laptop onboard graphics switch

rajanm1 · 07 Jan 2011

i have an acer aspire 5942g which i love but can not find out if it is using the onboard graphics or the dedicated ATI 5650 graphics card. how can i find out and also how can i select it to use one over the other? (ie force it to use the onboard to save battery and then force it to use the dedicated when plugged in?)

Also it says on the acer sticker it came with that it has upto 2747MB Hypermemory on the ATI 5650 but that is only a 1GB graphics card! how is this possible?

thanks!

stormy13 · 07 Jan 2011

Need someone with a similar laptop to confirm, but from looking here,

Switchable Graphics on Hp Laptops - Page 2

you should have an option on the desktop context menu (right click) for choosing which to use.

As for that memory reading this should help explain it,

Video Memory Virtualization - A Brief Guide

rajanm1 · 07 Jan 2011

stormy13 said:

Need someone with a similar laptop to confirm, but from looking here,

Switchable Graphics on Hp Laptops - Page 2

you should have an option on the desktop context menu (right click) for choosing which to use.

As for that memory reading this should help explain it,

Video Memory Virtualization - A Brief Guide

When I right click I don't get that option

thefabe · 07 Jan 2011

You may want to go to HP's site and download the manual to see if it has the option, not all can be manually set. A lot of the laptops with switchable graphics are controlled automatically pending on the graphic load at the time. This allows for longer battery life.
Fabe

NoN · 07 Jan 2011

rajanm1 said:

i have an acer aspire 5942g which i love but can not find out if it is using the onboard graphics or the dedicated ATI 5650 graphics card. how can i find out and also how can i select it to use one over the other? (ie force it to use the onboard to save battery and then force it to use the dedicated when plugged in?)

Also it says on the acer sticker it came with that it has upto 2747MB Hypermemory on the ATI 5650 but that is only a 1GB graphics card! how is this possible?

thanks!

To partially know if you're using the onboard (intel) or ATI/AMD graphics, go in the Control Panel...there should be or not the Intel GMA Icon (parameters option aswell).

When you're on the desktop (your wallpaper) right click, then appear the option windows.
Or go in the ATI/AMD properties of your card then (screenshot).

When you unplugg your Acer laptop to battery powered it should swap "auto" (the screen will blink a little the time to swap) to the onboard Intel's graphics and on wired powered plug, it is ATI/AMD one.
Make sure you have the both graphics on your Acer machine...

2nd screenshot, is the Acer version of their latest x64bits drivers: v8.672.3.0...

stormy13 · 07 Jan 2011

In addition to what NoN said (and I should have mentioned previously) the switching and the above control panel are only available with the driver from Acer (or any other laptop with switchable graphics, either AMD or Nvidia when paired with the Intel graphics). The reference AMD and Intel drivers should both respectively work but you will lose the switching and only one of the two will be available.