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Switching between Intel HD 4000 and HD 7950

Tags:
  • Graphics
  • AMD
  • HD
  • Intel
Last response: in Graphics & Displays
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October 4, 2013 6:15:27 PM

Hello! My question might sound stupid but googling didn't help so I turned here. So what I'm trying to figure out is how to TURN OFF/DEACTIVAE the separate gfx card (a HD 7950 in my case) while I'm running on CPU (Intel HD 4000) to play old games, do projects that requires no 7950ish GPU power at all for long weeks. I connected a DVI and had my display set up after installing both onboard and separate gfx drivers. However when I boot the system and change the initiation to PEG(separate)/IGX(on board) the boot fails and the system continues with no display signal. I want to know the correct method to swith between CPU/GPU gfx without any risk to my components and I want to know if there's a way to turn off the separate gfx card when I'm using the onboard gfx (fans spinning, still drawing power).
Thanks in advance.

More about : switching intel 4000 7950

a b À AMD
a b å Intel
October 4, 2013 9:17:57 PM

Other than taking it out it'll always be on but in low power mode. It is only ~10w at idle so doesn't affect the power bill so is a waste of time to have to take it out to have it completely off. Also when doing anything non intensive it shouldn't use much power. Specs? Are you only using 1 monitor? Igpu multi monitor on? This needs to be on since you have a discrete in. You may also see an option to enable igpu.

Your mobo may come with virtu. Otherwise to switch with 1 monitor you can just change which gpu it is connected to. Don't use 2 cables to 1 monitor, that won't work. If you have multiple monitors you can just change which is primary in windows. Initiate in bios is just which gpu it will show the bios on so you don't need to worry about changing that.
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October 5, 2013 12:12:42 AM

Sorry for not posting the details. Currently I'm on a 22 inch IPS display and a Asus HD 7950. I've been playing games form GOG (fallout, crusader) and they don't require a powerful GPU. The reason I want to use iGPU to play these games/do documents is that specially when one of those games has lanunched, the frame rate of the game goes over 2000 or 3000. Thus putting the GPU on over stress (funny right?). To avoid this I thought I could use a frame rate limiter. I tried 'Frame Rate Limiter v.1, Dxtory, Bandicam and finally wrote a batch file to delete the .avi files created by FRAPS so I can lock the frame rate of the game in record mode - FRAPS would run and record, effectively locking the FPS at 30 and saving GPU power. The script would automatically delete the recordings every 15 minutes. That's the story so far and I found that I can actually CAP the FPS at 20 with Dxtory but found GPU to be working under the same load with 2000FPS. So my display has two inputs. If I connect one to the 7950 and the other to iGPU (dvi) and keep connected and select iGPU/GPU at bios and boot, theoratically it should work. But for some reason it doesn't. All I get is a NO signal state. I got a Gigabyte board and no, It doesn't have virtu VMP.
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a b À AMD
a b å Intel
October 5, 2013 9:39:43 AM

As I said, using 2 cables to 1 monitor will not work. Windows has the primary monitor set to the 7950 since this is how you had it prior to doing this. It is active because something is plugged into it and so doesn't switch. This is windows seeing the monitor and has nothing to do with bios. As I said initiate is just the monitor bios shows on.
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October 5, 2013 10:28:55 AM

Somehow I got it to work. I set BIOS to iGPU while two cables were connected to the same display. However, I didn't get the start menu and I couldn't open any windows. HDD indicators kept blinking way too long and I don't know what happened. The second time I got it to work. I even played a game on iGPU. MSI Afterburner seemed to have caught up with new iGPU (stats changed). Again after a restart everything is messed up. I'm going to do a bit more research and attempt to try and get it to work in a few days. Is it alright to have two signal cables from the same machine to be connected to a single display?
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a b À AMD
a b å Intel
October 5, 2013 2:44:22 PM

Afterburner working with intel igpus? I'd like a screenshot of that.
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