About the power of Intel HD Graphics

My friend got a Dell 5110 laptop. It uses i5 2nd gen. with integrated Intel HD Graphics. I thought it doesn't use any gaming GPU but when I played Skyrim and Shift 2, the games ran smoothly on high settings. I later inspected the specs and I discovered that it uses nVidia 525M. So does this laptop use a separate graphics card or the Intel HD Graphics is nVidia?

Hello erkron,

Uh... no. Intel is intel, Nvidia is Nvidia. Are you sure he doesn't have an Nvidia card plugged in? Does he have the incorrect driver installed? o.0

Edit* Sorry, after re-reading your question, if it says Nvidia, it is indeed a separate card

The N5110 is available with "Optimus" graphics, which means that it has both integrated Intel graphics and an add-on nVidia graphics processor. The Intel one is used for applications that don't require a lot of graphics power. The nVidia one is for more graphics-intensive things like games. The point is saving power/battery life.

I have no personal experience with it, but I believe that the Optimus settings can be seen in the nVidia control panel.

Yes I checked it and there is the nVidia card in it. It uses both of them for certain areas (optimus). I can only say 'WOW' since the idea of using two graphic cards is awesome.