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Go to SolutionLatitude E6540 with BOTH Intel and AMD Graphics Controllers?
OK... so I've got this nifty new Latitude E6540 with Intel HD Graphics 4600 AND AMD Radeon HD 8790M graphics controllers onboard.
I've never heard of having two different controllers on a Laptop before...
How do I...
1) Make the Radeon the primary/only controller
2) VERIFY that the Radeon is the controller being used?
BIOS ONLY shows the Intel Controller...
BOTH controllers have the most updated drivers installed...
Is there a screen that lets you dedicate the AMD Radeon card for all use, and not the intel Card. I have all items set to high performance for the programs i am running and still having issues compared to an older computer with a stand alone video card.
any screen shots would be appreciated of the control center.
We have all Dell laptops at our business and always ordered the performance video chipset. For the previous models that had the Intel/NVidia combo video (E6420, E6430), we went into the BIOS under video and disabled Optimus. At that point the Intel dual mode dropped out and you had only the nVidia video. This permitted boot video while docked and otherwise made the laptop behave normally.
The E6540 is using a dual mode Intel/AMD chipset instead of the Intel/NVidia and does not have Optimus as an option to disable under Video in the BIOS.
Please add a BIOS option to use the AMD chip full-time so that we can disable dual mode video for this model!
Thanks!
The Alienware uses a true hardware-switching video system - both GPUs have a hardware connection to the screen (this is called a multiplexer, or MUX design).
The Latitude uses a MUXless, software controlled video system - only the Intel GPU has a hardware connection to the display panel. ALL video data - even if it is processed by the AMD GPU - runs through the Intel GPU aboard the CPU, so the Intel GPU will always show active to Windows and most applications. It is the driver set that controls the distribution of GPU load between the two GPUs - normally only the Intel GPU is active. The AMD GPU is called into use when higher performance is needed (or specified, since you can do that with the Catalyst Control Center).
it is true that MUX-based hardware video is of higher performance overall - but the MUX-less design is more power-efficient and cheaper to implement - making it suitable not only for low-end consumer sysetms (Inspirons) but also business-class systems where high the highest level of video performance is rarely (if ever) needed.
kennedynet
1 Message
34193
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Posted July 16th, 2014 16:00
I had the exact same frustration with my new E6540. Sometimes I would be able to run any game I wanted and it would "flip" to the AMD card without any issue, but other times it would never switch from the Intel card. I spent at least 2 hours changing drivers and settings until I FINALLY figured it out - you won't believe this but here it goes - I found that if I had shut down the laptop and just started normally and went to play a game it wouldn't switch no matter what I did. The trick is to let it boot up normally and just do a restart! Once you have done the restart, the switching works perfectly!! So just always remember to "double" boot your E6540 and all will work properly. Hope this helps as I was ready to pull my face off and/or inquire about returning the laptop that I otherwise really like. -ChrisTom T Walker
1 Message
7060
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Posted May 8th, 2015 15:00
When you say it finally switched, how can you tell that it switched? Is it that you're looking at the advanced options in the "Adjust Resolution" screen, then selecting the "Adapter" tab? Or is there some other method to see which one is active? Thanks, -Tom.
DELL-Nikhil D1
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2580 Posts
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Posted September 5th, 2013 18:00
Hi cautery1,
Follow the steps to open the “Catalyst Control Center” and to switch the graphic card.
Select “Browse” and check if the game or the application that you are using is listed in the page. If the application or game is not listed, browse for it on the computer under the “Other Applications” area and click “Browse”.
Steps to assign applications to GPUs:
When applications are started, they run on their assigned GPUs. For applications that do not have an assigned GPU, a message dialog box may appear prompting you to select one. In this case, click “Configure” in the dialog box to select the appropriate GPU.
Hope this helps!