How to turn on the second video card on a laptop

Most often, the need to turn on the second video card occurs from owners of laptops. For desktop users, such questions arise quite rarely, as the desktops are able to determine how the graphics adapter is currently used. For the sake of justice, it is worth noting that with situations when you need to manually run the discrete video card, users of any computers may face.

Connecting a discrete video card

A powerful video card, in contrast to the built-in, is necessary for working in applications that actively use the graphics core (programs for video editing and image processing, 3D packets), as well as to start demanding games.

Pluses of discrete video cards are obvious:

1. Significant increase in computing power, which makes it possible to work in resource-intensive applications and play modern games.
2. Playing "heavy" content, such as video in 4K with a high bit rate.
3. Use more than one monitor.
4. The ability to upgrade to a more powerful model.

Of the minuses, you can allocate high cost and a significant increase in the energy consumption of the system as a whole. For a laptop, this means higher heating.

Next, let's talk about how to enable the second video card using the example of AMD and NVIDIA adapters.

NVIDIA

The "green" video card can be enabled using the software included in the driver package. It is called the NVIDIA control panel and is located in the Windows Control Panel.

1. In order to activate the discrete video card, you must configure the corresponding global parameter. Go to the "Manage 3D Parameters" section.

   

2. In the "Preferred Graph Processor" drop-down list, select the "high-performance NVIDIA processor" and press the "Apply" button at the bottom of the window.

   

Now all applications that work with the video card will only use a discrete adapter.

AMD.

The powerful video card from the "Red" is also included using the AMD Catalyst Control Center branded software. Here you need to go to the "Power" section and select the "High Performance GPU" in the "Switchable Graphics Adapters" block.

The result will be the same as in the case of NVIDIA.

The above recommendations will work only if there are no interruptions or troubleshooting. Quite often, the discrete video card remains unfounded because of the option off when the BIOS motherboard, or the lack of driver.

Installation Driver

The first step after connecting the video card to the motherboard should be the installation of the driver required for the full operation of the adapter. Universal recipe suitable in most situations, such:

1. We go to the Windows Control Panel and go to the "Device Dispatter".

   

2. Next, open the section "Video adapters" and choose a discrete video card. Press the PCM on the video card and select the "Update Drivers" menu item.

   

3. Then in the driver update window that opens, select the automatic search for updated software.

   

4. The operating system itself will find the necessary files on the network and install them on the computer. After rebooting, you can use a powerful graphics processor.

In older bios, such as AMI, you need to find a section with the title similar to the "Advanced Bios Features" and for "Primary Graphic's Adapter" to configure the value "PCI-E".

Now you know how you can turn on the second video card, thereby ensuring the stable operation of applications and demanding games. The use of a discrete video adapter significantly expands the horizons to use the computer, from the editing of the video before creating 3D images.