Question Graphics cards question?

[pauly01]

Have a dell xps 15 9550 laptop for many years. Specs are


i5-6300hq processor
1tb ssd nvme - Upgraded from 250gb ssd a while back
32gb ram - Upgraded from 8gb a while back.


Intel ® HD Graphics 530
NVidia Geforce GTX 960M



Would like all my programs to use the nvidia geforce gtx 960m as oppose to the intel. Such as programs that i want to run would want to use the faster gpu. Notice when running some of these programs, on task manager some of them show GPU 0 ... which is the intel hd 530 graphics. Some use the nvidia geforce gtx 960m.


Had went to nvidia settings where

Global settings... I changed it to high-performance NVIDIA processor. By default it was the Auto select I believe. I don't think it was integrated graphics which is the only other option. I also see tab of program settings where you can click on programs like chrome, firefox etc and select the preferred graphics processor for this program. By default its integrated graphics. Should i change chrome to High Performance NVIDIA Processor? What about the other programs on dropdown menu like Control, Intel Control Panel, Calculator etc?

 

[pauly01]

When i go to settings - displays - I see display with 3 monitors. It looks like 1 2 3. The 1 is my laptop monitor screen, 2 is the 32' 4k screen and 3 is the 24' 1920x1200 screen.

When I click on graphics settings at the bottom for any of these 3 monitor screens, it ask to


Choose an app to set preference


Default is

Desktop app


If click on dropdown menu, it's microsoft store. You can click browse... but when you click browse, you suppose to idchoose all the programs on your idcesktop that you want it to run high performance right? Because i did that with several of the programs. But when i ran one of the programs, how come it still shows using the gpu 0? Even when i right click that shortcut icon on the desktop, and look at graphics driver - it shows nvidia high performance (default) yet it seem to still use the intel graphics card?

 

[pauly01]

How do I know for sure if my Intel HD 530 Graphics Card and the NVidia Geforce GTX 960M is indeed up to date? Because when I check the GPU 1 which is the Nvidia Geforce GTX 960M on the task manager, the driver version it shows is 26.21.144270. That seem to be the same when checking my xps 9550 on the dell driver site? If i were to right click on Nvidia panel, then go to help and system information, it show Driver Version 442.70. Is that updated or not?

 

[pauly01]

so am i using the latest Intel HD 530 Graphics Card and the NVidia Geforce GTX 960M then?


the Intel HD 530 Graphics Card driver on task manager seem to be 30.0.101.1340