Guide: How to use discrete gpu for 3D from primary igpu

Discussion in 'Videocards - NVIDIA GeForce' started by moheban79, Feb 8, 2019.

  1. moheban79

    moheban79 Master Guru

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    Hi,

    Wanted to share how I finally solved a problem I have had trying to use a discrete GPU for processing while having your display connected to the onboard igpu. In my particular case because I couldn't fit my MSI Gaming X 1060GTX in a small HTPC or in my case my Carbide 240 I had to vertically mount it and only had room to expose the hdmi and DP connectors up top such that my Oculus is hooked up on the hdmi connector and my monitor is connected to the back on the onboard Intel 630HD DVI port.

    The problem here is some apps or games will use the iGpu as opposed to the Nvidia 1060GTX prefered GPU despite even setting a preferred GPU via Windows Display Graphics settings on a app by app basis. Already lots of guides online to set that up but doesnt work half the time.

    Setting up a preffered gpu for high performance usage and trying to benchmark using 3dMark would use the iGpu when my display was connected to the igpu. Weirdly enough Heaven benchmark would work with the Windows preferred gpu solution but that was the exception than the rule. This was with Windows 10 Pro Insider preview 18305. So how do we get it to work 100% of the time with every app?

    Well your going to need a couple things. 1. A dummy terminal plug hooked up to the discrete gpu (I'm using a displayport adapter) and 2. Display Fusion software. 3. Afterburner for monitoring gpu usage to verify its working.

    After the dummy terminal is installed you can merge your main display and the dummy display in Display settings so that both screens are cloned and that your discrete gpu gets activated. Also got to set your iGpu's screen as primary. The dialogues after doing that will get lost. You have to use DisplayFusion to hit 'Winx-Ctrl-X' to bring back the window apps when they get lost on the other screen onto your primary screen.

    Now when ever you launch your apps they will use your discrete gpu and output the video onto your primary screen via the iGpu!
    Going to clean up this guide later a little more. If anyone has ideas please add comments of your experiences.

    Thank you
     
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  2. mbk1969

    mbk1969 Ancient Guru

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    Ain`t that a "Hello stutters" ?
     
  3. moheban79

    moheban79 Master Guru

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    I didn't notice much stuttering
     
  4. mbk1969

    mbk1969 Ancient Guru

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    I was asking out of general curiosity, because I had experience with rigs (laptops mostly) equipped with iGPU + dGPU where monitor is connected to iGPU. In such configuration the frame rendered by dGPU should be transferred to iGPU, and looked like that additional stage introduced stuttering in games.
     

  5. moheban79

    moheban79 Master Guru

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    I just spent a half hour experimenting playing PainKiller and its an old game no doubt but I barely had any stuttering though had an occasional hiccup even though the gpu was being loaded no more than 25%. So maybe there is a little but its barely noticable.
     

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