Switching from Intel default video driver to NVIDIA

Here is a video explaining the situation visually.

NVIDIA instead of Intel - YouTube

Problem: My new VAIO S laptop is connected to my Television via HDMI, as was my previous Z series, but the display quality is not as good now.

The Display Driver says its using the default "Intel HD 4000". Not the NVIDIA, which I assume is significantly better.

How do I get my laptop to use the NVIDIA, and only the NVIDIA for everything related to display?

Thanks

 

....? You just switch from STAMINA to SPEED, so you get NVIDIA graphics working.

 

.....? Its already on "Speed", not stamina.

 

Go to Nvidia Control Panel and look at the PhysX menu. You will see there that Intel HD iGPU has all those ports including HDMI while Nvidia has none of them. You can't set Nvidia to rule HDMI.

 

Okay and that is not a problem? HDMI isn't the only thing at play here. The laptop doesn't get to use NVIDIA either? Neither of them are on the GEFORCE side of the graphic. So basically I have an NVIDIA card that isn't being used by this system at all?

None of the NVIDIA settings in this menu were enabled either. They were all set to the default / CPU / standard video card. Why would that be the case? I set everything to NVIDIA including this PhysX menu. Nothing seemed to change, neither on the TV, nor on the laptop.

As a side note, I can't really fathom that NVIDIA can't control the output through the HDMI cable. That doesn't make sense. Two years ago on my old Z series I had superior HDMI video output than this current set up. It had a vertically propped up docking station that came with some extra ports, and an HDMI-out. I was told by Sony that additional graphics capabilities were in that "middle piece" of hardware, that the laptop lacked. Basically the NVIDIA and extra video memory.

End result was a much nicer picture than I am getting now, 2 years later.

There must be a solution to this. Its not 2002 anymore. If I buy an NVIDIA graphics card i expect it to work through an HDMI cable, and at the very least through the laptop itself. And why were all the settings turned off?

So strange.

 

Great minds think alike:

Permanently using Nvidia over Intel Integrated - Sony Vaio S - Nvidia - Graphics & Displays

Not sure why I paid extra for high quality video capabilities if im going to be forced to use the crap default - even on the laptop itself.

 

I can suggest you to install latest Intel graphics drivers 15.31.6.3111...
Direct link for 64 bit driver and 32 bit driver

Optimus is such thing that nvidia GPU can render smth like games but still all goes then through Intel output and that is why optimus based laptops have slightly lower graphic scores than without optimus (120HZ/3D laptops).

 

Which media player do you use? Set that to always use the discrete GPU in nVIDIA control panel (or right click-> use high performance GPU). Launch that first, then connect the HDMI cable. That should help.

I remember when I was fiddling around with Optimus (my laptop doesn't natively support it) I used to run a low impact application in the background to force it to stay in high performance mode.

 

That link I showed above mentions Optimus but do I have Optimus on this system?

He suggested finding the "Sony Equivalent" to what was on his machine. Any idea what software he is suggesting that might be in the Sony support area? If you already answered this above let me know. This is all Greek to me.

PS: Not just looking for NVIDIA quality when I play media. If I buy an upgraded video card like this, i expect it to work for everything. As it stands im getting slightly less quality display with everything (Outlook fonts, Firefox, etc). Its like the difference between old iPhone and iPhone with retina display. Its subtle, but noticeable.

Thank you.

 

All modern laptops with two graphics adapters have the Optimus technology.

You need to tweak the settings a little.
1. Set the nVIDIA gpu as the default.
2. Set as many applications to use the nVIDIA gpu as you like. It is a bit of a pain but eventually you'll catch them all.

You could also look into the BIOS options and see if there is an option to use static switching for the gpu. If you can do that, then switching is done by flipping the speed/ stamina switch and restarting. If that option is not there, maybe you could look for a hacked BIOS for your model like there is for the VPCZ1 and a few others.

 

Thank you.

Sorry but how exactly do I open optimus?

Or - exactly how do I do # 1 and # 2 above ..? and pick the list of applications which are controlled by NVIDIA ?

Is there a program/application interface that does this? I've looked through the NVIDIA control panel.

 

It should be in nVIDIA Control Panel under 3D settings-> manage 3D settings.

You should also see a menu when you right click the shortcut to any program. Something like 'run using...'.

 

Hmm. Maybe I misunderstood how this works but its only got like 5 programs in the dropdown. Photoshop. Chrome. Firefox. ...

Doesn't even have my outlook.

And from what i see - the only thing that happened in Photoshop is a "3D" icon appeared on the toolbar.

This is for settings related to when 3D kicks in. Not for global windows visual quality ....

What a disappointment. So I guess there is no point in buying a great graphics card ....

 

Any joy with the context menu? The 'run using...' option?

 

Any joy with the context menu? The 'run using...' option?

And what about the other tricks I mentioned in my last post? Basically, if any application, even if it is running in the background, uses the nVIDIA GPU and causes the switch, then everything else also runs on that GPU. For your media player you might have to disable the 'allow screensaver' option, or maybe even run a small video in a continuous loop. I've heard that running EVGA Precision X or a similar utility will also force it to stay with the nVIDIA GPU, so setting that to run at startup should do the trick.

Be aware though that the nVIDIA GPU will drain the battery very quickly, so if you are manually forcing it to stay alive you'll need to manually remove that block and allow it to switch back to the Intel GPU.

 

Clearly I am not a "power user" but this really irritates me.

I paid for a high end video card and the system as a whole should be using it. All the time.

I now am trying to run a program which uses GPU to process things, and it isn't able to use it because the NVIDIA card isn't available.

Simultaneously I have my *two year old* Z series sitting right next to it with the docking station that has the awesome video card - all i have to do is plug the laptop into the docking station and boom - the NVIDIA card takes over the entire unit, and this GPU processing program recognizes it, and runs 10x faster than my brand new S series does in processing units.

Why do I have to jump through hoops and hack my way to using my video card???

Why is the 2 year old system instantly using the NVIDIA throughout all of windows (and all installed programs) like it should, but this new computer doesn't use it at all?

 

^ Because they made it *better*. :laugh: