HD 4000 alonside with the Geforce GT 625M

[jemm]

I have got a Dell Inspirion 14 2640 Notebook, and I was wondering if I could use the HD 4000 alonside with the Geforce GT 625M. If so, what should I do in order to use them together?

Thank you!

 

[IInuyasha74]

Yes and no.

I actually have a laptop almost the same as yours. Mine has the Intel HD 4000 and Geforce GT 620M, and there is really not difference between the 620M and 625M. It actually does pretty well.

Anyways, in terms of having both cards work to play a game at the same time, the only option you have is a program called Lucid Virtu MVP. It comes free on a lot of desktops, but honestly from what I have tried with it on my desktop it sucks. I won't even bother using it cause it doesn't seem to help at all. In a laptop it would probably just drain your battery really fast.

Outside of that Nvidia has a real useful utility called Optimus. It will not let you use them both to play games, but whenever you are doing something like on the internet, Optimus will switch the Geforce GT 625M off and just use the Intel HD 4000. This is good cause the Nvidia graphics use a lot more power than the Intel graphics. All you ever need for movies and such is the Intel graphics. Then if configured properly, though it will pick up most games right off, it will use the Nvidia graphics to play the game so you get the most performance your system can give, and also save as much battery life as possible.

Other than this, there is no way to get them to work together unfortunately. Though honestly like I said I have an almost identical card and find it to do quite well on its own.

 

[jemm]

It seems that both cards are working in my system -- the HD 4000 as the main card, and the GT 625M for PhysX. I haven´t set it like that -- perhaps a default configuration?

 

[IInuyasha74]

It seems that both cards are working in my system -- the HD 4000 as the main card, and the GT 625M for PhysX. I haven´t set it like that -- perhaps a default configuration?

I think you are miss reading what its doing

 

[jemm]

It seems that both cards are working in my system -- the HD 4000 as the main card, and the GT 625M for PhysX. I haven´t set it like that -- perhaps a default configuration?

I think you are miss reading what its doing

Thank you for your responses to my inquire!

I didn´t get what you mean by "you are miss reading what its doing".

 

[IInuyasha74]

It seems that both cards are working in my system -- the HD 4000 as the main card, and the GT 625M for PhysX. I haven´t set it like that -- perhaps a default configuration?

I think you are miss reading what its doing

Thank you for your responses to my inquire!

I didn´t get what you mean by "you are miss reading what its doing".

Both cards are probably fully functional, but its doubtful you have the Intel HD 4000 doing the graphics rendering and the Nvidia chip doing PhysX. I do think there is a way to configure Nvidia's graphics settings to do this, but by default most games should be set to run using the Nvidia graphics as the primary card.

Again, it is possible your system is doing this, but there are also only a handful of games relatively speaking that use PhysX and because of that there isn't much reason to run in this setup.

If you are running in this setup, you should change it immediately. The Nvidia graphics will give around twice the performance of the Intel graphics. Its likely if you are playing a game from around 2010 that use PhysX that your performance would be something like this:

Medium Quality settings 1366x768
Intel PhsyX off: 25FPS
Intel PhsyX on: 25FPS (Using the Nvidia to run PhysX would avoid a performance hit)
Nvidia PhsyX off: 50FPS
Nvidia PhsyX on: 35-40FPS

So really no matter what game you are playing or your settings the Nvidia graphics will beat the Intel graphics, even if the Nvidia card is assisting it with PhsyX. Even then, with both running your battery will be drained faster. The only time you should use the Intel graphics for gaming, is if you want to play as long as possible on battery, non-gaming tasks, or rather old games likely around 2006 or older that don't require better graphics to max the game out.

 

[jemm]

Hi IInuyasha74!

Actually I do not use the laptop to play games, but my desktop.

The laptop is for general use, most of the time inside my place, so no issues with battery so far, tough it is always good to learn how to save power, just in case.

I think Optimus you´ve suggested is a very good idea, I will download it, then try to set it properly, as you recommended.

Thank you!

 

[IInuyasha74]

Hi IInuyasha74!

Actually I do not use the laptop to play games, but my desktop.

The laptop is for general use, most of the time inside my place, so no issues with battery so far, tough it is always good to learn how to save power, just in case.

I think Optimus you´ve suggested is a very good idea, I will download it, then try to set it properly, as you recommended.

Thank you!

Yea the Optimus program is very helpful, but you should already have it installed actually. Its part of the driver program for Nvidia. It is really helpful.

No problem, just glad to be informative if possible.

 

[jemm]

I was trying to install it, but it seems my Dell Inspiron 14 2640 does not support it -- I haven´t found it installed in my system anyway. 🙁

C:

I am not sure if it has or not it -- there is an old version installed that shows Optimus, but I am sure about the new driver version. I am not used with Geforce at all.

Update 2: Yes, it has Optimus and it is fully functional.

Thank you so much for your help!