R2 - How can I tell which GPU is being used?

Hey everyone,
Does anyone know of an application or setting that would allow me to check which GPU is being utilized at any given time. This is mainly for me to ensure that when i am poking around online, that my 335 isnt draining my battery and that optimus is doing its job despite even though I have everything set on High Performance and powermizer disabled. Thanks in advance

 

You can just add the program to run under nvidia GT 335m ...by going into the control panel

 

Although this would ensure that chrome runs off the intel GPU, its still a step towards having me do most of what Optimus is supposed to do on its own, but I would still like to be able to either have an indicator of which is being used or a setting or value i can lookup somewhere to tell me which is being used.

 

When the fan spins its the nvidia card. ?

 

I think the upcoming drivers from Nvidia will fix this, but right now I dont think there's any official way unless you use beta drivers.

 

search for optimus tools on this forum, and you'll get a program to see when it's running and which program caused it to.

 

I wish my fan spun fast/loud enough to hear. How do you guys hear your fans?
My gpu/cpu are running high 40's -> mid 50's depend on where/how I am using the lappy, yet I never hear the fan really get loud enough to hear... Maybe I am just used to my desktop machine(ie. wind tunnel) with the nvidia 480 card's fan on 80% lol.

To answer OP's questions, the beta drivers have an option in the nvidia control panel to allow an icon to pop up in the status bar to show when the 335 is on(apparently, I only hear this I am using dells driver), and corw has pointed you in the right way too. Search Optimus tools for more info.

 

If you are using drivers with a version lower than 258.96 you can use the Optimus Test Tools. 258.96 comes with a utility much like the Optimus Test Tools built in to show when the Nvidia GPU is in use. You can find more information on how to install 258.96 on the M11xR2 here.

 

Nautis - Thanks for the utility. I found out that any flash makes my 335 kick in even though the parent program (chrome) is whitelisted to use the integrated Intel GPU

 

Hmm, after running the GPU state viewer i have found out that my NVIDIA GPU is either bouncing between off and Idle or completely in idle while performing just about everything, but the test tool will not show the idle or off states but will rather just show them as off and then will only say on when flash or a 3d app is running. Any thoughts?

 

i have mention this many times in this forum already. this is because you are on flash 10.1. video acceleration via nvidia is a "FEATURE". unless you revert back to version 10. you will no longer get acceleration be it you add into whitelist or not. this is not a bug to begin with

I shall include link this time!

FLAWLESS FLASH VIDEO

 

Flash 10.1 does not require acceleration from the 335 and it is not something you want when you're running on battery. The Intel HD IGP is perfectly capable of smooth Flash 1080p video playback.

I've white listed Firefox's plugin-container.exe file, setting it to run with the IGP and this has kept the 335 from taking over Flash video playback.

EDIT: I've just added IE8 to the white list and forced it to the IGP as well. That's what you want. There is no reason for having the 335 take over for something that the IGP is perfectly capable of handling.

 

i didnt say 10.1 "needed" 335m to accelerate. please read the post properly again before you quote me and put words in my mouth. i clearly only just said that the reason why 335m is being triggered is because of flash 10.1 which incorporate the video acceleration. and for ppl who encounter 335m being trigger when running Flash and they are on version 10.1 is not a bug. its meant to be that way. fyi any driver version prior to 258.96 in firefox even with flash 10.1 will not trigger the 335m (for optimus case only). even if you attempt to add firefox in white list it wont trigger either. this is what i call a bug as its not working as intended. thats why i have posted the official link to show the flash 10.1 acceleration. this has nothing to do its necessary or not but its just work that way! as I have said reverting back to older flash 10 even if you whitelist to enable 335m it wont come on either since that is not supported that way!

another thing. maybe its for you but i didnt choose to disable it. or maybe my machine sux then. i never manage to let flash video play smoothly on battery with anything 720p and up when in power saving mode for flash video. maybe things will be better if i choose to run on balance/high performance. but that will further drain the battery which imo really stupid. as when i am not running flash video it takes battery more than usual. so i rather stick with optimus to let it run with 335m for the acceleration when i need to run hd video automatically while other time 335m will be switch off. and i am always on power saving mode to keep the battery going on other task or even idling. maybe for you in power saving mode it works well with hd video on flash but definitely not for my case. so its NOT something you want but its something that i NEED

 

I didn't mean to mis-characterize what you were saying about Nvidia accelerated Flash. Your comments in this thread and others on the subject seemed indicate that people should be okay with the 335 taking over when Flash content is played back. I agree, that's fine when you're plugged in. People are asking how to make sure that the 335 would not turn on for Flash playback and I'm simply saying that's a) doable in the Nvidia Control Panel and b) going to work fine when they're concerned about conserving battery life.

On my R2 Flash video playback in FF, on battery, in power saver mode, IGP, 720p is perfectly smooth.

My discharge rate while watching 720p full screen with the 335 turned off averaged -21mW. Same video with the 335 turned on and the discharge rate averaged -25mW. Not a whole lot of difference, and admittedly less than I would have thought really, but it is a difference. In both cases the stream was fully downloaded in order to remove wifi data from the equation. Again, playback was equally smooth with or without the 335.

I tested with YouTube - God of War 3 (III) - HD (720p) New Extended Trailer and YouTube - Star Trek Trailer 3 HD 720p