Sager P9150 + 7970M -- Can't get any games to recognize the dGPU

Hi Friends - Long story short, I've tried quite a few of the random drivers out there and none work better than the stock Sager/Clevo drivers I received with the computer.

My problem is this -- No games or GPU testing software recognizes my 7970M. It's installed correctly and my device manager is picking it up, etc. but when playing Skyrim for example, I have no other graphics choice besides the Intel GPU.

Any ideas/suggestions? Anyone else getting this? From what I've read it seems as if most people are at least having their 7970M recognized, just having some Enduro/under-utilization issues.

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

Reinstall stock drivers. Also, you have set the games as high performance in CCC?

 

Hi Montage - I've done this three times and I've even used driversweeper and RevoUninstaller. As I said, Device Manager recognizes the 7970M but Skyrim does not (only can select HD 4000). HWiNFO64 does not recognize it either. In Device Manager it states that I'm running driver version 8.951.6.0. This is the stock driver that came on the Sager CD.

All other drivers I've tried end up not being recognized in Device Manager (has the "!") and/or just has general issues. The stock drivers at least don't crash my comp but it doesn't seem to fully recognize my 7970M

 

So you have set the applications as "high performance" in the catalyst control center? HWinfo only recognizes the 7970M when it is powered up.

 

you mean in ccc you only can select power saving mode for skyrim?

 

You can try to wipe the drivers totally then reinstall the stock ones. Get Driversweeper which is free. Uninstall the AMD drivers through the control panel, reboot into safe mode (F8) run driver sweeper to clean out anything left over from the uninstall. Reboot normally then install the drivers from the disc.

 

I don't think there is anything wrong with your computer. Your game is only going to display the integrated video card. When I had the 7970m, every time I start a new freshly installed game, the game will be very laggy since it only sees the integrated video card. This is what you have to do.

Exit the game. Go to CCC and application settings and set SKYRIM to HIGH PERFORMANCE. Your game will now run on the 7970m now.
DO TAKE NOTE: YOUR GAME IS STILL GOING TO DISPLAY HD4000 BUT IT IS RUNNING ON THE 7970M.

 

Many games that I have run do not show the 7970 in the options section, but it is clear that they are using it by the performance so I just don't worry about it.

 

Thanks you (and others) for sharing this. I was afraid my comp was having some odd issues but it does seem to perform quite well. The problem is that I can only guess it's working by playing a game and checking the performance. Any GPU/Benchmark program out there doesn't seem to work/display the 7970M so I just never know.

Again, the stock drivers were definitely the most stable and at the very least they've allowed me to play some games. Just a pain for all of us who spent a pretty penny on this cards/systems and have them be a bit quirky. Hopefully some new drivers/hotfixes will settle things.

Many thanks for the suggestions/feedback!