The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Disabling the graphic card on XPS 15 9550

    Discussion in 'Dell XPS and Studio XPS' started by ahfei, Jan 5, 2016.

  1. ahfei

    ahfei Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    32
    Likes Received:
    3
    Trophy Points:
    16
    Since I don't do gaming, can i just disable it from device manager? so that i have maximum battery life (I would remove it if possible!) I havent receive my laptop just asking in advanced.
     
    ahfei, Jan 5, 2016
    #1
  2. kent1146

    kent1146 Notebook Prophet

    Reputations:
    2,354
    Messages:
    4,449
    Likes Received:
    476
    Trophy Points:
    151
    It's as close as you're going to get to "disabling" it. By doing that, programs won't use that GPU, and won't cause it to clock-up and power-up.

    However, it still will be "on", and drawing power from your battery (albeit at much lower power than if it was actively being used). There isn't really a way to completely disable / power-off an internally connected device like that, unless there are very specific settings in the BIOS to do that.
     
    kent1146, Jan 5, 2016
    #2
  3. Quix Omega

    Quix Omega Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    78
    Messages:
    478
    Likes Received:
    3
    Trophy Points:
    31
    The low-power state it goes into draws very little power so it's close enough. There are no settings in the bios.
     
    Quix Omega, Jan 5, 2016
    #3
  4. Techland

    Techland Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    12
    Messages:
    158
    Likes Received:
    45
    Trophy Points:
    41
    And how does one know that the nVidia is in low power state and not used at all? Or in other words - when is it used? Any tool to find out?
     
    Techland, Jan 13, 2016
    #4
  5. ahfei

    ahfei Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    32
    Likes Received:
    3
    Trophy Points:
    16
    Update: Despite me disabled the 960 in Device Manager and uninstalled all the NVIDia drivers, after a few startup I believe the drivers will reinstall by itself and the 960 will enable itself. I suspect some setting need to be changed if I really want to permanently disabled it. Any suggestion?
     
    ahfei, Jan 20, 2016
    #5
  6. GoNz0

    GoNz0 Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    259
    Messages:
    3,947
    Likes Received:
    1,378
    Trophy Points:
    231
    Just use the nvidia control panel to set the preferred graphics processor to intel and be done with,
     
    GoNz0, Jan 20, 2016
    #6
  7. Rajveer

    Rajveer Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    123
    Likes Received:
    2
    Trophy Points:
    31
    I don't know if this is considered reliable, however when monitoring with HWiNFO I found that it didn't report any sensor values for the 960m unless it was being used. There is a Dell sensor which can read (and reports) the 960m's core temperature, however HWiNFO cannot get any sensor readings from the device itself. You can also set it to not wake sleeping GPUs during sensor polling.
     
    Rajveer, Jan 20, 2016
    #7
  8. GoNz0

    GoNz0 Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    259
    Messages:
    3,947
    Likes Received:
    1,378
    Trophy Points:
    231
    The whole point in optimus is to use one of the other, power saving is already done, as above no sensor values are recorded as it is turned off!
     
    GoNz0, Jan 20, 2016
    #8
    custom90gt likes this.
  9. watties436

    watties436 Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    1
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    I have got an old XPS L702X with Intel HD + Nvidia Gegorce GT555M i just tried disabling the Nvidia from Win 10 device manager. It basically kills any external monitor, the built-in notebook LCD still works.
     
    watties436, Dec 10, 2016
    #9
  10. John Ratsey

    John Ratsey Moderately inquisitive Super Moderator

    Reputations:
    7,197
    Messages:
    28,841
    Likes Received:
    2,170
    Trophy Points:
    581
    My understanding is that the recent Optimus architecture uses the dGPU as a graphics processor to supplement the iGPU. The iGPU still drives the displays even when the dGPU is running. Older Optimus configurations switched the whole graphics and it's possible that the Intel graphics didn't have the capability to drive external an external display (display resolution may also be a factor).

    John
     
    John Ratsey, Dec 10, 2016
    #10