Dell 3578: Switch to Readon card as primary?

Question

Hi All,I recently purchased Dell 3578. I see it has Intel UHD 620 graphics. But I am aware that this laptop has 2GB of AMD 520 inbuild graphics GPU. From task manager I see only (in GPU0) the utlization is seen for Intel graphics, but in GPU1 the Radeon is showing 0% utlization, moreover none of its other utilization parameter shows numbers or is changed.I want to know how can i switch the GPU memory to Radeon Card so that it will be used as primary card during PC run?ThanksTip

ejn63 · Accepted Answer

No. The AMD GPU is a co-processor. The Intel GPU is wired to the display - the AMD is not. All video data is sent to the Intel GPU on its way to the screen.

The AMD GPU is not a standalone GPU, and cannot be promoted to primary. That's the Intel GPU.

jphughan · Answer

The answer above is correct, although I also remember reading another post where someone found that Task Manager always showed 0% utilization for the dGPU even when the GPU’s own tools showed it active. Since the GPU utilization meter of Task Manager is relatively new, it’s possible it doesn’t properly support monitoring 'render-only' GPUs that aren’t physically wired to any display outputs.

tip.can19 · Answer

Thanks, i am getting an idea of this, but how will the PC switch the graphics? Is it done automatically? Is there a separate way to know the AMD GPU is being used other than the task manager? Thanks

jphughan · Answer

The only systems I have that are set up this way have NVIDIA GPUs, so I don't know how much of this will apply to the AMD side, but on the NVIDIA side, the NVIDIA drivers look for processes that are known to benefit from additional GPU acceleration and step in when those processes are running. I believe there's also a mechanism for dynamically detecting this to allow the discrete GPU to be used with new applications even before driver updates, but I'm not certain about this. The NVIDIA Control Panel can also show GPU activity.

So take a look around in the AMD Catalyst software to see if it includes similar functionality, but if you find there's a way to force GPUs for specific processes, I would recommend seeing how things work under the default settings before changing a bunch of stuff. But from a practical standpoint it should be pretty obvious based on performance whether the AMD GPU is active while playing a game or something.

tip.can19 · Answer

Sure, thanks for helping out. Regards

Vostro

Dell 3578: Switch to Readon card as primary?

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