how can i get games to detect my best graphics card?

[andreasaspenberg]

i have a laptop with intel core i7 which comes with its own gpu. my laptop also have an nvidia geforce gt 630m but i have trouble getting certain games to recognise it. that is forcing me to run sword of the stars on minimum settings while conquest frontier wars runs well as it is older. how can i get them to run on my nvidia card?

 

[Deleted member 219079]

Set graphics mode to discrete in bios. Then when you need battery set it back to hybrid.

 

[andreasaspenberg]

what is the key to entering the bios on an asus n53s laptop?

 

[GhostWolf]

The correct answer is to set it up in your Nvidia settings (profiles).

As to your second question, google it.

Although I know that answering to you is as pointless as talking to a wall...

 

[pyf]

what is the key to entering the bios on an asus n53s laptop?

The answer should be written in the manual of your product.

Querying for 'n53s' leads to three laptop variants:
https://www.asus.com/search/results.aspx?SearchKey=n53s

 

[andreasaspenberg]

there was no manual as no pcs in norway is sold with that anymore(as far as i know).

 

[pyf]

Please follow the link I provided above, to ultimately download one in your language.

 

[andreasaspenberg]

i did but the pc was not on the list.

 

[pyf]

I believe it is.

 

[andreasaspenberg]

those on the list have additional letters so no, it is not there.

 

[pyf]

And are you sure your laptop model does not have such an additional letter, mmh?

Plus I am pointing out, accessing the BIOS on an ASUS laptop is pretty standard procedure. Maybe there is a generic FAQ somewhere, on the ASUS support site for the n53s family of products. Just saying.

 

[andreasaspenberg]

i tried one of the instructions and it contained no information. it is therefore logical to assume that none of the others will either. please tell me what button i need to use as starting up that pc too many times could damage its harddrive. it is prone to wear as a result of startup.

 

[pyf]

Look harder.

 

[Deleted member 219079]

Repeatedly press DEL or F2 during bootup. The key might also be shown on screen before OS load.

 

[andreasaspenberg]

f2 worked. there was no such mode in the bios however so i am no closer to fixing the problem.

 

[pyf]

i tried one of the instructions and it contained no information. it is therefore logical to assume that none of the others will either.[...]

f2 worked.[...]

This is written plain and clear in the manual of your ASUS n53s laptop model variant.
This is also written plain and clear on the ASUS support site, in the generic FAQ for the n53s family of products.


Be sure to use the drivers provided by ASUS for your laptop model variant, and then please follow @GhostWolf's advice.

Only one of the three ASUS n53s Notebooks fits your description of the hardware afaik. So will you choose wisely... or not?

 

[Deleted member 219079]

Well I have similar setup on desktop having Nvidia card and Intel graphics. Nvidia settings doesn't detect iGPU at all so I wonder how 'setting it up in your Nvidia settings' helps.

On my laptop I've solved this problem described in OP with going to BIOS, switching to discrete graphics mode when a program wouldn't use my graphics card in hybrid. You could still try to find equivalent option in BIOS.

 

[andreasaspenberg]

my bios have no gpu related options. there is 5 options tabs: main, advanced, boot, security and save & exit. main contains options for date and time only. advanced contains: post logo type, start easy flash,play post sound, speaker volume(that one is grayed out), interal pointing device, intel vitualization technology, intel aes-ni, legacy usb support and sata configuration. boot contains uefi boot, pxe rom, boot option 1, bood option 2, cd/dvd rom drives bbs priorities, hard drive bbs priorities and delete boot option. security have i/o interface secuity and several password options. save & exit have save changes and exit, discard changes and exit, save changes, discard changes, restore default, boot override and launch efi shell from filesystem device.

 

[pyf]

On my laptop I've solved this problem described in OP with going to BIOS, switching to discrete graphics mode when a program wouldn't use my graphics card in hybrid. You could still try to find equivalent option in BIOS.[...] I wonder how 'setting it up in your Nvidia settings' helps. [...]

Please read:
Nvidia Optimus - Wikipedia
Optimus Technology | NVIDIA
Optimus | GeForce

Well I have similar setup on desktop having Nvidia card and Intel graphics. Nvidia settings doesn't detect iGPU at all [...].

Desktop computers are not laptops; nor are they Notebooks.

For the record, plugging an Nvidia graphic card on old desktop PCs will very certainly completely disable the built-in Intel GPU found on some mobos. The iGPU will then become totally invisible to the OS, until this additional video card is physically removed.

 

[Deleted member 219079]

For the record, it depends on primary GPU set in BIOS. It's not invisible they're both detected in device manager and I have both Intel and Nvidia graphics functional, in fact I'm using both of them right now.

 

[andreasaspenberg]

your arguments among yourselves does not get me any closer to a solution. one thing i noticed is that dxdiag does not detect the nvidia card at all. high demand games like the sims 3 and dungeon keeper 2 can run on it(dungeon keeper 2 can run on either but only works well on the nvidia card).

 

[pyf]

your arguments among yourselves does not get me any closer to a solution.

@andreasaspenberg : Reading about the Nvidia Optimus technology also applies to you. And after that, please follow @GhostWolf's advice.

Please also get the manual for your specific Notebook. And please install the drivers ASUS provided for it if necessary.


(off-topic)
@jondrean: lucky you. With this horrible thing, one can not use both the integrated Intel Nvidia video chipset and the Nvidia graphics card at he same time. And the Intel Nvidia GPU is then *invisible* to the OS and does not appear in the Control Panel as a properly running Display device. And changing their detection order in the BIOS's settings does *not* allow to use the Intel Nvidia GPU at all, as long as there is another video card plugged into the PCIe slot. HP Pavilions omg...

**edit**
Intel: read Nvidia. oops.

 

[andreasaspenberg]

there is no detection order in the bios.

 

[pyf]

@andreasaspenberg: You do not have to bother with any BIOS settings related to your graphics hardware on your ASUS notebook.

Again, please read about the Nvidia Optimus technology. And after that, please follow @GhostWolf's advice. Please also get the manual for your specific Notebook. And please install the drivers ASUS provided for it if necessary.

 

[andreasaspenberg]

there is no updates for the laptop at this time. act of war also runs entirely on the integrated card and have to run at minimum settings. i noticed that sword of the stars have a session file that stores things. would it be possible to alter the graphics card there?

 

[Dr Super Good]

Future games should allow better fidelity at selecting which GPU/GPUs are used due to D3D12/Vulcan multi-GPU model. I can imagine in certain situations using some GPUs might not improve performance due to synchronization overhead. Chances are they will not though as game developers only bother developing for consoles which only have 1 GPU.

As people have said above, you will need to install the appropriate OEM drivers. You might end up having to disable the integrated card altogether as most software does not consider the case of multi GPU systems with different GPU strengths.

 

[pyf]

Quoting Wikipedia about Nvidia Optimus:

"When a user launches an application, the graphics driver tries to determine whether the application would benefit from the discrete GPU. If so, the GPU is powered up from an idle state and is passed all rendering calls. Even in this case, though, the integrated graphics processor (IGP) is used to output the final image. When less demanding applications are used, the IGP takes sole control, allowing for longer battery life and less fan noise. Under Windows the Nvidia driver also provides the option to manually select the GPU in the right-click menu upon launching an executable.

[...] the Optimus Routing Layer can help determine when the GPU can be utilized to improve rendering performance. [...] Predefined profiles also assist in determining whether extra graphics power is needed. These can be managed using the Nvidia Control Panel."

 

[andreasaspenberg]

i have already configured the pc to use the nvidia card as standard but act of war and sword of the stars insists on running on the integrated one. act of war is super slow on the integrated card except on minimal setting. deactivating the onboard card caused a messed up interface as windows itself always runs on that.

 

[Eagle XI]

Alternate solution: Get another laptop that has 1 graphics card.

 

[andreasaspenberg]

that as not an option as all laptops with dedicated graphics cards made these days have 2 as the cpu always includes a gpu.

 

[Dr Super Good]

i have already configured the pc to use the nvidia card as standard but act of war and sword of the stars insists on running on the integrated one. act of war is super slow on the integrated card except on minimal setting. deactivating the onboard card caused a messed up interface as windows itself always runs on that.

What proof do you have that it is solely using the integrated card? Maybe the discrete NVidia card just is very slow, it is a laptop after all so uses a much less powerful card version than are sold for desktops.

that as not an option as all laptops with dedicated graphics cards made these days have 2 as the cpu always includes a gpu.

You can not install the intel integrated drivers and instead rely only on the NVidia. However the hardware might be OEM so might need OEM drivers to work in which case this is not possible.

 

[andreasaspenberg]

the nvidia card runs the sims 3 well which is much newer than act of war and runs usually runs on maximum settings while act of war only runs well on minimal settings. it even runs fable 3 on maximum(it will no longer install because the activation service is down but it worked perfectly before i switched harddrive). sword of the stars only detects the intregrated card(there i can select what card to use).

 

[andreasaspenberg]

i just tested another game from the same year as act of war and it detects the nvidia card perfectly and uses that, running perfectly on maximum settings(evil genius). guess that could be because it was made or released by sierra which had very little trouble with their games.

 

[Dr Super Good]

i just tested another game from the same year as act of war and it detects the nvidia card perfectly and uses that, running perfectly on maximum settings(evil genius). guess that could be because it was made or released by sierra which had very little trouble with their games.

Many old games were not designed to support multiple GPUs, especially hybrid systems. If one cannot force its use in drivers then there is not much you can do.

 

[andreasaspenberg]

i managed to patch act of war so now it works at maximum. sword of the stars is already pre-patched to version 1,8,0.

 

[pyf]

i managed to patch act of war so now it works at maximum. [...]

I am guessing you are now using the unofficial patch, that allows widescreen resolutions?
Downloads - Act of War: Direct Action

 

[andreasaspenberg]

no.

 

[pyf]

Then I understand you had issues with Act of War, simply because you did not patch the game to the latest official 1.06.3 version?

...in which case, I am guessing you are using the Disc version of the game?

 

[andreasaspenberg]

i am using the disc version, yes. i did patch to the latest official version today which is version 1,06,3.

 

[pyf]

Regarding Sword of the Stars I would suggest you ask for help/advice, either at the GeForce Mobile GPUs support forum, or at the Kerberos Productions technical support forum for SotS.

Some people there mention the files sots.ini and display.cfg. I understand both are simple text files which can be edited with Notepad.

It would seem no-one in the SotS help forum mentions the kind of issue you are facing on your ASUS Notebook(?).


For the record, I am posting a list of SLI optimized games:
Optimise Your Gaming with SLI | NVIDIA

Nvidia SLI technology might be a trail worth exploring too, as it might eventually interfere with the Nvidia Optimus technology? But it is only a wild uneducated guess, based on no evidence at all...

 

[andreasaspenberg]

changing adapter in display.cfg caused the game to be unable to run at all(it did not even start). SLI involves connecting 2 cards of the same type together so that will not work due to one being together with the processor. many people have posted similar issues on the nvidia forums but nobody have gotten any help.

 

[pyf]

many people have posted similar issues on the nvidia forums but nobody have gotten any help.

Ahem...
- https://forums.geforce.com/default/...change-program-defaults/post/5137195/#5137195
- https://forums.geforce.com/default/...ing-integrated-graphics/post/5114228/#5114228
- https://forums.geforce.com/default/...gpu-lenovo-ideapad-y700/post/4953682/#4953682

Plus:
https://forums.geforce.com/default/...n-external-display-is-connected-with-optimus/




Now one month ago I suggested you ask for help/advice, either at the GeForce Mobile GPUs support forum, or at the Kerberos Productions technical support forum for SotS.

I am unable to find your posts there.

 

[andreasaspenberg]

i tried to ask nvidia support but they could not help me. i did however suggest that they change their drivers to work around the problem.