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    Graphics - Disabling nVidia and use Intel, how?

    Discussion in 'Dell XPS and Studio XPS' started by 80sGuy, Nov 28, 2011.

  1. 80sGuy

    80sGuy Notebook Consultant

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    Is there a way to disable the dedicated nVidia GT550 card on the XPS 17? Some of you might asks why did I purchase it then? Well, I didn't, the particular model I bought came with it and costs way less than a few that I'd tried configuring without it, so in a sense it was a bonus. The thing is I'm not too fond of dedicated graphics cards, I had one on an HP before and it failed making my whole laptop useless, literally! Also, I don't want my system to be 'gpu intensive' which will probably generate more heat than it should, we all know that heat is the number one culprit for killing laptops!

    I read about the Optimus feature, according to some of the guys from Dell community, the feature seemed to work erratically or nVidia is not doing enough to support it. Has anyone here tried disabling or just simply turned it on/off without the aid of Optimus? What are the options?
     
    80sGuy, Nov 28, 2011
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  2. zjacobss

    zjacobss Notebook Consultant

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    Go to nvidia control panel> manage 3d settings and set prefered graphics processor to integrated graphics, this way it will never use the Nvidia GPU.
     
    zjacobss, Nov 28, 2011
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  3. 80sGuy

    80sGuy Notebook Consultant

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    Great, even though my unit isn't 3-D it would still show the setting?
     
    80sGuy, Nov 28, 2011
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  4. zjacobss

    zjacobss Notebook Consultant

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    Yes, The 3D settings in the Nvidia control panel is for the graphics.
     
    zjacobss, Nov 28, 2011
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  5. basic89

    basic89 Notebook Geek

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    The 3D settings mean any rendering of 3D type of gaming IE a game or video that has graphics higher than 2D. Now adays people think 3D as the gimmicky eye tricking shows you see at the movies but its been called 3D gaming for years on games that put your character or perspective in a world you can "view" in 3 demensions.

    There is a general setting on the NVIDIA control panel to always use the CPU listed as "intergrated graphics" for graphics but if you game any real "3D" games COD, WOW, or anything like that the GPU will make game play way smoother than soley using the CPU.
     
    basic89, Nov 29, 2011
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  6. 80sGuy

    80sGuy Notebook Consultant

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    ^I'm not a gamer at all and don't have any games. I'll use the dedicated card from time to time say -- maybe watching a Blu-ray or something. My primary use for the computer is acvhd video editing but other than that it's normally gonna be used for web browsing and e-mail.
     
    80sGuy, Nov 29, 2011
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  7. Harry1994

    Harry1994 Notebook Guru

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    im think that video editing uses the graphics card so by not using it would be bad, not 100% sure though.
     
    Harry1994, Nov 30, 2011
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  8. pjcronje

    pjcronje Notebook Geek

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    pjcronje, Nov 30, 2011
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  9. 80sGuy

    80sGuy Notebook Consultant

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    Some software I use such as Sony Vegas supports GPU-Acceleration, so it may or may not be feasible to me. Also, video rendering/transcoding is VERY CPU intensive so the amount of RAM also plays big a part, if not most. Dell's feature with Intel's QuickSync was another reason why I wanted to switch off integrated graphics.
     
    80sGuy, Nov 30, 2011
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