How do I know what GPU is being used

holymonk · 27 Dec 2012 at 16:48

Got the Mrs a laptop for xmas, has a 640M in it, was less than impressed by the FPS in WOW with no addons - it also has an ivybridge - how do I know what GPU its using - can i turn off the inbuilt GPU in the bios?

Thanks

zakblood · 27 Dec 2012 at 16:58

h88p://www.game-debate.com/hardware/index.php?gid=690&graphics=GeForce%20GT%20640M

2gb of memory but only ddr3, not 5 like a standard card

answer is in control panel for a guess, bios if not

Idleman · 27 Dec 2012 at 17:03

holymonk said:
Got the Mrs a laptop for xmas, has a 640M in it, was less than impressed by the FPS in WOW with no addons - it also has an ivybridge - how do I know what GPU its using - can i turn off the inbuilt GPU in the bios?

Thanks

Might help if we knew which laptop you are talking about.

holymonk · 27 Dec 2012 at 17:39

I cant link it as its a competitor but the specs are below

Screen:

17.3" HD LED Backlit Screen
Memory:

4GB DDR3 1333Mhz Memory
Graphics:

NVIDIA Geforce 640M 2GB Graphics
Chassis:

Intel HM77 Chipset
Processor:

Intel Core i5 3210M Processor
Harddrive:

500GB 2.5" Hard Drive
Optical Drives:

SATA DVD Writer

To be honest I havent really had chance to give it a whirl etc, but would dedicated gfx automatically overwrite the HD4000?

opstrat · 27 Dec 2012 at 17:52

The 640m should be using optimus, which means it will switch graphics on the fly when needed, best thing to do is download something like msi afterburner and monitor gpu usage when eunning wow.

gamesaregood · 27 Dec 2012 at 17:56

Check the Nvidia Control Panel and make sure its set to use the Nvidia GPU for games / graphics heavy applications.

As above it should do this by default.

Sasahara · 27 Dec 2012 at 18:14

You'll probably wanna play with the Graphics setting as certain effect will drasticly reduce performance.

All the 5 options under the Effects heading, and the 3 under the Enviroment should be tested in particular.

Is the screen 1920 x 1080?

zakblood · 27 Dec 2012 at 18:20

for me as well, turn off everything in settings like power saving etc, screen saver and make sure its working on full power and not some power saving lappy rubbish mode off battery etc, then alter system performance settings to all off.

so max is going to your apps, and yes windows doesn't look so good, but for gaming you may need it all.

clean your startup, so only the stuff you need is running, also saves a bit

also its a shame that both cant work in tandem instead of one or the other, on some they can i think ive read somewhere, but maybe not as im old and daft, very old and very well we wont go there