Solved is it better to have integrated graphics on with gaming?

[sogone209]

i have a acer aspire x3400g with a integrated nivdia 9200 graphics.

i have a asus gt430 installed.

i play diable 3

would it be profitable to have integrated graphics turned on in the bios.

i set my bios to have it on with uma buffer size 512 (which is the 9200s ram).

would this offload textures and make fps better?

btw in device manager it is showing both gpu's.NVM IT INSTALLED THE 9200 ONCE I TURNED ONBOARD GRAPHICS ON IN THE BIOS. BUT ONCE I RESET MY COMPUTER ITS GONE. BUT ONBOARD IS STILL ON.
thanks

 

[solarmystic]

Hello sogone209,

Short answer, nope.

Long answer:-

Your integrated graphics card would actually reduce your performance by using up system RAM from your system that it'd have to permanently reserve for its own functionality.

What you've mentioned as the UMA buffer size is actually referring to the amount of system RAM you are allowing the integrated card to reserve from it. For example you have 4 GBs of RAM. You set the UMA buffer to 512 MB. You are telling the integrated card to take that amount of RAM from your system for its own functions. So in effect you only have 3.5 GB of RAM left for your system and applications.

Offloading textures and the like refers to SLI functionality which requires 2 dedicated cards like your Asus GT 430 to be installed in tandem.

In conclusion, switch off that integrated card, and use your dedicated card for optimal performance. Unless power conservation is important to you. But I believe that it doesn't really matter since you're gaming on a desktop.

 

[Starbeetle]

No it's not good

Integregated will use your hard drive for memory in your games

 

[sogone209]

thank you guys so much! +rep

 

[solarmystic]

You're welcome mate!

 

[sogone209]

ok so ive been getting more information. yes it is using my ram but i get a 10fps increase with it on. ive tested 3 time with diablo 3 now. and i get roughly 57-60 fps with the integrated on with 512 used. and when its off i get 47-50. so it must be doing something for me. this is a clean slate windows 7 professional with nothing really installed besides the games and updates.

 

[solarmystic]

ok so ive been getting more information. yes it is using my ram but i get a 10fps increase with it on. ive tested 3 time with diablo 3 now. and i get roughly 57-60 fps with the integrated on with 512 used. and when its off i get 47-50. so it must be doing something for me. this is a clean slate windows 7 professional with nothing really installed besides the games and updates.

That flies in the face of what i know about graphic card architectures and gaming performance..

Most interesting... your integrated nvidia 9200 card should neither be doing anything nor should it be able to contribute to your dedicated graphics card's performance unless it was participating in some ghetto ad-hoc SLI with the GT 430.

Which is somewhat impossible as they are of completely different architectures...

The more you know i guess...

If it really works for you across the board with all kinds of games and 3D applications, then go with it!

 

[Wrend]

Maybe you're connecting the monitor to the on-board video port instead of on the graphics card, or something?

I haven't used MBs with integrated graphics on my PCs for a long time, so just kind of guessing here.

 

[sogone209]

nope my primary is my dedicated graphics with hdmi to my huge tv. but diablo 3 in hd 1080 looks amazing. and with the onboard on it seems to give me around 10-12 fps. i will keep it since its note breaking anything thanks you guys

 

[solarmystic]

Sogone209, If you don't mind could you mark the thread as solved if you're satisfied with the responses you've got?

Thanks in advance!

 

[smarteyeball]

nope my primary is my dedicated graphics with hdmi to my huge tv. but diablo 3 in hd 1080 looks amazing. and with the onboard on it seems to give me around 10-12 fps. i will keep it since its note breaking anything thanks you guys

Just out of curiosity - would you mind downloading GPU-Z.

Run two instances of it. On the first tab, select your primary card. For the 2nd instance, select you Intergrated GPU.


Ie:





And then on the sensors tab for both instances, there is a drop down arrow. Select "Show Highest Reading" for the core, mem, temp, memory used (if available) and GPU load.

ie:



Take a screen shot of both cards first before you play. Then play a bit of Diablo 3. Once you quit D3, take a screen shot of both of the sensors tab after you've quit out of the game.

It will be interesting to see if the integrated card has actually taken some of the work load while gaming.

(If you don't want to - that's cool. Just say "I don't want to " )

Because by rights, it should either be one card or the other that's being used - not both, yet you're getting a performance boost anyway :huh:

 

[sogone209]

yes i will do that right now

 

[sogone209]

NO LOAD ON THE GPU. im not even gunna post them because its pointless. so u my friend have made me finally turn the damn onboard off forever I REALLY APPRECIATE IT.