Problem with switching from Intel HD Graphics to Nvidia Geforce

first sorry for my bad english, i'm german..



i got the XPS 15 L501X since about 2 month and everything works fine but.. yesterday i recognized that there are two graphic cards inside the notebook - a 'intel hd graphics' and a 'nvidia geforce GT 420m'. the nvidia is much better. so i opened the nvidia-settings and changed the 'preferred graphic card' from automatically to the nvidia card. after that i played the game 'crysis' to see if there is any change and WOOOM it runs much more faster! so in the automatic settings my notebook is using the intel-card for playing a game like crysis. don't ask me why..

so it seems that the problem has been solved, BUT... in other games like pro evolution soccer 2011 or fallout 3 there is a 'setting'-program in which you have to set up for example the graphic-preferences of the game. and the problem is that in this setting-program it is not possible to work with the nvidia-card. that means in PES he only allows me to set up the settings für the intel-card, which means low quality. in fallout 3 it is only possible to chose the intel-card, he doesn't even show me that there exists a nvidia-card. and if i try to start the game it crashes because the intel-card is to weak.

so what can i do?? is it possible to deactivate the intel-card? i found nothing in the bios...



thanks for your help!

 

hi and welcome to nbr
without knowing anything about the xps im guessing it has optimus technology which means it has a intergrated graphics (intel HD) and dedicated graphics card (Nvidia 420M)
the idea is the computer is meant to switch automatically when you start doing intensive tasks like playing games but it sounds like its not doing that.
the intel graphics is connected to the motherboard and as far as i know cant be turned off.
hopefully someone who knows the xps layout will be able to help further.

 

The XPS 15(L501x) does have what's called Optimus from Nvidia. I'll answer as many questions as I can. The only thing you can do is change settings in the Nvidia Control Panel and the "Whitelist" here is a youtube video on the whitelist just in case you're missing anything, it states it is for the M11x-R2 but the whitelist should work the same.

YouTube - Nvidia Optimus Feature on the Alienware M11x- R2

That is literally about the only thing you can do right now, you can also sometimes right click the game shortcut and select Run With Graphics--->Nvidia Dedicated. There is absolutely no way of switching the Intel card off, in a sense the Nvidia card runs through the Intel card. Sorry.

 

!

so it will maybe forever be the case that i can't play every game with my geforce? who envented this crap?


but thanks a lot for your help!

 

envented-->invented


nVidia did. Update your nVidia and Intel drivers, set the global default to the nVidia GPU and you'll be fine The stock Intel GMA HD drivers will do, and the nVidia driver *might* need an INF edit, but most likely the latest notebook drivers will work (with Optimus).

 

Pretty much, you should have an option on every single .exe(program) on your computer to manually change either Intel or Nvidia and if you don't you may have a corrupted driver install. Worth a shot. The only program I ever came across that I didn't have both options on is Adobe Flash but there's not options at all on that one.