Dell Precision 5530 - how to activate Nvidia Quadro P1000 instead of Intel card

The Precision 5530 uses NVIDIA Optimus for the discrete GPU.  This means that the NVIDIA GPU is not physically wired to any of the display outputs.  Actually, on the 5530 it MIGHT be wired to the HDMI output, but I haven't confirmed that.  But the way Optimus works is that the Intel GPU is physically wired to most or all display outputs, including the built-in display, and when the discrete GPU is needed, it gets activated as a render-only device that passes completed video frames to the Intel GPU for output those displays.  This allows the discrete GPU to be completely disabled when it's not needed in order to extend battery life, whereas if it were physically wired to display outputs, it would have to remain active whenever a display was attached to those outputs, even if nothing graphics-intensive was going on.

In general, the NVIDIA drivers are fairly good at detecting when to activate Optimus, but they're not perfect.  If you're finding that certain applications aren't using the discrete GPU, try right-clicking the application EXE file (or a shortcut to it) and selecting "Run with graphics processor > NVIDIA".  Unfortunately this does NOT work with Start menu items; it has to be the application file itself or a shortcut.  If that improves performance, you can create a profile for that application in NVIDIA Control Panel and configure that application to always use the NVIDIA GPU so that you don't have to do that each time you launch it.

So sorry but no hope. The video still lag when play in adobe premiere

Dear @jphughan 

im not sure if Im right. I record video 4k from Osmo pocket DJI. Then I play this video in Adobe Premiere, and it lag. But then I use Adobe Media Encoding to create proxy that video then it play smoothtly. So the system of 5530 is not strong enougn to edit directly 4k Video. Is it right

Dell Precision 5530 doesn't have optimus chip. https://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/04/sln316106/precision-5530-discrete-gpu-does-not-function-as-main-video-controller?lang=en

All display are routed through intel UHD.

It is a horrible choice because even if you force the P1000 to render 4k video, the result must be copy back to the intel UHD graphic unit, resulting in totally unnecessary high cpu and intel gpu usage.

I'm frustrated that the company gave me this laptop.

Yes, Optimus is not a chip. But in the link I posted, Dell themselves says, precision 55xx doesn't come with it. "If this is an option that you feel is required for your business needs, then you should look at the Precision 7XXX family of mobile workstations as they are the only ones that come with this option."

@ziling  unfortunately that article is implying that NVIDIA Optimus and switchable graphics are the same thing, which they are not.  It's too bad that Dell is creating some confusion there.  Optimus as I described is the ability for the discrete GPU to operate as a render-only device and pass completed video frames to the Intel GPU for output to the actual display(s).  Basically every laptop that has multiple GPUs includes that functionality.  The switchable graphics feature in the Precision 7000 Series line that the article refers to is a BIOS option that allows the user to choose which GPU directly controls the display outputs.  That is a very unusual capability to have in a laptop.  To my knowledge, the Precision 7000 Series models are the only ones in Dell's entire lineup that have this.  The way it's achieved on the Precision 7000 Series models is that the built-in display and all of the display outputs are wired to DisplayPort multiplexers.  Those multiplexers are then wired back to BOTH the integrated and discrete GPUs, and then the BIOS options allow you to configure which "path" is actually active.

However, the ability to have the discrete GPU directly control the display outputs is also a relatively uncommon need.  For most use cases, NVIDIA Optimus works just fine, and it SHOULD be working here.  That said, there are some applications that don't work well with it.  There are also certain technologies that the Intel GPU doesn't support passing through and/or where the discrete GPU must have direct control of the output, such as VR, stereoscopic 3D, Adaptive V-Sync, G-Sync, and 5K resolution (as of this writing).