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.

    Please help: Lenovo u400 Ideapad switching of graphic card

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by xsainty, Nov 9, 2011.

  1. xsainty

    xsainty Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    9
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Hi i recently purchased a lenovo u400, but the graphic card keep staying at the intel GMA HD Card instead of the ATI Radeon card within it.

    Does anyone knows how to switch graphic card on a lenovo u400? Tried all options, even google does not tell me. need some help! thanks
     
    xsainty, Nov 9, 2011
    #1
  2. Necravolver

    Necravolver Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    1
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Hmm is there a switchable graphics section in the Catalyst Control Center?
     
    Necravolver, Nov 9, 2011
    #2
  3. namaiki

    namaiki "basically rocks" Super Moderator

    Reputations:
    3,905
    Messages:
    6,116
    Likes Received:
    89
    Trophy Points:
    216
    Is there anything like this?
    [​IMG]
     
    namaiki, Nov 9, 2011
    #3
  4. xsainty

    xsainty Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    9
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    hi sorry there ins't anything like what i see


    This is what i see instead

    [​IMG]
     
    xsainty, Nov 10, 2011
    #4
  5. xsainty

    xsainty Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    9
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    they catalys control centre i have is shown above. it only shows high performance and power saving. no matter what i press it just sticks to the Intel Graphics card and not the ATI radeon one!
     
    xsainty, Nov 10, 2011
    #5
  6. namaiki

    namaiki "basically rocks" Super Moderator

    Reputations:
    3,905
    Messages:
    6,116
    Likes Received:
    89
    Trophy Points:
    216
    Seems you will need to manually add the programs that you want to change to High Performance. I would not recommend you run Chrome on High Performance, and probably no need for touchzone.exe either.
     
    namaiki, Nov 10, 2011
    #6
  7. xsainty

    xsainty Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    9
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    so there is no way to make it permanantly on my ATI radeon graphic card instead? hmm....
     
    xsainty, Nov 10, 2011
    #7
  8. namaiki

    namaiki "basically rocks" Super Moderator

    Reputations:
    3,905
    Messages:
    6,116
    Likes Received:
    89
    Trophy Points:
    216
    Doesn't seem to be a way. Did you already tick "Show a pop-up warning for unassigned programs"? That way you can pick manually at least.
     
    namaiki, Nov 10, 2011
    #8
  9. xsainty

    xsainty Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    9
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Heh, yes i did, just checked it. oh well. so i can't use my better graphic card eh. :\ will try to find a way to make it fix permanantly
     
    xsainty, Nov 10, 2011
    #9
  10. namaiki

    namaiki "basically rocks" Super Moderator

    Reputations:
    3,905
    Messages:
    6,116
    Likes Received:
    89
    Trophy Points:
    216
    It would seem that you can use it, just not all the time as it would crate unnecessary heat. Maybe you can check in the BIOS if there is an option to disable the graphics card switching?
     
    namaiki, Nov 10, 2011
    #10
  11. xsainty

    xsainty Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    9
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Oh you have any idea how do i go the BIOS to de-activate graphic switching? Thanks!
     
    xsainty, Nov 10, 2011
    #11
  12. ashchicken

    ashchicken Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    10
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    The purpose of switchable graphics is to enable high-performance 3D for apps that need it, like games. There's no point in wanting to run your Radeon graphics all the time. All that is going to achieve is lower battery life and more heat. For web browsing, mail, photo-editing, etc, there's no meaningful advantage to the Radeon card in the laptop over the Intel integrated GPU. If you have an app that specifically uses the capabilities of the Radeon GPU, like a video encoding app that uses the DirectCompute API or something, you can use that applet you took a screenshot of to configure it. Otherwise, you're better off leaving it alone.
     
    ashchicken, Nov 10, 2011
    #12
  13. xsainty

    xsainty Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    9
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Sounds logical, but yeah, apparently they ins't a way to turn on the ATI Radeon Card permanantly
     
    xsainty, Nov 10, 2011
    #13