New work station graphics card idle while onboard doing all the work

Yesterday, at work, they gave me a new Lenovo ThinkStation. It seems like a pretty nice setup with Intel I-7 processor, 16 gb ram memory, an NVIDIA Quadro P620 graphics card, dual Viewsonic monitors and, of course, Windows 10.

The NVIDIA graphics card is visible in Device Manager, which says it is working properly, and is shown when I open the Task Manager Performance tab. However, it constantly shows 0% utilization. Even when I Google Graphics Test and run some "Graphics Intensive" video it just sits there at idle, at 0%, while the Intel onboard graphics does all the work. Is this normal?

I have checked its usage settings in NVIDIA Control Panel. There are only two choices, forgive me as I don't remember their exact wording, "Graphics Applications" or "Graphics and Computing Needs", it is set on the latter setting.

Any insight on this would be appreciated. I hate to think that I have a decent video card and I am not using it, especially on a brand new machine.

The monitors connected to the card or the onboard GPU?

That is a very good question! Looking at the data sheet for the NVIDIA card I see that it has 4 mini display ports. That is definitely not what I plugged my monitors into. The cables from my monitors have much larger connectors and look more like HDMI cables with a truncated corner. The computer, obviously, had two ports for their connection. If this is the problem what do I need, an entirely new cable or some type of adapter?

If this is an Optimus type of graphics, then you can configure each application separately using the Nvidia Control Panel or:
https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkPa...s/td-p/4175520
Something like that, which I assume is a UEFI/BIOS setting, or maybe in the Lenovo utilities.

Helmut said:

If this is an Optimus type of graphics, then you can configure each application separately using the Nvidia Control Panel or:
https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkPa...s/td-p/4175520
Something like that, which I assume is a UEFI/BIOS setting, or maybe in the Lenovo utilities.

It is Optimus, but when I go into NVIDIA Control Panel there only seems to be one screen with the two options I mentioned in my original post. I don't see any options for configuring each application.

- - - Updated - - -

OK, so I did a little reading about Optimus. From what I understand it is supposed to switch between my onboard graphics and my NVIDIA card as the graphic demand increases or decreases. It appears that you should also be able to configure each application to use whichever graphics system you want, although, I don't seem to have all of the options shown in the example NVIDIA Control Panel.

So now, three questions:

1. Do my monitors need to be plugged into the NVIDIA card for this to work or can they be plugged into the motherboard display ports?
2. Do I need an updated driver for the NVIDIA card to get the full options within the NVIDIA Control Panel?
3. Can I just disable the onboard graphics so the the NVIDIA card will work full time? Since this is not a battery operated laptop, and it seems this switching was designed to save battery life, would this maybe be a better option?

Optimus only works on laptops.

You either need displayport cables (if the monitors have displayport), or displayport to HDMI/DVI adapters to connect the monitors to the video card.

Astrolite said:

That is a very good question! Looking at the data sheet for the NVIDIA card I see that it has 4 mini display ports. That is definitely not what I plugged my monitors into. The cables from my monitors have much larger connectors and look more like HDMI cables with a truncated corner. The computer, obviously, had two ports for their connection. If this is the problem what do I need, an entirely new cable or some type of adapter?

"HDMI cables with a truncated corner" sounds like full-sized Display Port connectors. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DisplayPort

The Quadro P620 (http://pny.eu/en/professional/explor...88-quadro-p620) is supposed to come with 4 miniDP to DP adapters. I wonder whether your IT people tossed them, or if they're still around. (Before I retired, I made a collection of cables discarded by IT: DVI, USB, cheater cords, etc. Occasionally I found a use for one.)

bobkn said:

"HDMI cables with a truncated corner" sounds like full-sized Display Port connectors. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DisplayPort

This was my thought too......

It sounds like you have a Windows Update Nvidia Driver , rather than a Full Nvidia Driver from Nvidia though.... there is usually an Option for the Preferred Card and since you are mostly at a desk and the power adaptor is plugged in , you can use the Nvidia all day everyday..... it will eat the battery while mobile though so switch it if needed.

The quadro cards don't use the Standard Nvidia GTX aand RTX Drivers though , so do a little research 1st.....

these seem to be the Latest....V.418

NVIDIA

NVIDIA

Thanks for all the replies. I've got our IT on the case, she agrees that I need some adapters to plug into the card. It's kinda funny the response I got from IT, who is the sister of the company owner, she said, "we didn't get you this computer so that you can play games on it". I told her I realized that, but you got me a computer with a discreet video card that is superior to the onboard GUI, it would be a shame not to use it!

Astrolite said:

Thanks for all the replies. I've got our IT on the case, she agrees that I need some adapters to plug into the card. It's kinda funny the response I got from IT, who is the sister of the company owner, she said, "we didn't get you this computer so that you can play games on it". I told her I realized that, but you got me a computer with a discreet video card that is superior to the onboard GUI, it would be a shame not to use it!

The Quadro P620 is a low-end workstation card (intended for OpenGL applications). Probably not great for gaming.

The response from your "IT Department" sounds like bullying, covering up cluelessness. Not unusual.