Force using GPU, ignore APU

Yup yup!

First of all, I hope this is the correct thread for the question. I'm new here and couldn't find any other questions on here that answered my question.
My device is an Aspire F15 F5-573G
i5-7200u
GTX950m (4GB)
RAM upgraded to 16GB G.Skill Ripsaw

I'd like to use Geforce ShadowPlay to capture my desktop but it I'm missing the "Privacy" settings for it. I've been researching online and found out that some people had the problem because they had "Optimus" or "MS hybrid switch graphics" activated in their bios. By disabling it, the laptop only uses the dedicated GPU and all programs run on it.
I tried forcing running all programs with the GPU in the NVidia Control Panel which didn't resolve my issue.
I checked the BIOS for any options to force the GPU but I couldn't find any.
I formatted my drives around 1.5 weeks ago.

Thanks in advance

Accepted answers

aphanic

I see, do you want that permanently? What about disabling the device in Device Manager?

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/5h/xx105k20ky9c.png

All comments

aphanic

locomoco said:
I tried forcing running all programs with the GPU in the NVidia Control Panel which didn't resolve my issue.

Assuming you're running the latest version of Windows 10, Microsoft has changed the way to setup the per-application GPU, it may override the settings at the NVIDIA Control Panel.

Check at Settings -> System -> Display -> Graphic settings (it's a text link at the bottom of that page) -> Graphics performance preference. Use that area to setup which programs you want running on which card, disabling Optimus isn't really interesting.

locomoco

aphanic said:

locomoco said:
I tried forcing running all programs with the GPU in the NVidia Control Panel which didn't resolve my issue.

Assuming you're running the latest version of Windows 10, Microsoft has changed the way to setup the per-application GPU, it may override the settings at the NVIDIA Control Panel.

Check at Settings -> System -> Display -> Graphic settings (it's a text link at the bottom of that page) -> Graphics performance preference. Use that area to setup which programs you want running on which card, disabling Optimus isn't really interesting.

Thanks for the reply!
I know about that setting. I use the NVidia Control Panel and the graphics settings together.
But that's not my problem. I want Windows to only know about the GTX950m. It shouldn't ever use the Intel HD Graphics

aphanic

I see, do you want that permanently? What about disabling the device in Device Manager?

locomoco

aphanic said:

I see, do you want that permanently? What about disabling the device in Device Manager?

Hey, I'm sorry for the late reply

I just tried it and it kinda worked. The image quality of my laptop was even much sharper! But unfortunately my HDMI output stopped working even after restarting my laptop... My main monitor is plugged in via HDMI and my laptop is just sitting beside

Any idea why that might be and how I could get it working?

Kind Regards
Eren

aphanic

locomoco said:

[...] unfortunately my HDMI output stopped working even after restarting my laptop... My main monitor is plugged in via HDMI and my laptop is just sitting beside
Any idea why that might be and how I could get it working?

Kind Regards
Eren

Huh, it's possible that the HDMI is hardwired to the Intel card so when the output goes through that port it's the Intel card that processes it. Maybe not the graphics part (e.g. you could be running a game in the dedicated card and still output through HDMI), but it seems it needs to be enabled for the image to go through.

It seems to corroborate what I have here, under "Sound, video and game controllers" I have an "Intel(R) Display Audio", but nothing related to the NVIDIA dedicated card.

People using OBS also have trouble when broadcasting on laptops with 2 cards: https://obsproject.com/wiki/Laptop-Troubleshooting

locomoco

aphanic said:

locomoco said:

[...] unfortunately my HDMI output stopped working even after restarting my laptop... My main monitor is plugged in via HDMI and my laptop is just sitting beside
Any idea why that might be and how I could get it working?

Kind Regards
Eren

Huh, it's possible that the HDMI is hardwired to the Intel card so when the output goes through that port it's the Intel card that processes it. Maybe not the graphics part (e.g. you could be running a game in the dedicated card and still output through HDMI), but it seems it needs to be enabled for the image to go through.

It seems to corroborate what I have here, under "Sound, video and game controllers" I have an "Intel(R) Display Audio", but nothing related to the NVIDIA dedicated card.

People using OBS also have trouble when broadcasting on laptops with 2 cards: https://obsproject.com/wiki/Laptop-Troubleshooting

Yeah I was thinking that the HDMI output might be only for the APU and the GPU is only rendering the stuff. It's just that my game uses all the CPU resources it can and my GPU has a little bit less work to do so I thought it might be helpful to turn off the APU...
The OBS issue is fixed with the first tip you gave me using the Graphics Settings of Windows 10 ^-^
That's pretty unfortunate. Guess I have to save up for a proper desktop PC then. Thanks for the suggestion though

aphanic

locomoco said:

Yeah I was thinking that the HDMI output might be only for the APU and the GPU is only rendering the stuff. It's just that my game uses all the CPU resources it can and my GPU has a little bit less work to do so I thought it might be helpful to turn off the APU...
The OBS issue is fixed with the first tip you gave me using the Graphics Settings of Windows 10 ^-^
That's pretty unfortunate. Guess I have to save up for a proper desktop PC then. Thanks for the suggestion though

Yes, it's unfortunate, at least we learned something too, it can't be done as of now, who knows what the future hold

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