Windows 10: How do I change the primary graphic card on XPS 15 L502X?

This one is ancient it was apparently sold in may 2011, I bought it for 260 Euros. Its working well but I don't know what to do with the graphics, I worry about the nvidia card. There's no setting for the nvidia card or the integrated in this BIOS either, I just checked. So I dont have a clue what else can be done.

 

What is the resolution of your screen? Have you tried doing this:

[youtube]vAnrLiC7QWI[/youtube]

 

Have you checked your GPU to see if its working correctly? And,......... well simplest things first .... have you went into game settings and set it for full screen? The game itself is fairly old and may not automatically choose full screen with your cpu/gpu combination.

 

How do I check if I cant know if it is even being used???

Of course I tried to change all settings in the game there is no doubt that the Intel gpu is used instead of Nvidia.

 

What nVidia and Intel graphics drivers did you install?

The newest ones that I see on the US Dell support site are for Windows 8, and they are roughly 4 years old. I guess those are the ones I'd try; not sure how well generic ones would play in an nVidia Optimus (dual) setup.

 

It most likely seems to be the problem. The driver installed is the one that the system downloaded automatically. So I would asume that its much newer than the one that is supported by this laptop. Probably I will just install W7 and give it a try.

 

"How do I check if I cant know if it is even being used???"

I do know with mine, only a have a few games mostly oldies, don't have that particular game on mine, but do have one from around that era.
What you can do is run something like HWMonitor(from CPUID) in the background, I use that for max temperature indication, but it has other uses as well as it shows whether the Nvidia Graphics is being used.

Another way, at least on mine is the Windows 10 Task Manager > Performance Tab > GPU 0(HD 4600) and GPU 1(Nvidia) is now shown.
The pre-requisite for that is WDDM 2.0 or later, I think ???.
That you can find out by putting "dxdiag" in to the run box. Look at the Display Tab. On mine that gives WDDM 2.O for HD 4600, and 2.1 for Nvidia GT740M.

After 4 years I'm some way down that learning road. I was at your point some 4 years ago.

Graphics Drivers - You and others probably won't believe me, but all I have done in 4 years is used Windows 8.1 and 10 updates for both Graphics drivers, it works fine(and Optimus), it really does. I'm using the Laptop now.

 

If you launch the game by rt click and run with graphics processor then run the dxdiag it should "hopefully" show the Nvidia instead of the Intel ?? If you're still not sure the discrete card is running, do you have a external monitor to hook up ??

 

1. Ill try that. This is what is shown while not playing a game:



2. I do, but its VGA so I ordered HDMI to VGA then Ill connect to it...

 

Steffan
Because you have Driver model WDDM 1.2 then both will not be detailed in the Task Manager, unfortunately. So you will need indirect methods.
Going back to DXDIAG - You are missing the Render Tab. which should show the Nvidia Card(even if not being used).
You seem to be halfway with installed drivers, it does not look right. On the face of it you appear to be missing a proper Nvidia driver install.
What does your Device Manager indicate. How did you do the Graphics driver updates.

BOTH Graphics are detailed in DXDIAG. It does not tell you what is being used. Also an external monitor is not relevant as the actual video output is common to both an internal and external monitor.

Another option is to show the Nvidia Card activity icon in Notification area, the Nvidia control panel has a setting for that.
Attachment 175167
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It seems you were indeed right about the driver. I opened the nvidia icon in the taskbar, there is an update.



Ill install it and see what happens.

 

I'll have to try later with the Win 10 SSD but on Win 8.1 with the newest drivers for both My Intel 4000 and 635M I still don't have a render tab as well. The WDDM is still 1.3. I just don't think it's capable of anything higher (?) Doubt if I'll have the time to hook up the external monitor and install any games until after the weekend to see if I can get the Nvidia to show in dxdiag but I'll try

 

I can wait.

 

Further thoughts.
Looking at your HD 3000 Graphics install version numbers. Whilst the last 4 digits is the version number, the other 3 indicate.
1st number. 9 indicates Windows 8 (it should be 20 for Windows 10)
2nd number. 17 indicates DirectX 11.0 (right ???)

Direct3D DDI 12 comes with Windows 10, and yours says Direct3D DDI version 11.1 (Windows 8)
Again seems to be not quite right.

In your position I would uninstall both Graphics drivers and leave it to Windows updates. Mine was done during one of those Windows 10 Version updates.
https://www.intel.co.uk/content/www/...s-drivers.html

There is no Nvidia update icon on mine, no Geforce Experience installed either(removed that bloat some years ago).

 

My laptop is over 6 years old. So I dont think there is support for it when it comes to modern drivers. So I will have to stick to older versions. I just installed Windows 7 x64 and the problem is the same, even though I downloaded and installed the drivers from the official Dell support page and still nothing.
Same with my WiFi card, its simply not doing anything.