Choice of Displays-Intel & Nvidia

[Ziani]

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

 

[Keiichi25]

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]

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.

 

[Ziani]

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?

 

[Layback Bear]

I don't know how it is decides but my thought is the nvidia program watches the ram on the card being used and decides whether to ask for motherboard ram for a little help.
I hope someone with more knowledge than I can help us both understand this a little better.

 

[pebbly]

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

 

[thefabe]

Just al ittle information on how "Switchable Graphics" are supposed to work. Switchable Graphics 101: The Best Of Both Worlds [Technology Explained]
Fabe

 

[Ziani]

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?

 

[Ziani]

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

 

[Windows i7 920]

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.

I'm fairly sure the OS and/or related drivers have control over switching the cards. Although, its possible the laptop shipped with software made by the OEM which controls it (my laptop has custom software it shipped with for controlling it's touchscreen; I don't see how this couldn't be used to switch graphics dynamically...)

 

[Keiichi25]

There have been some discussions with regards to the Switchable graphics cards where people were unable to put the latest drivers for the 'other' card. They were only able to update the dominant part, which in this case, would be the intel.

 

[champ2010]

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

You can try the steps in the link below.

It will help you Customize the application and the GPU with which you can run an application. You can change the option to choose only NVIDIA GPU while running any specific application.

How do I customize Optimus profiles and settings?

 

[Ziani]

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

You can try the steps in the link below.

It will help you Customize the application and the GPU with which you can run an application. You can change the option to choose only NVIDIA GPU while running any specific application.

How do I customize Optimus profiles and settings?

Thanks....I see that I can change manually....my main concern was should I just let the displays sort themselves out....spose its down to me at the end of the day.

I have contacted Asus support and they say that I can update drivers from their own manufactures although my Nvidia driver update would not update as the system would not allow so have got back to Asus and now awaiting their reply.

Thanks again guys for all your input

 

[Corpsecrank]

Just something you should note about any laptop with switchable graphics. If your laptop has them then you should always go back to the manufacturer page for drivers. If you just go to the nVidia or ATI sites they usually say somewhere on the page to do so as well because you can run into issue using their version of the drivers.

So make sure you go to the site for whatever brand of laptop you use and get the drivers there to avoid problems.

 

[stormy13]

Correct Corpsecrank. From AMD's release notes for the latest driver,

The following notebooks are not compatible with this release:

• Any notebook launched after this driver release
• Switchable Graphics enabled notebooks using Intel® chipsets.
• Toshiba® notebooks (please contact the notebook OEM for driver support for these notebooks)
• Sony® VAIO® notebooks (please contact the notebook OEM for driver support for these notebooks)
• Panasonic® notebooks (please contact the notebook OEM for driver support for these notebooks)

and from Nvidia's.




Be nice if the laptop manufacturer's with this feature would put it somewhere that reference video drivers will not work with these systems.

Also Ziani the reason that the reference Nvidia driver fixed your Physx problem is that it also contains the latest Physx driver/software (as well as a few other things that most don't use) and can be downloaded,

NVIDIA DRIVERS 9.10.0513

and installed/updated regardless of what video card is in the computer.

 

[Corpsecrank]

Be nice if the laptop manufacturer's with this feature would put it somewhere that reference video drivers will not work with these systems.

I know right. I don't know why they can't make it more obvious for users that you are so restricted on that specific driver. A little warning about that could go a long ways.

 

[Keiichi25]

Well, generally, it is implied by the chipset manufacturers that in most cases, you should refer to your OEM manufacturer or retail manufacturer for the drivers that would work best for your card. And given some manufacturers tend to tweak the settings, sometimes they even recommend you get the drivers from them before trying to use the reference drivers for optimal performance as an end user.

 

[Ziani]

Be nice if the laptop manufacturer's with this feature would put it somewhere that reference video drivers will not work with these systems.

I know right. I don't know why they can't make it more obvious for users that you are so restricted on that specific driver. A little warning about that could go a long ways.

Yeah you are right but anyways all been a learning curve...thanks again guys

 

[Teerex]

Correct Corpsecrank. From AMD's release notes for the latest driver,

The following notebooks are not compatible with this release:

• Any notebook launched after this driver release
• Switchable Graphics enabled notebooks using Intel® chipsets.
• Toshiba® notebooks (please contact the notebook OEM for driver support for these notebooks)
• Sony® VAIO® notebooks (please contact the notebook OEM for driver support for these notebooks)
• Panasonic® notebooks (please contact the notebook OEM for driver support for these notebooks)

and from Nvidia's.


View attachment 174202

Be nice if the laptop manufacturer's with this feature would put it somewhere that reference video drivers will not work with these systems.

Also Ziani the reason that the reference Nvidia driver fixed your Physx problem is that it also contains the latest Physx driver/software (as well as a few other things that most don't use) and can be downloaded,

NVIDIA DRIVERS 9.10.0513

and installed/updated regardless of what video card is in the computer.

Hybrid Power is not Optimus. I have those Nvidia drivers installed and they do their job better than the ASUS stock drivers. I report problems I see directly to Nvidia, and they get solved one by one, version by version.