# Switchable graphics: Which GPU is running my game?



## MarveL (Apr 14, 2012)

Hi,

I have a sony vaio laptop with switchable graphics (intel HD 3000 and AMD Radeon 6630M).

Today I was playing Mafia II and i noticed an option called benchmark in the game menu where you can see the FPS rate of the game for your hardware. surprisingly, it showed that the game is using the intel HD chip instead of the dedicated Radeon GPU.

I am not sure why the game is not picking up the dedicated GPU? it's not a ripped game. I have purchased it legally from steam.

I want to see whether my other games are using the radeon chip or not? Is there any way to check which GPU hardware is being used by any application?


----------



## dashing.sujay (Apr 14, 2012)

Use any temp monitoring app. When dGPU will be in use, it will show its temp a positive value or 0°.
Regarding Mafia II not using dGPU, it _may_ happen sometimes that graphic switching doesn't detects automatically, so assign it dGPU manually.


----------



## coderunknown (Apr 14, 2012)

Mafia II on Intel graphics will look crap


----------



## Sujeet (Apr 15, 2012)

^^it wont look crap at high setting but will run crap for sure.


----------



## dibya_kol (Apr 15, 2012)

^^ i ran Mafia II with decent fps(40-45fps with all maxed ) , the game is 18+ rated though ..


----------



## thetechfreak (Apr 15, 2012)

Well actually when you are on desktop the laptop uses Intel Graphics. If in the benchmark you can run everything smooth you are in the clear.


----------



## Sujeet (Apr 15, 2012)

dibya_kol said:


> ^^ i ran Mafia II with decent fps(40-45fps with all maxed ) , the game is 18+ rated though ..



i Was talking about running it on intel HD .


----------



## balaji2525 (Apr 16, 2012)

MarveL said:


> Hi,
> 
> I have a sony vaio laptop with switchable graphics (intel HD 3000 and AMD Radeon 6630M).
> 
> ...



Hi Marvel, plug in the charger and try, then your laptop will use discrete card.Idea of AMD switchable graphics is to manage power, Intel IGPU needs less power compared to discrete GPU, so, when your laptop runs on battery, intel HD is preferred rather discrete GPU

that is why you would have seen the game is using the intel HD chip instead of the dedicated Radeon GPU.


----------



## Aerrow (Apr 16, 2012)

balaji2525 said:


> Hi Marvel, plug in the charger and try, then your laptop will use discrete card.Idea of AMD switchable graphics is to manage power, Intel IGPU needs less power compared to discrete GPU, so, when your laptop runs on battery, intel HD is preferred rather discrete GPU
> 
> that is why you would have seen the game is using the intel HD chip instead of the dedicated Radeon GPU.



Surely, that is not the only way.. There shud be a setting within the OS or BIOS which allows you to select one manually?


----------



## balaji2525 (Apr 16, 2012)

Aerrow said:


> Surely, that is not the only way.. There shud be a setting within the OS or BIOS which allows you to select one manually?



can give a try with Max, balanced and low performance mode in windows. . .


----------



## coderunknown (Apr 16, 2012)

Aerrow said:


> Surely, that is not the only way.. There shud be a setting within the OS or BIOS which allows you to select one manually?



try running some highend game at extreme setting. if game runs (forget what FPS it gives), it is using AMD GPU. And AMD GPU is used when there is load detected. not all the time.

you can compare your result with benchmarks.


----------



## dashing.sujay (Apr 16, 2012)

balaji2525 said:


> Hi Marvel, plug in the charger and try, then your laptop will use discrete card.Idea of AMD switchable graphics is to manage power, Intel IGPU needs less power compared to discrete GPU, so, when your laptop runs on battery, intel HD is preferred rather discrete GPU
> 
> that is why you would have seen the game is using the intel HD chip instead of the dedicated Radeon GPU.





Aerrow said:


> Surely, that is not the only way.. There shud be a setting within the OS or BIOS which allows you to select one manually?



Don't confuse other people by guessing.

Until and unless you set switchable method to use dGPU on A/C and onboard on battery, it won't act like that. If you run game on battery, it WILL use dGPU irrespective of battery left. (Depends on power settings too).

And there's no such setting in BIOS, just in Catalyst.


----------



## s18000rpm (Apr 16, 2012)

just use GPU-Z.
it'll show you which gfx card is running.(sensor tab)


----------



## MarveL (Apr 16, 2012)

Thank you everyone, I have downloaded GPU-Z and checked the second tab (GPU Load) while running mafia 2 in the background. I am happy to see that the game is using the dedicated radeon GPU only 

Still not sure how the benchmark option is falsely showing Intel HD, but who cares! the game runs smoothly on high settings


----------



## balaji2525 (Apr 17, 2012)

balaji2525 said:
			
		

> Hi Marvel, plug in the charger and try, then your laptop will use discrete card.Idea of AMD switchable graphics is to manage power, Intel IGPU needs less power compared to discrete GPU, so, when your laptop runs on battery, intel HD is preferred rather discrete GPU
> 
> that is why you would have seen the game is using the intel HD chip instead of the dedicated Radeon GPU.





dashing.sujay said:


> Don't confuse other people by guessing.
> 
> Until and unless you set switchable method to use dGPU on A/C and onboard on battery, it won't act like that. If you run game on battery, it WILL use dGPU irrespective of battery left. (Depends on power settings too).
> 
> And there's no such setting in BIOS, just in Catalyst.



yes switchable graphics can be controlled with catalyst but that reply was not on guess, check the link below

link: AMD Switchable Graphics Technology


----------



## dashing.sujay (Apr 17, 2012)

balaji2525 said:


> yes switchable graphics can be controlled with catalyst but that reply was not on guess, check the link below
> 
> link: AMD Switchable Graphics Technology



Man, I own the same product and graphics switching never comes "power source based switching" as default. You have to do it actually. The link you gave just says half part of the story.


----------

