Why are my displays using my integrated GPU and not my dedicated? How can I change this?

[GnatDaGnat]

So I have a Dell Inspiron laptop with an Intel Core i5 3230M, including the integrated Intel GD Graphics 4000 GPU. There is also a dedicated AMD Radeon HD 7730M. I have an Acer 1920x1080 LCD monitor that I use as my main display, as well as, of course, my laptop screen. The issue is that my displays are using the Intel HD Graphics, even though Device Manager is Control Panel lists both of the display adapters and in AMD Graphics Properties all settings are on Maximize Performance or whatever else tells it to use the better GPU. Why are my displays still using the integrated GPU? How do I change this? Also, are applications, such as games, using the same adapter as the displays are reportedly using (or can they use a separate one)? If they can use a separate one from the displays, but aren't, how do I change that?

Sorry if any of these questions sound stupid, I just don't have a great understanding of what constitutes the use of a display adapter by a display.

Thank you very much in advance.

[Sauron]

How do you know they are using the igpu? If all software reads them as powered by the dgpu that's probably what you are using.

[GnatDaGnat]

26 minutes ago, Sauron said:

How do you know they are using the igpu? If all software reads them as powered by the dgpu that's probably what you are using.

The attached image is from Speccy - the displays are not using the dgpu. Also, if I go to Device Manager and disable the Intel HD Graphics display adapter and not the AMD, my monitor quits working (but not my laptop screen, interestingly, though it does make the scaling and res all wonky).

[Sauron]

2 minutes ago, GnatDaGnat said:

The attached image is from Speccy - the displays are not using the dgpu. Also, if I go to Device Manager and disable the Intel HD Graphics display adapter and not the AMD, my monitor quits working (but not my laptop screen, interestingly, though it does make the scaling and res all wonky).

It's possible your computer simply switched the dgpu off when it's not needed to save battery. You can check if it's being used in game with msi afterburner

[Nord]

Its rather simple, if you have 2 graphic chips installed, the connector from the HDMI/DVI port can only go to one of them and in your case its connected to the iGPU because it is more engery effective. Therefore the iGPU is used to drive displays, both the notebook and any external one.

 

You can tell the system to use the dedicated GPU on "most" applications by (at least in case of Nivida) go to the controll panel of the dedicated GPU (usualy rightclick on desktop and Nvidia/AMD controll panel) and choose the dedicated GPU to be your preferable choice.

 

 

[GnatDaGnat]

3 minutes ago, Nord said:

Its rather simple, if you have 2 graphic chips installed, the connector from the HDMI/DVI port can only go to one of them and in your case its connected to the iGPU because it is more engery effective. Therefore the iGPU is used to drive displays, both the notebook and any external one.

 

You can tell the system to use the dedicated GPU on "most" applications by (at least in case of Nivida) go to the controll panel of the dedicated GPU (usualy rightclick on desktop and Nvidia/AMD controll panel) and choose the dedicated GPU to be your preferable choice.

 

 

I've done that before, no idea if it worked until..

 

11 minutes ago, Sauron said:

It's possible your computer simply switched the dgpu off when it's not needed to save battery. You can check if it's being used in game with msi afterburner

Opened Dota 2, dgpu usage skyrocketed up from 0 to 90's.. but the igpu still sat at the idle usage, about 5-15%, rather than to 0. This would be fine with me except after loading up Speccy and HWMonitor while Dota 2 was running, they both still said the displays were using Intel's gpu. HWMonitor didn't mention the AMD's existence whatsoever

Is it possible to tell my displays to use the Intel igpu?

[Sauron]

16 hours ago, GnatDaGnat said:

I've done that before, no idea if it worked until..

 

Opened Dota 2, dgpu usage skyrocketed up from 0 to 90's.. but the igpu still sat at the idle usage, about 5-15%, rather than to 0. This would be fine with me except after loading up Speccy and HWMonitor while Dota 2 was running, they both still said the displays were using Intel's gpu. HWMonitor didn't mention the AMD's existence whatsoever

Is it possible to tell my displays to use the Intel igpu?

If the dgpu is being used at all then that's what you're seeing, the igpu can't be completely turned off or when the display makes the transition back you'd see black screens and all sorts of nonsense. In general, the laptop will use the gpu that is best suited for the job without your intervention. If you want to force all applications to run on the igpu maybe you can set the dgpu to "off" in the bios, but that depends on the specific machine. I don't think there's a way to do it via software.

[Nord]

16 hours ago, GnatDaGnat said:

I've done that before, no idea if it worked until..

 

Opened Dota 2, dgpu usage skyrocketed up from 0 to 90's.. but the igpu still sat at the idle usage, about 5-15%, rather than to 0. This would be fine with me except after loading up Speccy and HWMonitor while Dota 2 was running, they both still said the displays were using Intel's gpu. HWMonitor didn't mention the AMD's existence whatsoever

Is it possible to tell my displays to use the Intel igpu?

You are virtually creating a problem where there isnt any and/or trying to change something that is ment to work that way and could, if at all, only be changed by phisically changing your hardware.

 

The iGPU will always be active and depending on how "good" it is and how much stuff you have running in windows that is rendered by it, its usage will be somewhere between 1 - 40% even if you play a game next to it. Since even then the windows stuff in the background needs to be rendered and since the rendering of the actual 3D Programm is now done by the D.GPU, there is no reason for the iGPU to change what it is currently doing, clock up/down or even free some memory as for itself, there is no increase or even change in workload, apart of that it has to forward the signal, maybe.

 

As I said, laptops are designed to work that way, if a game is not using your D.GPU it will sit at 0 or maybe 1% usage, if they are, the usage will go above that.

Think of it at some kind of SLI/Crossfire, just that one GPU is there to play games and the other, way weaker one is there for windows in the background and to deal with display outputs. Therefore, actually making your D.GPU very slighty faster as it doenst have to do that.

 

Programms will show you strange stuff because they are not ment to bother with those kind of things, since there is no use for it (maybe Aida64 would be able to figure it out but free programs most certainly not). Honestly figuring out if your PC uses the iGPU or D.GPU is as easy as looking at your FPS, if you have a, idk 970m and you get 30FPS in dota 2, it most certainly wont be using your D.GPU. Basically its as easy as this.

Or you'll just check the usage % and/or core/mem. clocks in afterburner...

 

Edit: same goes for whos driving the display(s), if you have to change stuff in the intel display driver to take effect, obviously its the iGPU, if you have to do it with the AMD panel, its obviously the d.GPU.

If you cant change who does what in either of those programms, you cant change it at all.

[GnatDaGnat]

4 hours ago, Sauron said:

If you want to force all applications to run on the igpu maybe you can set the dgpu to "off" in the bios, but that depends on the specific machine. I don't think there's a way to do it via software.

Don't you mean force all apps to run on dgpu and set igpu to off in bios? I'm assuming you do, just making sure

4 hours ago, Nord said:

You are virtually creating a problem where there isnt any and/or trying to change something that is ment to work that way and could, if at all, only be changed by phisically changing your hardware.

 

The iGPU will always be active and depending on how "good" it is and how much stuff you have running in windows that is rendered by it, its usage will be somewhere between 1 - 40% even if you play a game next to it. Since even then the windows stuff in the background needs to be rendered and since the rendering of the actual 3D Programm is now done by the D.GPU, there is no reason for the iGPU to change what it is currently doing, clock up/down or even free some memory as for itself, there is no increase or even change in workload, apart of that it has to forward the signal, maybe.

 

As I said, laptops are designed to work that way, if a game is not using your D.GPU it will sit at 0 or maybe 1% usage, if they are, the usage will go above that.

Think of it at some kind of SLI/Crossfire, just that one GPU is there to play games and the other, way weaker one is there for windows in the background and to deal with display outputs. Therefore, actually making your D.GPU very slighty faster as it doenst have to do that.

 

Programms will show you strange stuff because they are not ment to bother with those kind of things, since there is no use for it (maybe Aida64 would be able to figure it out but free programs most certainly not). Honestly figuring out if your PC uses the iGPU or D.GPU is as easy as looking at your FPS, if you have a, idk 970m and you get 30FPS in dota 2, it most certainly wont be using your D.GPU. Basically its as easy as this.

Or you'll just check the usage % and/or core/mem. clocks in afterburner...

 

Edit: same goes for whos driving the display(s), if you have to change stuff in the intel display driver to take effect, obviously its the iGPU, if you have to do it with the AMD panel, its obviously the d.GPU.

If you cant change who does what in either of those programms, you cant change it at all.

I see, I didn't know the iGPU had to stay the one managing display outputs; this clears it up. (though I guess I should have realized since it's pretty obvious the video port connects directly to the iGPU in the CPU through the mb, not the dedicated. Silly me.)

Thanks guys you've been very helpful

Edited May 2, 2016 by GnatDaGnat
spelling

[Sauron]

16 hours ago, GnatDaGnat said:

Don't you mean force all apps to run on dgpu and set igpu to off in bios? I'm assuming you do, just making sure

Well, you asked this:

On 5/1/2016 at 1:08 AM, GnatDaGnat said:

Is it possible to tell my displays to use the Intel igpu?

If you meant the dgpu then yeah, it's the other way around

[GnatDaGnat]

On 5/3/2016 at 9:17 AM, Sauron said:

Well, you asked this:

If you meant the dgpu then yeah, it's the other way around

Oh lol, yeah I meant dgpu

 

Thanks man