If you've built a new setup for working from home or gaming at leisure within the past decade, you aren't using a display made in the early 2000s. Sure, they render retro titles optimally, and there's no equal for the nostalgia of CRT displays, but the switch to the relatively modern flatscreens has introduced several changes to how much these displays do besides refresh rate and resolution. For instance, I've recently discovered my setup doesn't need a KVM switch.

In fact, the KVM switch name might just be a remnant of how things were identified in early-stage computing. I built my work-from-home setup right when the pandemic hit and started with one PC and one display. I still have just one display, but alternate between two PCs now. So, I started searching on Amazon for a way to switch all my peripherals between these PCs with minimal hassle. What started as a simple quest with a "KVM switch" search query quickly led me to discover I'll be just fine with a dock or USB hub, for that matter, in today's times. And if you bought a new monitor anytime in the last five years, so would you.

The problem of multiple PCs and peripherals for them

A nice problem to have, indeed

Since I've built my desktop and added a mini PC to the home office, I've struggled to juggle between the two. After just a week of unplugging and re-connecting all the peripherals to the machine I wanted to use, I decided I'd need a better solution. Now, by definition, a KVM switch is a keyboard, video, and mouse switch. The classical versions switch a set of peripherals between two or more computers, or in more complex workflows, offer remote access via a web browser interface.

I just needed a simple two-PC switcher to ensure a mouse, keyboard, macro pad, and rotary encoder served as input devices for both computers, but only one at a time. However, there were very few gadgets that fit the textbook definition of a KVM switch. Most of them consolidated display inputs and routed streams to a single display at the press of a button, or switched USB inputs between two or more computers. However, a vast majority were aimed at people unwilling to configure printers for shared use with multiple computers. That's when it hit that I needed nothing more than a two-PC USB input switcher, specifically, a two-in four-out model.

You see, the fully functional KVM switch now merely caters to a niche audience within the niche of multi-PC setups. However, the product segment seems to have met a perfectly logical demise.

Your monitor is smart enough now

There's no need for the V in a KVM switch anymore

If you're not in the market for an advanced remote management system like a PiKVM, there's a good chance your multi-PC setup can get by with just a USB input switcher, even with multiple connected displays. Allow me to explain.

In most displays manufactured in the decade and a half at least, automatic input switching has become a standard feature instead of the novelty it was on those CRTs. As such, the hardware is designed to accept input from multiple sources, and the onboard firmware automatically cycles through them for available input. There's usually an assortment of HDMI, DisplayPort, and VGA or DVI, and the monitors automatically scan for the next available input signal when you turn one of them off. Some models even support side-by-side or picture-in-picture display from multiple sources simultaneously. So, when my multitasking entails working on two devices concurrently, or switching one off before hopping on the other PC, the monitor's firmware is adept at handling the switch, and all I need is for my connected peripherals to move to the other machine using a USB switcher.

However, not everyone uses PCs as I do, and sometimes, you very well might need the monitor to jump between inputs without splitting the screen or turning one source off. In such cases, I'd argue that reaching for your monitor's on-screen display (OSD) settings that manage its firmware is well worth the effort. Sure, it inevitably takes more than one click to cycle inputs on most monitors, but I'd rather use that in coordination with a USB switch for the simple reason that the monitor is inevitably in arm's reach, unlike USB ports tucked behind my PCs.

My point stands, even for multi-monitor setups. For simultaneously using multiple PCs, you might not even need to switch inputs on all the connected displays. Just switching one screen over to the other machine would suffice. In the event that you need all your screens hooked to a single source at any given time, I'd agree that reaching for the OSD on multiple screens can be a pain. However, DisplayPort 1.4 is nearly half a decade old at this point, and there's a good chance your hardware supports daisy-chaining displays via DisplayPort. It's the singular reason why productivity-oriented workstations should prefer DP over HDMI, and if you're using this feature, you'd only need to reach for the OSD menu on the primary display since it controls the input downstream as well.

A thin sliver of a use case

That said, I don't mean to say KVM switches that switch video are outright redundant in 2026. However, USB switches fight a compelling case against them since they get you halfway there if you're okay with offloading the other half of video input switching duty to your perfectly capable monitor. Sure, this requires relatively new hardware built in the past decade, but as older monitors meet their inevitable end, the writing is on the wall for the classic KVM switch as well. For now, perhaps all you need is a simple USB switcher.