how to check if my video card is integrated or dedicated? i have an m17x with vista

hello everyone i have an m17x that i just got and it has windows vista that im not familiar with and i cant find how to see if i got two video cards or not "integrated"

i looked in my display settings and it says something about integrated but i dont know where to find it, here is a picture of my display settings, what do you guys think? do i only have one video card that is 256mb? i thought it would be 1gb

 

You have the R1 so you have both an integrated GPU and one or two dedicated GPU's..

The M17x does not come with only a single integrated GPU.

To check, reboot your M17x and when the alien head appears press F2 repeatedly then go into graphics options and enable hybrid graphics to have both the integrated and dedicated GPU(s) enabled at the same time or turn off hybrid and integrated in the bios to just use the dedicated cards.

EDIT: I don't mean to sound rude or anything, but for future reference, if you don't know anything about computers you should really do your research before you buy so you understand exactly what you are buying what you are getting and what you can do with it.

PS: Did you buy this from Dell or Ebay?

 

dell sent me this for a replacement but i see its the not same stats as my other one. the processor of my old was 2.4 and this one is 2.0ghz so i was wondering what else is on here thats not the same as my old one. i know my old video card was 1gb and this one says 256mb so thats why im trying to find out about this integrated GPU stuff.


also if i chance those setting in BOIS would it run better or the same? im hoping everything is set up to give the best performance but im not sure

edit: i just went to my BOIS to see what its set to and its
hybrid graphics - Disabled
integrated graphic - enabled
PCIE - enabled
ASPM - Disabled

 

To enable your dedicated cards you can do one of two things, in the bios set Hybrid graphics to enabled - it will let you have both your integrated GPU and dedicated GPU(s) enabled at the same time, or you can turn both Hybrid graphics off and integrated graphics off, and it will let you run with only your dedicated GPU(s).

It will run better with the dedicated GPU(s) enabled. After you change those settings I told you to change in the bios, click on the start menu then go to control panel then go to device manager then click on display adapters and you should see your dedicated card(s) there.

 

i thank you i will do that later tonight when i get home from work, why wasnt that selected in the first place if that actually makes the computer run better?

is there any speed test out there for computer performance? to see if changing that setting makes a big difference or not, i really wouldn't know if it did or not this thing is already way faster then my old HP computers

 

If you turned your new M17x on while it was only on battery it will automatically switch to the integrated GPU only, to save battery life. My guess is when you first got it, you turned it on before you plugged it into the wall.

 

no actually i didnt because when i got it i had problems with the battery, it was fully DEAD and it wouldnt turn on, but when i plugged it in it turned on but it didnt detect the battery, i had to talk to a dell support guy and he had to do remote assistance to fix the problem

 

Murkr you may find these KB posts interesting:

What is HybridSLI?

What is Stealth mode? (Alienware M17x mobile system)

Why is my M17x not detecting its discrete video card(s)?

Also reference the M17x General Information Sticky - Post#1 as there are several answers to common problems listed there.

Manuals for the M17x can be found here:
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/M17x/

 

awesome thank you, very helpful

UPDATE: i just enabled that in bois now in the device manager says i have 3
geforce 9400m g
geforce GTX 260m
geforce GTX 260m


the geforce GTX 260m is listed twice does that mean i have two of those?

now how do i find out the stats of each? i just want to know if its 512mb, or 1GB, or 2GB altogether now??

 

Yes it means you have 2. Each of the 260m's have 1024MB but they do not combine for SLi. Also right click computer then select properties to check your cpu, the only cpu i know that comes at 2.0ghz is the q9000 which is a 2.0ghz quad core not a 2.4ghz dual core. which this is in fact an upgrade.

 

Yes and they are 1gb each so no worries everything is fine.

 

wow your good thats correct, my old CPU was a "Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 2.4ghz" and this new one is a "intel core(TM) 2 quad CPU Q9000 @ 2.0 ghz"

so thats an upgrade? is it a big upgrade or small? i see the new one says "2" quad, that doesnt mean 2 quads right?

PS: since i changed those setting in BIOS an enabled the SLI im getting a small problem, when the computer starts up and when starting some programs the screen goes black for a second and it looks like it actually turns off but it turns back on in a second or two, it only happens when turning on, is this normal? i just dont want things getting worse, iv already had bad luck with my previous m17x and it was repaired three times and they didnt fix it so they replaced it

EDITED: i just noticed something i am looking in my "performance information" on my new computer and the stats are lower then the old computer which it should be the other way around, the only thing i can think that would effect that is my new computer has vista while the old one has windows 7

the new computer which has all upgraded parts has these stats, an remember this is on vista:
processor: 5.8
memory (ram): 5.9
graphics: 5.9
gaming graphics: 5.9
primary hard disk: 5.9

the older one that replaced this should be less then those numbers above but they arnt, remember though now its graded on windows 7
processor: 6.0
memory (ram): 5.9
graphics: 5.2
gaming graphics: 4.4
primary hard disk: 5.9

is vista and windows 7 the same grading scale?

 

quad core is an big upgrade, i'd never go for a core2duo for the R1 anyways.

 

what do you mean by R1? im sorry that probably such a noob question

 

How does this work in the m17x-R2 if I want to turn the "integrated graphics off" and just have the Dual 1GB ATI Radeon™ Mobility HD 4870 running in CrossFireX? I want them running in CrossfireX but i dont want the Integrated graphics on at all.

 

There isn't an integrated graphics card in R2. The chipset doesn't support it.

 

R1= M17x without i7 processors. R2 is the new revision of M17x with i7 processors.

 

Really, the M17xR2 doesnt have inteagrated graphics? So no stealth mode? Should I cut myself now or later? I would never use the integrated graphics, but your supposed to add features, not take them away.

 

i got a quick question, after i enabled SLI in BOIS there was a icon at the bottom right hand corner that would tell me that its in SLI mode and performing better.

BUT sometimes when the computer has to be crashed "hold down the on/off button" and when i turn it back on the setting are changed and its back to before i enabled SLI.

how do i get it to stay those setting in BOIS without having to change them so much