Intel HD Graphics 5500 and AMD Radeon HD 8500M

Hello,

I have been searching on the internet about this issue I'm currently battling. I have have found similar issues but not exactly what I am going through.

I am hoping you experts can help me. :) Here it goes...

I have a Lenovo G50-80 laptop, which is less than a month old. It came with Windows 8.1 and had a free upgrade to Windows 10. It ran fantastically except I still preferred Windows 7 - I did a clean install.

The problem is my graphics card. When I had Windows 10, in the dxdiag page I had the following tabs:

• System
• Display
• Render
• Sound
• Input

Basically on the Display tab, the Intel HD Graphics 5500 is displayed and on the Render tab, I had the AMD Radeon HD 8500M.

Now that I downgraded to Windows 7 (installed all updates including SP1), the Render tab is no longer there.

I have checked the device manager and saw both cards listed and active with no errors.

I did the following:

1. Updated Drivers for both Intel and AMD graphics
2. Uninstalled all graphic drivers and reinstalled Intel first then AMD
3. Changed the settings on the AMD graphics controller to Maximum Performance on the game I am playing

I do not know what I am missing here.

I am really looking forward to a solution.

Thank you in advance, gentlemen!

Hello Mellon Head,

Thank you for taking the time to read my inquiry. :)

Are you also running a system with a discrete video card? The thought of Windows 7 not supporting the Render tab in DXDiag came to mind, but just needed confirmation from an expert.

jcbdiago said:

Thank you in advance, gentlemen!

And ladies.

My apologies. I didn't mean to leave out the ladies. :)

Mellon Head said:

Yes. I'm running with a discrete graphics card in both systems that I checked. There is no Render tab on either machine. Both run Win 7 Pro, and both are AMD cards.

Maybe someone with an Nvidia card can comment?

I also have an AMD Card. Thank you very much for you insight, Mellon Head! :)

I'm ran into a new issue just now.

So I am playing this game and had set it to run on High Performance so it would run on the AMD card. But when I do, it lags tremendously!

I then switched it to run on Power Saving mode, I assume this is when the Intel Graphics Card takes over... - It runs very smoothly!

This is really confusing...it should run a lot better when on the AMD card but it seems the opposite.

Any ideas?

Maybe things went upside down Windows 7 is now using Intel HD 5500 and the AMD ones during Power Saving mode. Have you noticed any changes in battery life?

RoasterMen said:

Maybe things went upside down Windows 7 is now using Intel HD 5500 and the AMD ones during Power Saving mode. Have you noticed any changes in battery life?

Is that possible? Isn't the AMD Card supposed to give more power?

I have not noticed changes in battery life since it's removed (I'm mostly plugged in).