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Switchable graphics broken on 15R SE (7520)
So I bought my DELL 15R SE with Windows 8 Pro last week and received it in the mail a few days ago. One of the reasons I bought this model in particular was because of the 2GB discrete graphics it came with. Since purchasing it and realizing the switchable graphics do not switch over I have read through the forums, learnt that almost everyone that purchased this model has had the same problem, and being a general techie I have done everything to fix it and had no results.
I'm expecting a DELL technician to tell me to delete the drivers and restart the computer, or update the drivers etc. I have done all of that and also installed several versions of Leshcats third party drivers after closely following the manual as people have directed. I'm on my 4th day of working on this problem with no results and a 2GB card that I payed for which is just sitting there not being used.
I gotta say, pretty disappointed for a brand new computer. Moved away from HP this time around as I was under the assumption I would get better quality assurance with DELL. So far it has been worse.
Is there an official fix for this? Or will I be going down the path of a refund and looking at an ASUS. So far 4 days have been lost trying to fix a computer that just came out of the box. There are obvious problems and have been for quite some time judging by the forums, yet these models are still being rolled out?
So far my experience with DELL has made me think I made a mistake. I understand people have moved to Leshcat drivers and had results, but this shouldn't even be necessary for a brand new computer.
ejn63
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May 27th, 2013 05:00
Where are you seeing that the discrete video chip isn't being used? These systems are designed with the discrete video as a co-processor - there is no connection between the screen and the discrete video chip. ALL video data passes through the on-CPU Intel GPU, so that will ALWAYS show as the active chip, to Windows.
This is the way just about every consumer-grade, mid- and low-end system is designed these days. If you want true discrete video, you will need to buy a higher-end system such as an Alienware (or an equivalent system from another manufacturer).
ejn63
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May 27th, 2013 05:00
There are many games and other applications that do not support switching graphics at all - check with the publisher of the game. You may need an updated version of the game - or the game may in fact not work at all with switching graphics.
Adobe software generally doesn't work well with switching graphics - if you're a heavy user of photoshop, this is not the system to use. You need a higher-end workstation with true, discrete video (this is a low-end consumer-grade notebook -- it's not up to the task of heavy photoshop use any more than an economy car is up to towing a heavy trailer).
Benny_V
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May 27th, 2013 05:00
In several settings for various games it only has the option to set the Intel HD 4000 as the default. I know this may be the case of the Intel CPU graphics being the physical GPU, however it is clear from the performance of several games and some Photoshop processing that the discrete card isn't kicking in. Guild Wars 2 was lagging out on low settings, and Skyrim barely even ran. My Photoshop actions were taking up to 2 minutes to complete.
The Radeon 7700M series should be able to handle those things much better and it is clear that it is only the CPU graphics chugging away.