Page 1 of 1

Select graphics card?

Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2016 10:15 pm
by Ampli
Hello, I wonder how I can know what graphics card my game is running on?

I have a laptop asus k55v with intel HD graphics 4000 and Nvidia Geforce GT 630M

Can I somehow let the player in my game choose what card to use?

/Ampli

Re: Select graphics card?

Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2016 11:26 pm
by Bisonte
No.

This does the driver on his own decision.

Re: Select graphics card?

Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2016 11:22 am
by DontTalkToMe
The answer should be long and convoluted, filled with if, but, else and would be specific to your hardware/software only.
I'm not going there.
It depends on the bios, the OS, the laptop manufacturer and the system setup (physical connections) but with a high degree of probability no in your case and probably no in general.
In absolute terms yes, it is theoretically possible at least with directx to select from a list of different rendering devices the one you want to use. It was common in the past, when the first 3D addon cards worked in parallel with normal 2d accelerated cards from totally different manufacturers.
You simply selected the desired rendering device before starting the game (sometimes even from the game itself) and used one or another, but that was a different era with HW so different from what available today where every GPU wants to rule the system or at best coexist with near identical brothers under the same software umbrella (SLI, Crossfire).
Should still be possible but it's harder now.

To bring this back to the reality realm: no.

Re: Select graphics card?

Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2016 11:46 am
by IdeasVacuum
In theory, if Asus fitted a Geforce card, the Intel 4000 graphics (which is an integrated chip on the motherboard) would be factory disabled.

Re: Select graphics card?

Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2016 11:55 am
by DontTalkToMe
IdeasVacuum wrote:In theory, if Asus fitted a Geforce card, the Intel 4000 graphics (which is an integrated chip on the motherboard) would be factory disabled.
It may be so but it's not a rule. Some laptops have two graphic cards and switch back and forth between them for example when switching from the desktop to play a game, or following specific settings in the bios. The idea is to reduce energy consumption when possible because the weaker one usually has lower energy requirement for the same simple tasks and works well enough in most situations.
It would be better to have a powerful single GPU working at different power levels, like most desktop GPUs available today, but that's another story.

Re: Select graphics card?

Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2016 12:46 pm
by IdeasVacuum
Indeed. In fact, it seems the nVidia Control Panel can be used to list which apps (games) the nVidia card will run, leaving the Intel to deal with the rest:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/i ... aptop.html

Re: Select graphics card?

Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2016 2:48 pm
by Joris
DontTalkToMe wrote:The answer should be long and convoluted, filled with if, but, else and would be specific to your hardware/software only.
I'm not going there.
...
For music and audio hardware this kind of selecting is quit a standard functionality (inside user-software), so... the question makes sense (to me).