How to enable Nvidia GPU instead of Intel HD?

[Sljepak]

Hello guys. I have this Lenovo laptop my dad gave me 2 years ago. It had 2 GPU stickers, one Intel HD. Another is about an NVIDIA GPU. I checked the DxDiag of my laptop and it didn't said anything about an Nvidia driver so I thought probably the sticker was just a mistake. However for the past 5(?) weeks my laptop keeps telling me about an update of my Nvidia driver. I just installed them. However today while I was fiddling around the device manager, under the display adapter tab was Intel HD 3000 AND Nvidia GeForce GT 540M! It was disabled so I enabled it. However when double clicked it Window says it has some problems so they stopped it. Also whenever I try to launch the Nvidia tray setting it says You are display is not attached to an NVIDIA GPU. So anyone can help? I'm using my laptop for like 75% gaming and 25% work :P. My gaming experience on the HD 3000 was horrible( I can only dream of getting 40 FPS while playing :/) Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[Bad 💀 Motha]

NVIDIA Control Panel > Manage 3D Settings > Preferred GPU > Set to NVIDIA GPU > Apply.

On that same page, scroll down to Power Management > Set to Prefer Max Performance > Apply

In Windows, go o to Control Panel > Power Options. If all you see is Power Saver and Balanced, below these should be an arrow icon pointing down, click this, then click on the High Performance profile.

Enjoy!

[Sljepak]

I tried to access the Control Panel but it says You are not currently using a display attached to an NVIDIA GPU

Also in the device manager the GPU is listed as not working(code 43)

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Try updating the GPU Display Drivers.

First I would uninstall the NVIDIA Drivers, reboot when asked, then uninstall the Intel HD Drivers, reboot when asked.

After this install the latest Intel HD GPU Display Drivers.
Download the .EXE version, not .ZIP
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=23377&lang=eng&OSVersion=Windows%207%20(64-bit)*&DownloadType=%0A%09%09%09%09%09%09%09Drivers%0A%09%09%09%09%09%09

Run this as Admin. Reboot when asked.

Then install latest NVIDIA GPU Display Drivers:
http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/73784/en-us

Run this as Admin. Reboot when asked.


If after this you still have (Code 43) on your NVIDIA GPU in Device Manager, it is most likely defective.

[Sljepak]

What happens if I uninstalled Intel first? I accidentally did that and when I uninstalled Nvidia strangely it didn't ask me to reboot.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Should be ok.

When u reinstall the NVIDIA drivers however, select CUSTOM and on the selection listing, click the box for "Perform Clean Install"

If after uninstalling either NVIDIA or Intel GPU drivers it does not ask to reboot, should be fine, but it usually does do this. I would suggest rebooting however before u reinstall such drivers.

[Sljepak]

Alright. After I did what you said (except for the order of uninstallation) I tried to launch Nvidia control panel however it says it has stopped working :/. Ill try to do it again.

Update is not working. might try to download from the lenovo website instead of nvidias :/.

[SilentHorizon]

You have what is called NVIDIA OPTIMUS, optimus is a automated gpu switching system designed to give you the performance when you want it and the battery life when you need it. You can't force the gpu on either because of how the system works, but you should be fine because the gt 540m will automatically enable itself when a gpu heavy task is launched.

Anyways, that was just if you didn't know how it worked. I would do what all the other people on this thread are telling you, since those are the only solutions I can think of.

[Sljepak]

Yes I have the Optimus however it doesn't work as of now. I already enabled the GPU switch on my laptop. Will try to see if it's a hardware failure.

[SilentHorizon]

So in the nvidia control panel, you set up the programs you want to use the nvidia gpu on?

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Wait hold up...

Your laptop is one that has an external switch allowing u to switch between Power Saving Intel GPU and Performance NVIDIA GPU? aka "Optimus" switch?

If this is correct then u can not use drivers provided by Intel or NVIDIA as far as your GPUs are concerned. You must uninstall those and get the Intel+NVIDIA Optimus Drivers from your laptop makers website.

[SilentHorizon]

Your correct bad-moutha. But there are no special optimus drivers for optimus laptops since the intel igp and nvidia notebook drivers already support optimus.


I have a optimus laptop and there is no such thing as a optimus driver.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

U are confused, but it's ok.

What is the full model# of your laptop, I will find the correct drivers.

This info should be on a sticker on the bottom of the laptop, or located on a sticker within the battery compartment area.

[SilentHorizon]

İlk olarak Bad-Motha tarafından gönderildi:

U are confused, but it's ok.

What is the full model# of your laptop, I will find the correct drivers.

This info should be on a sticker on the bottom of the laptop, or located on a sticker within the battery compartment area.

Yeah sorry, trying not to start a flame war. If I can avoid it. :D

[Bad 💀 Motha]

It's basically like this...

If your laptop model is one where u have a switch on it as a means of being able to change GPUs, then this requires a special Intel+NVIDIA Driver Package from the laptop maker. These drivers were specially designed to work with the switch and are coded together as a single driver pack.

If you laptop does not have such a switch, then it uses an internal means of switching GPUs, which is completely controlled by software logic. For these they can support the standalone mobile drivers offered by Intel and NVIDIA, separately.


My 2010 Alienware M11xR1 which has Intel HD 2000 series GPU + NVIDIA 350M series GPU had a manual Optimus switch on it. Because of this u could not use standalone mobile drivers from Intel/NVIDIA, instead u had to get drivers from Dell/Alienware for this.

My 2012 Alienware M11xR3 which has Intel HD 3000 series GPU + NVIDIA 540M series GPU does not have this switch, and thus you can utilize the separate mobile drivers offered from Intel/NVIDIA. These drivers are independent of one another and are not hard-linked.

[SilentHorizon]

Oh ok. So your talking about a multiplexer which was the old way of gpu switching.