gpu selection laptop with discrete AND onboard nvidia gpu

wicked_sticky

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Nov 1, 2015
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I got myself an acer aspire A515-51G-503E. 1st time owning a laptop with a dedicated GPU. I'm running win10. The laptop uses both the intel and nvidia gpus depending on the program.

Many of the programs can be set to use the Nvidia card through Nvidia control panel (not all i.e. Win media player, VLC, etc).

Can I set this to only use the Nvidia card 100% of the time?

*follow up question, is there an OSD program that shows which GPU is running?

Edited: there are no bios options for GPU
 
Solution
you can set the specified GPU on VLC. and Media player classic as well. they both run codecs that support NVDIA/CUDA acceleration. well anyways, thats not the topic here. if you do want to use the intel graphics, its only in the BIOS (you said you didnt find anything there so they mustve hidden it on purpose or it could be activated by some general option there in that particular manufacturer) or in the device manager to be disabled. and no there isnt a "safe" way of doing it coz it is a laptop after all and its designed to be a closed system with a builtin LCD attached on its hardware.

theres also a reason why NVIDIA gave this option to allow you to choose in Global Settings to force all apps to use the GPU if supported. and thats the...

marksavio

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Dec 23, 2017
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in laptops, there is a reason that both your Intel and external graphics are both on all the time. if your GPU fails, at least you will have your back up. and even if you set your BIOS to only use PCIE, if the internal graphics is still active (if its not active your laptop has no display). the BIOS will automatically change that to auto/cpu. this will prevent the user from opening up the laptop case (which voids warranty) and have to jump reset CMOS.

BUT there is a way in the NVIDIA control panel to have ALL applications use only the Nvidia graphics. go to the Manage 3D settings in the Global Settings and select Preferred Graphics processor as "Nvidia graphics card" or something like that and youre good to go.

 

wicked_sticky

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Nov 1, 2015
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4,510
Most but not all programs run off the Nvidia card, using Nvidia control panel. (media players don't, drop down option is greyed out). Windows desktop doesn't seem to use the nvdia card either...

Main reason I wanted to use the dedicated gpu was to prevent the onboard from hogging system ram. Most stuff does run off the dedicated card, so it's not ideal to use both but not a big deal either.




 

wicked_sticky

Estimable
Nov 1, 2015
6
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4,510


Both of these programs are written to run off gpu=0 (as opposed to gpu=1), with both gpu's enabled, the onboard will always be designated as GPU 0, hardware acceleration will try to use the onboard gpu to "accelerate", it doesn't effect which gpu is used. Since VLC doesnt have complicated dependencies renaming vlc.exe to a gibberish name tricks windows to run off the GPU selected in Nividia CP global settings...but thats just one program.

Cortana,windows shell extension, windows desktop manager, etc all run off the onboard chip and I wouldnt want to run those on the nvidia gpu all the time anyway

What Im looking for is a safe/easy/one-step setting to toggle on & off the intel gpu completely (if it exists)
 

marksavio

Prominent
Dec 23, 2017
125
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710
you can set the specified GPU on VLC. and Media player classic as well. they both run codecs that support NVDIA/CUDA acceleration. well anyways, thats not the topic here. if you do want to use the intel graphics, its only in the BIOS (you said you didnt find anything there so they mustve hidden it on purpose or it could be activated by some general option there in that particular manufacturer) or in the device manager to be disabled. and no there isnt a "safe" way of doing it coz it is a laptop after all and its designed to be a closed system with a builtin LCD attached on its hardware.

theres also a reason why NVIDIA gave this option to allow you to choose in Global Settings to force all apps to use the GPU if supported. and thats the only safe way of doing it in a one-click fashion.
 
Solution