Windows 10: Force Nvidia instead of Onboard Intel GPU

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.

:)

 

Windows 10 + Nvidia = 1 fps

I am having this problema also with Kane & Lynch Dead Men. The game runs hella slow. In steam forums, the solution was to force the game to run with the Intel onboard GPU. You can do that in Nvidia control panel, under 3D configuration.

I can't test that because the option to set GPU doesn't appear in my PC.

 

MS Tech Bench *.ISO for Win 10 will not accept product key

Jeff,

I truly appreciate you paying attention to my questions. I have now reached the place where I cannot update to Win 10 because my mobo has an onboard GPU chipset from Nvidia that Win 10 refuses to recognize and Nvidia refuses to accommodate. I also am not
yet clear which Nvidia PCIe GPUs, Win 10 will agree to live with. Forcing a GPU at this point does not look attractive in view of the prospect that Win 10 can, in the future, force it updates. I have decided to wait a few months to see if the GPU issues sorts
out.

 

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.

 

What PCI-E socket should it be using?

 

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

 

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.

 

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.

 

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

 

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.

 

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.)

 

Forget PhysX.

Open Minecraft if you have it, then press F3. See if it shows your 850M. If it does, you're set to use the 850M.

 

I found these instructions to be very helpful:

Enable Hardware Acceleration In Chrome / Chromium Browser [Quick Tip] ~ Web Upd8: Ubuntu / Linux blog

In summary:

• Go to chrome://flags and Enable "Override software rendering list"
• After restart, go to chrome://gpu and confirm GL_RENDERER is NVIDIA.
• Optional: Browse to WebGL MAX parameters test to ensure WebGL agrees (Unmasked Renderer).

- Dave

 

I don't think you understand how it works. Such Laptops use Optimus switching between the iGPU and Nvidia Graphics. You have a choice of one or the other by right clicking the Desktop Shortcut, the only other choice you have is to make one the default for that particular application/game.

This is also accessible from the Nvidia Control Panel.

Whilst there is a link to PhysX configution it is fixed on Auto-select. So when the Nvidia card is selected then the PhysX is, that is just part of the Nvidia driver, they like to give it a fancy name to impress.

The easiest thing to do to check things are working correctly is to install a standard test like 3DMark. I have been using this one in it's various iterations on Nvidia Graphics Cards for something like 15 years.
You can then compare your performance with systems/Laptops with identical hardware i.e. the same CPU, iGPU and Nvidia M chipset, and indeed with other makes of Laptops with the same hardware.
My Laptop falls exactly as expected within the bunch of results for the same hardware. There a high degree of confidence that it is running correctly as expected.

Individual games are a very different matter as you never know what screen resolution, detail settings are being used. No hope at all of a realistic comparison.