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.

    How to switch graphics card on xps 15z?

    Discussion in 'Dell XPS and Studio XPS' started by lovecd, Oct 26, 2011.

  1. lovecd

    lovecd Notebook Geek

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    85
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    Got my xps 15z this week, color is beautiful with 1080p resolution. However, the cpu fan is too noisy. Checked with comments from others, it seemed to me that turning off the turbo feature and switch the graphics to Intel HD may reduce this noise a bit, can anyone advise me how to do it, in bios setting?

    Thanks!
     
    lovecd, Oct 26, 2011
    #1
  2. Merranza

    Merranza Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    1
    Messages:
    121
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Never mind this message, fixed my problem :)
     
    Merranza, Oct 26, 2011
    #2
  3. lovecd

    lovecd Notebook Geek

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    85
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    Cpu fan noise? How did you fix it?
     
    lovecd, Oct 27, 2011
    #3
  4. Merranza

    Merranza Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    1
    Messages:
    121
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Nope, problem was I have a 1680x1050 external monitor and my games were way smoother and better performing on my external monitor than directly on my laptop display (even if I was setting my laptop display resolution at 1680x1050). I tried Deus Ex Human Revolution and the difference was stunning and way better on my external monitor. While reading on the subject, I realized someone said after installing NVidia's software it ran better and fixed all his problems. I had an m1530 before and used to install drivers directly from laptopvideo2go which gave me back in the days much better power. I had the same reflex for my 15z so I decided to give a try to the stock NVidia driver (directly from their website). It fixed all my problems and there are no difference at all now between my external monitor and my laptop display. Basically, laptopvideo2go drivers are no longer better for my video card than stock NVidia's ones.

    For fan noise, even when I select NVidia as my preferred/default video processor, fan ease off when not under stress. To really make sure it doesn't kick in uselessly I'd also suggest the auto-select option from the NVidia control panel and to create an .exe override for each of your games/programs you want to make sure NVidia takes over. There are absolutely no difference in terms of performance even if the NVidia gpu goes through intel.

    Overall though, fan noise seems pretty low and acceptable my laptop pretty much all time (unless I'm heavily gaming for sure which is 100% better than having my components fry up in there). My level of tolerance might be a higher than the average though and that might come from the fact the M1530 was absolutely terrible for fan noise :)
     
    Merranza, Oct 27, 2011
    #4