Force Nvidia instead of Onboard Intel GPU

Menendon · 26 Dec 2015

I set everything in the the Nvidia Control Panel to force the system to use my Nvidia Geforce 850M GPU, since I noticed that it wasn't ever switching. I also set it to display on the screen what GPU the Physx engine is using, and it always uses the onboard Intel GPU. I also checked my system information, and the Nvidia card is listed as a render-only card. From what I've googled, that means that it isn't being fully utilized. Does anyone have information on this? My games seem fairly slow compared to what a couple of sites have said my card should be able to handle. For example, Arkham Knight has to run on low graphics for my FPS to be decent and not lag. I know I'm on a laptop, but my system specs should be able to handle more.

swarfega · 26 Dec 2015

You need to go into the BIOS setup and disable the onboard graphics. While there check that BIOS is using the correct PCI-E socket.

Menendon · 26 Dec 2015

What PCI-E socket should it be using?

swarfega said:

You need to go into the BIOS setup and disable the onboard graphics. While there check that BIOS is using the correct PCI-E socket.

swarfega · 26 Dec 2015

The top-most one on the motherboard, should be pci-e 16x.

Menendon · 26 Dec 2015

I'll try to find that. I can't seem to find any resource that tells me where that is in the BIOS for my computer. I've checked a couple of times now, and it doesn't seem to be anywhere.

swarfega said:

The top-most one on the motherboard, should be pci-e 16x.

Berton · 26 Dec 2015

I know I'm on a laptop, but my system specs should be able to handle more

Is that one of the newer Notebooks that has 2 video adapters? I've seen them advertised but haven't had occasion to work with one yet.

Menendon · 27 Dec 2015

I don't believe so. It's an HP Envy 17t, I bought it directly from HP just over a year ago.

Berton said:

Is that one of the newer Notebooks that has 2 video adapters? I've seen them advertised but haven't had occasion to work with one yet.

bobjoe · 28 Dec 2015

Open Nvidia Control Panel and look under "Configure 3D Settings", and make sure that "High performance NVIDIA processor" is selected on the drop-down box.

Menendon · 28 Dec 2015

I have already. Everywhere that I can change it to only use the Nvidia card, it's already been changed. But the PhysX visual indicator never stops saying "CPU". I'm assuming that means that it's the Intel integrated graphics??

bobjoe said:

Open Nvidia Control Panel and look under "Configure 3D Settings", and make sure that "High performance NVIDIA processor" is selected on the drop-down box.

bobkn · 28 Dec 2015

Menendon said:

I have already. Everywhere that I can change it to only use the Nvidia card, it's already been changed. But the PhysX visual indicator never stops saying "CPU". I'm assuming that means that it's the Intel integrated graphics??

That would normally suggest to me that PhysX is being run in emulation on the CPU rather than in hardware on the nVidia GPU. (I don't know whether nVidia uses any hardware acceleration on Intel built-in GPUs, but I doubt it.)

What choices do you have for PhysX in the nVidia Control Panel? I have 3: auto, my GPU, and the CPU. (My desktop Intel CPU has no built-in graphics capability.)