MX150 not working on second display?

[Spork829]

Hi everyone. I just got a new laptop, a Lenovo Ideapad 720s, which includes an MX150 for some light gaming. Since I upgraded the SSD, I've booted up a fresh install of Windows.

 

I noticed right away that something might be wonky with the GPU, because I downloaded the driver directly, but it "could not find compatible graphics hardware" and wouldn't let me install. However I downloaded Gefore Experience and installed the driver that way and it worked just fine.

 

So then I booted up Overwatch, and on the laptop's display, I'm seeing exactly the performance I would expect, 60fps at low settings. Interestingly, Overwatch only gives me one monitor option to run in fullscreen, and doesn't appear to know that the second one exists. If I put it in Windowed mode, performance stays the same until I drag the window from the laptop display to the monitor, when the FPS instantly halves to about 30. 

 

My assumption was that it's using the iGPU on the second display, but then I looked at the GPU utilization in task manager. The MX150 is sitting at about 15% utilization, and the Intel iGPU at about 40%, REGARDLESS of which screen it's on, even though I'm getting around 60 fps on one, and around 30 on the other. They are the same resolution and refresh rate.

 

What could be going on here? Any help very much appreciated!

 

[Lukyp]

check the bios settings and change the video graphics card option to "Optimus"

[Spork829]

22 hours ago, Chunchunmaru_ said:

check the bios settings and change the video graphics card option to "Optimus"

The only graphics options I get in the BIOS are 'switchable', which is what it's set to, or 'UMA graphics', which appears to just be the iGPU. 

[-rascal-]

@Spork829

It could depend on how the external monitor port (HDMI port?) is wired/connected internally.

Meaning, it could be wired only to the iGPU (e.g. Intel HD 620).

[Spork829]

2 minutes ago, -rascal- said:

@Spork829

It could depend on how the external monitor port (HDMI port?) is wired/connected internally.

Meaning, it could be wired only to the iGPU (e.g. Intel HD 620).

It's an HDMI port. As far as I can tell it's wired to the iGPU, but people seem to say that the MX150 can still be used as a co-processor. The GPU usage in Afterburner is showing the iGPU ramping up when it's on the external display even though task manager isn't, so I think the dGPU just isn't running with the game on the second monitor for some reason.

[-rascal-]

13 minutes ago, Spork829 said:

It's an HDMI port. As far as I can tell it's wired to the iGPU, but people seem to say that the MX150 can still be used as a co-processor. The GPU usage in Afterburner is showing the iGPU ramping up when it's on the external display even though task manager isn't, so I think the dGPU just isn't running with the game on the second monitor for some reason.

 

There might be work-arounds / tweaks available to have the MX150 operate as a co-processor, but you'll have to look into this a bit.

I'll check around the interwebs, and see what I can find...no guarantees, though.

[Spork829]

1 hour ago, -rascal- said:

 

There might be work-arounds / tweaks available to have the MX150 operate as a co-processor, but you'll have to look into this a bit.

I'll check around the interwebs, and see what I can find...no guarantees, though.

I think I've figured it out. Most people are saying to go into Nvidia control panel and make sure the global preferred GPU is set to the MX150, but I went into the program settings tab and set Overwatch specifically to use the MX150 instead of the global setting, even though that was also set to the dGPU already. Now it appears to be working on the second monitor. Going to try some other games to verify though.

[memo321]

On 7/29/2019 at 3:41 AM, Spork829 said:

I think I've figured it out. Most people are saying to go into Nvidia control panel and make sure the global preferred GPU is set to the MX150, but I went into the program settings tab and set Overwatch specifically to use the MX150 instead of the global setting, even though that was also set to the dGPU already. Now it appears to be working on the second monitor. Going to try some other games to verify though.

hi could u tell me what ur performances are on games u have testes on the external monitor? is it do u have the sae performances as if u were playing on ur laptop or do u have some performance drops while playing on the external monitor?

i have a similar laptop to yours and want to get a monitor where i can play more comfortably is worth to get a monitor to game on?

thanks

memo

[Spork829]

On 4/30/2020 at 4:12 AM, memo321 said:

hi could u tell me what ur performances are on games u have testes on the external monitor? is it do u have the sae performances as if u were playing on ur laptop or do u have some performance drops while playing on the external monitor?

i have a similar laptop to yours and want to get a monitor where i can play more comfortably is worth to get a monitor to game on?

thanks

memo

Hi! Yes, once I changed the setting in the Nvidia control panel, the performance is the same as on the built-in display. Just make sure to get a monitor with the same resolution as your laptop (probably 1080p) and you should be good. Definitely worth it for the bigger screen!