Choice of Displays-Intel & Nvidia

Hiya...never had this before 2 displays....Intel (R) HD Graphics Family and Nvidia GeForce 540M.

Question is which to use when? Looks like the default for everything seems to be the Intel even a game I have started playing....would have thought the displays would automatically change accordingly, is this the case? I see I can override settings if need be but do I really need to do this or will it decide which to use and change automatically?

Thanks

Sounds like you have a laptop with the switchable graphics card. The Intel HD Graphics card is generally used for the standard graphics and the nVidia GeForce 540 would kick in for the more heavy duty graphics processing such as 3D rendering.

As to when it would switch over, I would presume it depends on who the manufacturer of that laptop has decided how it handles it.

Layback Bear said:

Right click on a empty spot on desk top and choose nvidia control panel. I use auto select,(recommended). You have other choices if you care to check them out.

Thanks...I have mine set to auto select.....just wondered if I should just let it decide. How do I know which display it decides to use?

pebbly said:

Hi Ziani this is a post from one of our resident graphic experts stormy13

"From what I can see yours uses the switchable graphics that should switch automatically based on required usage,

ASUSTeK Computer Inc.-Forum- K42JC 64bit nVidia

Do you have the latest driver for both installed? If not go here,

ASUSTeK Computer Inc. - Notebooks - ASUS K42JC

to get them as both are required for it to work. Also don't use the reference Intel or Nvidia driver as they haven't been written to work with the switching, only get them from Asus. "

Ignore the Asus link but follow stormys advice about using only the PC manufacturers drivers the were developed for your particular PC

Oh dear.....I did try and install the latest Nvidia driver from Nvidia site as I was having a problem with a game that told me the physxloader.dll was missing but it did not update the driver but fixed the dll issue....driver still the original so should be ok?

Mine is an Asus funnily enough so will stick with stormys advise in future.

Is there a way to find out if they are switching automatically?

Had a little play with Nvidia Control Panel and checked some programs in the "manage 3D settings" "Program settings" and in the drop down box for preferred graphics processors some programs said they were using "integrated graphics" and others said "global settings (auto-select integrated)" and although did not find anything for "Nvidia processor" I presume because nothing is needing it at the moment must mean its all working ok.

Thanks guys for your help :)