed explicitly for this - the Wikipedia article mentions this, I have HP and IBM servers that include some sort of Ethernet based "console" support for boot messages etc.

---

In general I'd download and read the motherboard manual and check that there is an option that allows booting to continue without pressing a key after an erro

e.g. on ASUS UEFI BIOS

Wait for ‘F1’ If Error [Enabled]
When set to [Enabled], the system waits for the key to be pressed when error occurs.

Answer 2

I stumbled upon this thread, because i tried to do the same - install Win7 x64 and remove PciE GFX card. I hereby confirm, that my board (LanParty DK 790FXB-M2RS) works after removing a graphics card. I was curious how would i log in with Remote Desktop, but i did, and it works like a normal PC. And guess what - power consumption with one 2,5" HDD is just 15Watt! With Cool&Quiet though.

Answer 3

As has been mentioned, it depends entirely on the specific motherboard, or rather its BIOS (i.e., it cannot be resolved through software—other than perhaps a BIOS hack). Since you did not specify what board you have or intend(ed) to get, all we can give is general information and suggestions.

Some (few, but more than zero) motherboards do demand that a video-card be installed as part of the POST, though this is somewhat poor programming given that headless systems are nothing new, and in fact most BIOSes include an option to ignore a missing keyboard, and some to ignore a missing video-card, primarily for this purpose.

You can check its manual (pretty much every manufacturer provides them for download on their sites) to see how it behaves. Make sure to also check if it detects and blocks if no monitor is connected to the video-adapter. Few do, but if yours does, then it could end up being a frustratingly mysterious problem since it only manifests when you have no visual cue as to the problem.

You said that most of the motherboards you are looking at don’t have onboard video, but if you are getting a new board, you could get a system with a video-adapter built-into the CPU.

A cheap and easy last-resort option, since you are not using the video-card anyway, is to simply put in any old cheap card. You can get a cheap, or even free, one from the classifieds like Kijiji, eBay Classifieds, Craig’s List, etc.

Answer 4

can I boot and run the PC without problems after I install everything I need and the graphics card is removed?

I can confirm that my Asus M5A97 R2.0 can boot without a graphics card. I installed a nvidia card to do a centos server install and when I was finished I removed the card and did everything else I needed via ssh. I rebooted and it worked fine. It beeps 3 times instead of the usual 1 on startup, but I still get access and everything on the server works.

Answer 5

Yes you can. Turn off the PC, disconnect power and then remove the graphics card and reboot.

Remember to assign an IP address so you can control your PC remotely.

Answer 6

Yes, you can. Many, if not all "off the shelf" motherboard+BIOS combinations have option to ignore missing graphics card. You'd better consult manual for your selected model first though and check out details on how to make your target OS boot with it too.

Answer 7

I assume this is almost impossible to answer as it depends heavily on the specific BIOS implementation that is used on the mainboard. Unless all major BIOS versions behave the same way and I'm simply not aware of it.

But even then, according to Wikipedia, mainboard manufacturers licence a core BIOS from the main BIOS manufacturers and then customize it. So there's no knowing what the final BIOS will or will not do.

Your best bet is to contact a hardware supplier and ask them. Tell them your requirements and let them recommend a valid board to you. If it does not perform as advertised, you'll be sure to return it.

Answer 8

This depends on the motherboard and on the CPU. Both can have IGP (integrated graphics). If none of them has, then you'll need a graphics card or a server motherboard, which can run headless (has dedicated management port and IPMI support). If you have a graphics card or IGP and you want to run your computer headless, then it depends on the motherboard and the BIOS whether it allows to boot without keyboard and display. Some of the boards have BIOS settings for this (you can use them in headless mode), but I think most of the boards don't. The only thing you can do by the latter boards to use a dummy plug for the display and for the keyboard. For the display it is better to buy a dummy plug, for the keyboard you can buy too or you can dismantle a cheap keyboard and keep only the electronics.

Answer 9

A PC with no GPU is referred to as "headless", or simply a "server".

As long as the PC has a video output, it can render graphics without an integrated or discrete GPU. This is referred to as "unaccelerated" rendering.

In Linux (also OSX), you can set X11 to use the CPU as an unaccelerated software renderer. In /etc/X11/xorg.conf just set DRIVER to "fbdev".

Section "Device"
     Identifier  "Graphics"
#    Driver      "intel"     #Integrated    Intel     
#    Driver      "nouveau"   #Discrete      NVidia   
#    Driver      "radeon"    #Discrete      AMD     
     Driver      "fbdev"     #Unaccelerated CPU    
EndSection

Apparently MS Windows is also capable of unaccelerated (CPU) rendering.

CPU rendering consumes more power than dedicated GPU cores, and don't expect high frame rates, unless you have dozens of very fast CPU cores to spare.