Is my Inspiron 5548 laptop using Radeon or Intel graphics?

Hi,

Thank you for reaching us.

Please open "Device Manager" , Expand "Display Adapters" section.

You can see your graphics card listed there.

If you find both Intel and AMD Radeon R7 listed, then your machine has "Switchable graphics" technology.

Switchable graphics is fairly simple at the core:

The computer has two different graphics cards, one an efficient integrated type (usually Intel Graphics) and one a much more powerful but less energy efficient discrete card.

The computer then switches between them, depending on what you need. Since most of the time you're on the integrated card, you save power, but you still have the power to run more graphics-intensive programs.

Hope that answered your query.

Thank you

Dear Gokul G,

Thank you, you’ve given me some insight into the situation, but left me some way short of the solution. I don’t have a manual or anything equivalent to explain how to use my Inspiron 5548 laptop.

Mostly I use my laptop on mains power, so saving the battery is rarely an issue. I was advised to get a separate graphics card for photo processing.

I believe the integrated Intel graphics will use RAM that would otherwise be available for the CPU. Will this become available when the Radeon graphics card is running?

Can I force my laptop to use the Radeon graphics card? If so, how do I do that? (If I can’t force it to be used, it was probably a waste of money!)

Is there a setting that will keep the Radeon graphics card running when on mains power, but revert to "Switchable graphics" when running on the battery?

With thanks,

Chris Newman

Open the device manager and look under Display Adapters.  You will see two entries - Intel and AMD - if you have AMD video.  If you see only Intel, that's all you have.

The system is entirely software controlled - the Intel GPU is the only one connected to the screen, so ALL video data passes through it -- even if the data is processed by the AMD GPU.  

The Intel GPU is active at all times.

To use the AMD GPU, select the GPU for the application using the Catalyst control panel.  You will need to check with your software publisher depending on which photo processing software you use -- to find out what settings it needs.  In general, if it's Photoshop, you really do need a true, discrete GPU -- which is not what your system has.  True, discrete GPUs are now pretty much exclusive to high-end workstation notebooks and high-end gaming machines -- everything under about $1,500-2,000 is software-controlled hybrid.

Thanks ejn63 for that clarification. The guidelines I was trying to follow for choosing a laptop did not distinguish between discreet and hybrid GPUs, and I was not aware of the hybrid type. But I didn’t want to spend the price of a high-end gaming laptop. Is it likely I will I need to avoid hybrid GPUs when, at some stage in the future, I buy a new desktop with non-integrated a video card for the bulk of my photo processing?

“Open the device manager and look under Display Adapters. You will see two entries - Intel and AMD - if you have AMD video. …

To use the AMD GPU, select the GPU for the application using the Catalyst control panel.”

I see the AMD Radeon and Intel display adapters OK, but the only control panel I can find is the “Intel HD Graphics Control Panel”. How might I find the “Catalyst” one?

Does the hybrid graphics system mean that the Intel HD Graphics 5500 will always reserve space in the RAM (which I assume would be freed up if I had a discrete GPU)?

With thanks in advance,

Chris Newman

True desktop system (but not integrated all-in-ones) have completely separate, hardware-based GPUs that operate independently of the on-chip GPU Intel (and AMD) have both made standard on most newer CPUs.

With notebooks, hybrid technology has essentially taken over 90% or more of the market.  Only at the very high end do you see true discrete video any longer.  As notebook buyers have demanded thinner and lighter notebooks, the GPUs have been integrated onto the mainboard and the space necessary to cool a high performance video chip has disappeared - meaning you need a large, bulky chassis to support a true discrete GPU and the cooling system needed to manage it.  It's also, of course, far cheaper to build a hybrid system than a discrete one - and the market demands the lowest price possible except at the workstation/gaming end of the market.

Yes, the Intel GPU always uses some system RAM.

Look in the control panel -- there should be an AMD icon that will take you to the catalyst control center.

Thanks for your response, ejn63. I’m afraid I missed the notification that you had posted a further reply. Today, 14 June 2015, I started my laptop and an AMD Radeon Catalyst Control Centre opened up of its own accord. I was going to mention this on the forum, when I found your last post. When the Catalyst Control Centre appeared, I initially selected the option to pin the shortcut to the Taskbar. This shortcut showed me the program is stored in C:\Program Files (x86)\ATI Technologies\ATI.ACE\Core-Static\CCC.exe. The Catalyst Control Centre’s preferences allowed me to put an icon in the System Tray, so I deleted the icon from the Taskbar. (I didn’t find an option to put an icon on the Start Page, which might be helpful.)

Thanks to ejn63 I now have an adequate understanding of the graphics system I naively chose for my laptop. And thanks to the Catalyst Control Centre that spontaneously appeared today, I am now content that its default settings are suitable, and I know how to change them if I wish.

I still can’t find an icon for AMD or the Catalyst Control Centre in the Control Panel!

With thanks,

Chris

i am also using 5548 my motherboard has been recently changed AS YOU SAID HERE THAT IT HAS ONE ON BOARD GRAPHICS(INTEL 5500) SECOND ONE AMD 2GB CARD DISCRETE BUT I AND TECHNICIAN DIDN'T FOUND ANY DISCRETE CARD ON LAPTOP. SO MY LAPTOP DIDN'T HAS GRAPHICS CARD SINCE FROM BEGINNING ?