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I've got a new Dell XPS 15 (L502x) with an NVIDIA GeForce 540M, Intel Core i7Q 2.2 Ghz, and Crucial RealSSD hard drive. As with most laptops with NVIDIA cards these days, it's got the "Optimus" feature, which switches between the integrated Intel HD graphics and the much more powerful NVIDIA card seamlessly, with the goal of providing better battery life.

I assumed when I bought this laptop that there would be certain common sense options, such as the ability to use only the NVIDIA card when on A/C power, and/or the ability to force usage of one card or the other. It appears that either I was wrong, or I just can't figure out how to do it.

I want to know how to configure Optimus in such a way that the NVIDIA card is always used for all tasks, including the Windows desktop/Aero. I'm not satisfied with the performance of the Intel card, so I'd like to bypass it completely. I'm aware that due to the hardware configuration of these cards, the Intel hardware cannot simply be disabled, but I'd like the NVIDIA card to be doing all the work. I've dug through both the NVIDIA Control Panel and the Intel settings program, without finding any clues how to do this. I've done a lot of googling on the subject, but found little of use.

Things I have tried so far:

  • Checked in the BIOS for an option to use one video card or the other exclusively; no such option exists.

  • Updated the BIOS, with no effect.

  • Set Nvidia Control Panel to use the Nvidia GPU as the default device.

  • Tried forcing dwm.exe to run on the NVIDIA GPU via the NVIDIA control panel, with the goal of getting Aero to render on the NVIDIA GPU. There appears to be a special exception for this program, as the drop-down box for GPU selection is grayed out and set to "Integrated Graphics":

    NVIDIA control panel hates dwm.exe

  • Tried forcing older, pre-Optimus drivers on the card; no success.

Any suggestions are very welcome, but please don't answer that I shouldn't be looking to disable Optimus!

Kale Muscarella
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BogStandard
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8 Answers8

36

Short answer: It doesn't "switch" and you can't disable the Intel IGP.

Long answer: From a hardware point of view the Intel IGP is always handling image output to the laptop's LCD screen. The NVIDIA GPU copies rendered graphics into the Intel IGP's frame buffer (which resides in system memory) when it is active. The Optimus software makes certain programs use the GPU based on the loaded profiles and user settings. It currently does not support running the OS desktop compositing on the GPU.

enter image description here

See the Optimus White Paper for more details.

Brian
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4

I am not familiar with this particular laptop, but there is very often an option in the BIOS to specify either Optimus graphics, or to force either the Intel or Nvidia card to be dominant. That would completely disable the one chipset.

Shinrai
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3

I don't understand why DWM is different from any other 3D application, and hence why it has to be special.

It's a bit painful, but you might want to take a look at where all this information is stored (it might be in the C:\ProgramData\NVIDIA Corporation\Drs folder) and then try modifying it with a hex editor to see if you can enable the combo box.

If you're into programming, you could also try forcing the drop-down menu to be enabled by (1) getting the window handle to the combo box, and (2) calling EnableWindow on it, although in my experience this doesn't always work.

user541686
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2

Optimus CAN be disabled in the BIOS, only problem is you need to UNLOCK the default BIOS.

I have an Alienware and unlocked the A08 BIOS, and there you can disable the IGP. I only run on NVIDIA and it is much smoother now.

slhck
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Notso
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1

You might have a look at this patch to the Nvidia drivers : Hybrid PhysX mod v1.03 / v1.04ff, which seems to be related to your problem. Better read the comments as well.

Towards the end, one comment confirms v1.04ff as working for version 270.61 that you are using.

If you decide to try it out, first take some good backups.

harrymc
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0

Go to Global Settings tab and select to use Nvidia Card as preferred device. This was the first thing I did for my notebook and had no problems with it. If that's not working, you've probably have wrong drivers. Try to clean your system from old drivers using DriverSweeper, and then install the recommended drivers from your DELL website

Dmitriy
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0

I found a solution! Follow these steps:

  1. In the Start menu search box, type hdmi and click Connect to an external display
  2. Click the Detect button at the top of the window
  3. The Display drop down menu will say: 1. Name of your display - available (GPU) - available intel chipset. Click on the available (GPU).
  4. Click Apply.

It should work on the GPU now. I used @Fopedush's answer to figure this out.

Gareth
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Jonathan Chan
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-2

I don't know if this actually works but try Settings > Global setting to nvidia gpu. This again doesn't bypass the intel graphics completely but rather tells the OS to dump all it display related job to the card.

Personally speaking I don't recommend dumping all the work to the gpu because it reduces the overall life of the card as well as generate a load of heat. I noticed the fan running faster. And the sides of the laptop get more hotter than normal. Also battery life has reduced to half.

Sathyajith Bhat
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rohan
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