Cant Disable Integrated GPU in BIOS, Help?

Hey. I just recently purchased an Acer Aspire 5560G-SB448 for my girlfriend.
The product page boasted an A8-3500M with an integrated 6620G GPU as well as dedicated Radeon HD 6650M GPU.

The problem is, I cant seem to get any of my games to utilize the Radeon HD 6650M.

They all seem to be using the integrated graphics.

Ive tried going into the BIOS to switch from the integrated GPU to the dedicated, but it only gives me two options, integrated and switchable graphics.

Ive tried using the switchable graphics option through AMD's "Vision ENGINE Catalyst Control Center". Supposedly, you can designate which GPU certain programs use. But unfortunately, this does not seem to work at all. It gives you two options. A program can use "Power Saving" graphics (Integrated GPU) or you can set it to "High Performance" graphics (dedicated Radeon HD card), but even if I set, say, Skyrim to "High Perfomance" graphics, it still uses only the integrated.

Ive even tried updating the BIOS, and every other AMD or Acer drive. No luck.

At this point Im been wondering if maybe I should just disable the integrated graphics through the device manager, but then again, Im not sure if the Radeon HD 6650M card would kick into gear, or if my screen would just go black. I dont want to screw up her laptop a day after recieving it, lol.

This is really disappointing, considering the main reason I purchased this laptop was because of the graphics capabilities, but apparently it turned out to be pretty much bull.

Can anyone help me out? Thanks.

 

Did you make any test to confirm that 6650 isn't working.
3DMark score would be pretty conclusive.

I think this notebook uses Dual Graphics meaning both cards are used when it's set to high performance.

Run a 3DMark test with the notebook set to both power saving and performance and let's see if there's any difference.

 

Thanks for the reply.

I took your advice, and I did three 3DMark 11 tests.
One with settings on "Power Saving" mode.
One with settings on "High Performance" mode.
And one with settings on High Performance, but I also enabled Dual graphics, where the integrated and the discrete are supposed to work together.

Interestingly enough, I got the exact same results on power saving mode and high performance mode, which leaves me to believe that either high performance mode doesnt make a difference at all, or my radeon card just isnt being utilized. My result for these tests was P1217 3DMarks.

But with dual graphics enabled, there was a increase in performance I noticed, although not a huge one. So something must be going on. My results for that test were P1685 3DMarks.

So Im not sure what to make of this.

For instance, I have the same processor as the user in this video ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oF-DWaXU73Q), but I have more ram, and a better discrete graphics card. Yet they can get playable FPS in Skyrim (even while recording with Fraps), but I cant even manage high FPS on low settings.

 

I can tell you for sure that your discrete card was working both tests- both P1217 and P1685 are unachievable for integrated cards.

Take a look here- average 3DMark11 score for HD6550 is 1100.

So your card is working (at least in 3DMark11). It's more likely that you have issues with Skyrim and that's something worth working on.

 

Hmm, I see that it says the max 3DMark points achievable for a 6650M is 1444.
Seeing as how I got 1600+ points, I suppose this means that both of them are being used.

But what I cant understand is why the power saving and high performance options make no difference?

Well, I suppose I'll have to figure out why Skyrim isnt working properly with my GPU.

 

I looked for videos of people playing games using the 6650M and getting good fps, so I tried to play the same games and see how I compared.

For each one, I still got very very low FPS on the lowest of settings.

I dont know whats going on. I guess I just dont understand why my hardware produces slower results. Obviously the amount of ram and processor speed play a part, but so far in each video Ive seenmy specs have been the same or very close (usually mine are better actually).

Lastly, NotebookCheck states that my integrated graphics performance "should be on a level of a Mobility Radeon HD 5650 graphics card. Therefore, modern 3D games of 2011 should run fluently in medium to high details in 1366x768.". Again this is not the case.

Maybe Im missing something...? Im not very tech savvy, but I dont think Im really getting anything wrong here.
Maybe I should just do a factory reset and start from scratch. :/

 

The part of your integrated card being on pair with HD5650 is admittedly a bit far fetched.
Is it possible that your GPU automatically detects known 3D applications and switches to 3D mode?
If your drivers had been released prior to Skyrim being released it may mean Skyrim is nor recognized by drivers. That would mean you'd have to either manually add the game/switch to 3D mode or simply update the drivers.
(it's speculation on my part- I haven't yet tested this new switchable/dual graphics)

I would make sure Skyrim is up to date (there were 4 updated already if I'm not mistaken) and I'd try to locate more recent GPU drivers. Don't count on Acer- try to locate more recent modified drivers or drivers for an Acer notebook that have been released after yours.