XPS 8920, use onboard iGPU over dGPU?

Question

I own an XPS 8920, that came with a dismal GT 730 card, which is actually weaker than the iGPU Intel HD 630 (i7 7700, why Dell bothered to include a card weaker than the iGPU is a mystery.)

I've searched and read repeatedly of the mantra, that "if one has a GPU, they should plug their monitor into the GPU" etc.

However out of curiosity's sake, I plugged my monitor into the motherboard HDMI slot.

And it booted up fine.

Now when I open up task manager, I see both GPU's are being utilized, however instead of maxing out during light games, the GT 730 now runs around 70%.

According to the message board mantra I've read online repeatedly, this shouldn't be possible, as everyone claims using the mobo plugin will render the dedicated GPU inactive.

I haven't bothered to benchmark frame rates, as I'm not a big gamer. But I wanted to ask, in case someone actually knows; will running it in this config I have now, enable both GPU's to be used for DX12 enabled games?

XPS8920user · Answer

re: DX 12, the reason why I mentioned it, is I recall reading years ago while it was still in development, that it was supposed to facilitate multi-GPU workload distribution, so that even the iGPU could offload some work for even very powerful graphics cards.

XPS8920user · Answer

If the dGPU isn't being used, why does its usage spike from 0%, to a steady 70-80%+ while gaming?

During MS office/chrome/desktop app usage, task manager only shows the iGPU as being active. (dGPU stays at 0%, not even a tiny blip). But when gaming, both shoot up to 70-80%.

I should also add, that when the monitor was connected to the dGPU, the iGPU remained inactive 100% of the time.

redxps630 · Answer

just uninstall the dGPU if you are not using it. Your pc may be set up in multi display mode thus you are still getting video from iGPU when dGPU is installed.

The HD Graphics 630 in i7 7700 supports DirectX 12. The dGPU does not help anything when you are using the iGPU.

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XPS 8920, use onboard iGPU over dGPU?

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