Inspiron 15R 5520 problem with switchable graphics driver (AMD Radeon HD 7670m) on Windows 8 64bit

Hi Miha,

Welcome to the Dell Community forum.

I recommend you to go to Programs and Features and uninstall AMD Catalyst Center.

Next open the charms bar by moving the mouse to right top corner of the screen and in the search box, type ‘Device Manager’, and then, in the list of results, click ‘Device Manager’. In the device manager window, click on the symbol next to ‘Display Adapters’, right click on the AMD video card and click on uninstall, check the box to remove the software as well. Restart your system and install the AMD driver from the link given below:

http://dell.to/17cKYK9

Revert for further assistance.

i did as you wrote, and install the new drivers. I can now launch CCC and swichable graphics. But i have another problem, when i'm trying to play Starcraft 2 the computer wont switch to AMD Radeon graphics card, instead it uses the integrated graphics card. I already asigned stacraft ii.exe  and Sc2.exe to high preformance on switchable graphics center but it still doesnt work.

Hi MightyMouseR,

Displays are always exposed to the OS through integrated graphics (Intel graphics 4000). This is the reason it will always show as Intel Graphics 4000 is in use. There is no physical connection between AMD GPU and the display screen. All graphic intensive processes are done by the AMD Radeon HD 8730M graphics card and passed on to the application through the Intel HD Graphics 4000. This is the way the system is designed to function.

i understand that it works like that but i still have the problem that i can only play the game at a low resolution with all graphics settings set to low. Is that normal? How can i fix that?

Depends on the game - what are you trying to play?

I'm playing Starcraft 2 - Wings of Liberty and Hearth of the swarm  (Blizzard)

That game tends to be more processor- than video-intensive.  You should be able to play it at mid-level video settings, though you won't get high performance out of the 7670m (it's just not a high performance chip).  What processor does the system have, and how much RAM?  What resolution is the display panel?

It worked at first then after a few restarts same problem occured.

hi MightyMouseR
I play starcraft 2 too. On windows 8 and windows 8.1 the drivers for AMD Radeon HD 7670m from Dell and AMD are very bad. I don't know why but I switched to windows 7 with Dell's drivers(http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverId=3WKM7&fileId=3147193857&osCode=W764&productCode=inspiron-15r-5520&languageCode=EN&categoryId=VI) and now I play the game on medium details without problem. I want to use windows 8.1 but also I want to play my favorite game without problems. I think that Dell has to do something about that. There is no update drivers from a long time. Please Dell, check and fix the drivers for windows 8.1

Hi Guys,

I have a Dell Inspiron 15R 5520 laptop with dual graphics (Intel HD 4000 and AMD Raedon HD 7670M) and i faced the same problem. After searching for some time i figured out that this was not a problem for DELL laptops only instead all the laptops having dual graphics card build after 2011/2012 have the exact same problem irrelavant of the brand whether it is a DELL laptop or HP laptop or Acer laptop. The Intel Graphics Card is set as primary while the nVidia/ATI/AMD graphics cards are just Co-Graphics card that are used through the Intel Graphics card in case if we apply High Performance settings for an application/Game. The dedicated Graphics card can never be used directly, you must also have noticed this even after applying the High Performance settings the games do not detect the dedicated graphics card, the games and other softwares like 3Dmark will only detect Intel Graphics card.

The Customer Care Representatives will tell you that this cannot be changed as it is how the system is designed at hardware level. But it is not true there are some hidden tabs in the BIOS of these laptops, My laptop uses InsydeH2o BIOS and there are two hidden Tabs in this BIOS "Advanced" and "Power" Tabs, These Tabs contains some options that can potentially harm a laptop and your laptop may become useless so these are hidden. These Tabs exists in almost all the BIOS models whether it is Insyde or Phoenix or any other BIOS model. In the "Advanced" Tab an option exists by the name of "Video Configuration" and by using this option we can select the primary graphics card for our system if we select the dedicated graphics card then the intel graphics card will not be used and the true potential of the dedicated graphics card will be available for us.

Many programmers have Modded thier BIOS to show these options, and to fully utilize the dedicated graphics card, one such example is

shown in the following link

www.sevenforums.com/.../185993-acer-laptop-switchable-graphics-using-i7-amd-radeon-13.html

But Modding a BIOS is very dangerous and very difficult, and it is even more difficult and dangerous if your BIOS uses UEFI methods. I would never advise you to Mod your BIOS as you may end up bricking your laptop. so the only option left for us is to appeal to our vendors (DELL, HP, Acer, Toshiba, Compaq etc) to give us the option to select the Primary graphics card in the BIOS, It should be our decision to decide whether we want to conserve our laptop battery or we want to utilize our graphics card to its full potential.

This is like Buying a Ferrari and the company forces you to use it only as a decoration so that you can reduce the Petrol cost/Power consumption. We have paid for a dedicated graphics card and now we are forced to use it only as a decoration, only half of the dedicated graphics card is ever Used, and only 1/4th of the dedicated graphics memory is used all the load is transfered to the RAM as Intel graphics card utilizes System RAM.

So kindly spread this message to every forum and community, appeal to the vendors to release a BIOS update in which the option to select the Dedicated graphics card is provided, and stop buying Dual Graphics laptops until this problem is fixed.

Thank You.