My laptop has 2 graphics cards...trouble with using the performance one when needed

Tohst

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Apr 17, 2011
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Hello all.

I just recently bought a new Samsung Ativ Book 8, I am loving it so far.

However, it comes with 2 different graphics cards. An integrated Intel 4000 HD for conserving battery life and a dedicated AMD Radeon HD 8770M for performance use such as gaming.

Now in order to activate and use the performance graphics, you must go into the Catalyst Control Center software (which comes on the PC) and select which applications you want to run using which graphics card.

When I first found this out, I switched XCOM: Enemy Declassified to run high performance graphics, and got the game to run fine. I was also able to play Planetside 2 on medium graphics settings after setting it to use the dedicated graphics. However, when I try to run "Dream", another of my games, on the dedicated graphics, the game is unplayable, (slow frame rates, lag, etc...) even on low graphics settings. I get the feeling that Dream is not actually being run on the dedicated graphics, but rather on the Intel HD 4000, as the 3 games are relatively similar in terms of graphics intensiveness, and XCOM and Planetside work just fine.

So I guess my question is, does anyone have experience with these Samsung laptops and/or am I missing something or doing something wrong? Or is my laptop really just too slow to run Dream, even on low graphics settings? It seems to me like my system should be able to run the game if it can run Planetside and XCOM...

EDIT: I am running all these games on Steam. Is it possible that there is some sort of application that I need to set to high performance for Dream that I am missing/not turning on?
 
Solution
Go into control panel then system and security then power option set it to max performance make sure that it has power saving on when disconected from the power line ditch the intergrated graphics driver not good to have 2 video drivers installed at the same time it could wreck the other one and for a slight boost in the game try game booster it will stop all background programs that it will not use when playing a game make sure to make a restore point before you go off doing any of this but that intergrated graphics is not a power saving at all you can tune the other video card to save even more power.

cobrastrike

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Sep 8, 2013
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Go into control panel then system and security then power option set it to max performance make sure that it has power saving on when disconected from the power line ditch the intergrated graphics driver not good to have 2 video drivers installed at the same time it could wreck the other one and for a slight boost in the game try game booster it will stop all background programs that it will not use when playing a game make sure to make a restore point before you go off doing any of this but that intergrated graphics is not a power saving at all you can tune the other video card to save even more power.
 
Solution

Technology Inc

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Feb 4, 2014
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Tohst, I have an Samsung Ativ Book 8 also. Have you resolved your issue? I have been working around with the same issue such as the one that you just described and I would like to know if the solution that cobrastrike offered you worked? What cobrastrike said is inline with what needs to be done.. Depending on how you use the laptop another solution might be what your looking for...
 

cococabana

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Jul 24, 2012
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>Plug in laptop.
do the following in Catalyst Control
>Power>Powerplay>Plugged In Maximize Performance
>Switchable Global Settings> Plugged in Maximize Performance

>Switchable Application settings> find your game .exe and change it to high performance.

Thats it, now while plugged in you should get every ounce of juice in your dgpu.
 

Technology Inc

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Feb 4, 2014
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Forgive me, I noticed what cococabana has said and I'm sure that solution is right also. I have done exactly what cococabana posted pretty much from the very start of my use with this laptop (ativ book 8) but I'm still unsure if the 8770m is being used or not.
 

cococabana

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Jul 24, 2012
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Provided Catalyst is detecting your dGPU then yes it IS being used. Simple test: Plug in lappy with above settings and run fraps and play a game. now with fraps runnign and game playing remove power cord. FPS should drop.