Switchable Graphics Not Working

Some programs do not support switchable graphics - start by contacting the publisher of the program that isn't working.

Thanks for your reply EJN63. Unfortunately, that is not the problem here. Before posting, I spent all yesterday evening installing the most up-to-date (and working) drivers for both cards and I ran a framerate counter on no less than twenty graphically intensive programmes, testing them both as "High Performance" and "Power Saving". For every single programme there was no difference in the framerate in each mode.

It can therefore be concluded that the system simply is never initiating the dedicated graphics card, in spite of the extra expense that it cost.

Run the Windows experience index both with the AMD GPU and without it.  You should see an appreciable difference.

There absolutely is a way to do this - I've done it on many of these systems.  Set the Catalyst or Optimus control panel to run the WEI using the discrete GPU, then run the  WEI.  Then set it to run in power-saving mode and run again.  You will see a difference.

It IS true that because only the Intel GPU is wired to the display, that Windows will see the Intel GPU all the time - but that's the way the system is designed to operate.

It is impossible to do this - there is no way to manually enable/disable the dedicated GPU. The only way to tell the computer to enable/disable is on a program by program basis through the software but the software won't provide the option to assign "High Performance" or "Power Saving" to Windows Experience Index.

Therefore, the only way to tell whether the GPU ever actually gets enabled when the software says it is, is by FPS comparison which, as I say points to the fact that the dedicated GPU is never engaged.

Any further help greatly appreciated. However, I am extremely disappointed not to have had a response from Dell in the last 24 hours.

Okay, EJN63. I searched through the system files to find the executable of WEI, WinSAT.exe. As you can see from these screenshots (see below), the different modes make no difference to the performance. In fact, laughably, the "Power Saving" mode has seemingly BOOSTED graphics performance a little but I'm willing to put this down to +/- error in the test.

The important thing is that the 3D or "Gaming Graphics" performance remained exactly the same. This further confirms that the different modes actually have no effect and do not enable/disable the dedicated GPU.

Furthermore, in my reading online, I have found that Dell have actually acknowledged the problem I have been having (link to forum post below, third reply down), suggesting that customers suffering from the issue should update their BIOS which includes the option to set the dedicated GPU as the "fixed graphics card". Reading this, I installed the newest BIOS available to me (A11), only to find that A11 does not allow the selection of fixed graphics. Only A09 does. And it is now too late to roll back.

The upshot of all of this is that there is a definite problem. The switchable graphics choices have no effect whatsoever. This problem should be fixable as I paid a lot of money for a dedicated graphics card and I am yet to have any word on a solution from Dell.

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3519/t/19381585.aspx#

http://i.imgur.com/K93BKga.png

http://i.imgur.com/sGhf6bk.png

What happens to the process if you do a factory restore to as-shipped Windows installation?

Sorry, ENJ63. I'm not going to go to the hassle of factory restoring Windows simply because you're determined to think I'm imagining an issue, even when the manufacturer has acknowledged there is a problem, the framerate test shows there is a problem and even the last test you told me to carry out showed there was a problem! Forgive me.

Paging a Dell employee to this thread?

Though you've convinced yourself otherwise, the problem is most likely a driver issue - which a system restore will likely fix.  Even if you do call Dell with the issue, they'll insist you do that before they call it a hardware problem.