Dell Inspiron graphics question

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Rickles

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#193566 15-Mar-2016 12:54

I have a Dell Inspiron 5459 (all-in-one) that came with additional graphics card/capability. The mother board carried standard Intel graphics chip, whilst the additional card is an NVidia.

Usually with a separate CPU box/desktop, the addition of a separate graphics card will over-ride the one on the motherboard, but under System Devices I can see both of the above and both are marked as 'working properly'.

There are also icons for both, and both appear to be able to change resolutions and other settings etc.

How do I know which graphics system is actually working?

wasabi2k

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#1513745 15-Mar-2016 14:31

Laptops with dual graphics use vendor specific tech to direct what runs where.

Nvidia calls it Optimus, AMD calls it Enduro - the tech is known as switchable graphics.

Both are controlled from software - the control panel for the grunty card - so make sure you have the latest drivers installed for BOTH cards - you will probably have to use the drivers supplied by Dell as generic ones from Nvidia/AMD often don't work.

You then set what GPU you want an app to run, or whether to decide based on power savings.

edit: some laptops had a bios or physical switch to permanently set them one way or another. I haven't seen any like this recently.

Rickles

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#1513756 15-Mar-2016 14:45

Thanks Jeff.

>the tech is known as switchable graphics.<

I did notice that one of the settings was for either card/chip, or "auto-select" .... NVidia calls it PhysX

>Both are controlled from software<

Oh joy

>make sure you have the latest drivers installed for BOTH cards - you will probably have to use the drivers supplied by Dell as generic ones from Nvidia/AMD often don't work.<

Yep, did that this morning ... Dell has a very good web site that auto identifies ones' machine and proffered up both NVidia and Intel graphics driver updates.

>some laptops had a bios or physical switch to permanently set them one way or another. I haven't seen any like this recently.<

Same here, and I've been used to checking BIOS for just that sort of thing.

Rickles

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#1537564 21-Apr-2016 15:49

ANOTHER QUESTION .... is anyone using similar machine.

If I connect an HDMI input device, how do I switch to view from that device ?