Integrated graphics card taking priority over dedicated graphics card

[Poppincaps]

So, I bought a new laptop a few weeks ago with an intel HD graphics card and an nVidia 745M dedicated graphics card. Everything was fine until I restarted the computer for the first time after getting the graphics card set up. Ever since then whenever I played a game I'd get pretty low fps. Even in WoW I'd cap out at 30-33 fps when I was hovering around 60-70 before. Although, there was one day when I played Assassin's Creed 3 flawlessly. No frame drops. Silky smooth fps. It was amazing, but when I tried to play last night, I began to lag out again.

The final straw was when I played Path of Exile. I went in the options at the top and it say "Intel Graphics Family" was my adapter even though I right-clicked and specifically said to use the nVidia card. I've tried going into the nVidia control panel, but that doesn't seem to work either. I paid a good amount of money for this laptop, and I'd like to be able to enjoy it. Any help you guys could provide would be appreciated.

[Karon]

You should contact the company that actually BUILT the good paid laptop.

But I guess you could also try to just deactivate the integrated graphics card in the Bios.

[Deleted]

WOW is more about cpu as much I know. But you can try reinstall drivers and try pc check for hardware problems. And if you have warranty just call them. The company I'm buying my laptops from just send a technician home to fix it. It can be some problems with the settings as well.

[NatePsy]

Head into the BIOS and disable onboard/integrated graphics.

[Deleted]

Head into the BIOS and disable onboard/integrated graphics.

That isn't too elegant a solution and will have a significant impact on battery life.

[Dasffion]

WOW is more about cpu as much I know.

It's very CPU intensive but a crappy graphics card will still get you crappy graphics.

[Allatar]

You need to tell your laptop to make sure it is using the discrete card before the onboard card - I am pretty sure that most BIOS will allow you to specify one over the other as the primary adapter; it's usually in the Integrated Peripherals section, that's where it is on mine.

Without knowing your exact BIOS I can't be more specific than that sorry.

[chazus]

It's likely an nVidia Optimus setup. You usually can't 'disable' the integrated adapter, nor would you want to.

You likely need to specify in the nvidia control panel to make sure it registers those games as things that should use the dedicated card.

I haven't updated my website in a while, but there are instructions on there that should be similar.

[Fluorescent0]

Yeah, that's specific for Minecraft. Instead of navigating to that folder navigate to your game's specific folder and add that to the control panel list obviously.

[Poppincaps]

It's likely an nVidia Optimus setup. You usually can't 'disable' the integrated adapter, nor would you want to.

You likely need to specify in the nvidia control panel to make sure it registers those games as things that should use the dedicated card.

I haven't updated my website in a while, but there are instructions on there that should be similar.

I did that and it still refused to use the nvidia card.