How to change between integrated graphics and dedicated graphics cards for any games?

Want to switch to your PC's dedicated graphics card for the best in-game performance? The steps are pretty easy to follow, even for beginners. While a custom-built desktop gaming PC usually features a singular discrete video card, most modern gaming laptops come with both integrated and dedicated video cards.

That said, integrated video cards aren't the best for gaming or content creation. Users will face performance hiccups while trying to run graphics-intensive games on integrated GPUs. Running heavy applications and games on an integrated card may overburden the system's CPU/processor at some point.

While dedicated video cards are great for gaming, they aren't exactly very battery-life-friendly. Since both integrated and dedicated graphics processing units each have their own uses, users may benefit from knowing the process of switching between video cards on their system.

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A guide to switching between integrated graphics and dedicated graphics cards

Discrete or integrated graphics are graphics processing units built into the processor and utilize system memory due to the absence of a dedicated memory bank. An integrated card is great for users looking to preserve their machine's battery life. However, one must switch to a dedicated card when playing video games to avoid performance issues.

First, make sure that your laptop features more than one graphics card for the switch to be made possible. To do so, you can visit the Device Manager application and check under the Display adapter tab where all your video cards should show up.

Now, if you have a dedicated Nvidia graphics card, follow these steps to switch to it for a particular game or application:

1. Right-click on an empty area on the desktop to open the context menu.
2. Select Nvidia Control Panel.
3. Select 3D settings and then Manage 3D settings.
4. Click the Program settings tab. From the first dropdown menu, select the game/application you want to use your dedicated video card for. From the second dropdown menu, select the Preferred graphics processor for this program option.
5. The dedicated graphics card will be reffered to as "High-performance NVIDIA processor". Select it to make it the official card for your video game.

If your computer features a dedicated AMD graphics card instead, follow these instructions:

1. Right-click on an empty area on the desktop to open the context menu.
2. Select AMD Radeon settings.
3. Navigate to System > Switchable graphics.
4. Locate the the game/application you want to use your dedicated video card for and select it.
5. From the drop-down menu, chose High performance. Make sure to re-launch the game for the change to take effect.

You can follow the same steps mentioned above for other video games. Make sure to restrict low-power programs while using the integrated GPU, as it will help conserve your laptop's battery.

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If you haven't used your laptop's dedicated graphics card before, you should experience a massive shift in in-game performance after the switch. One can also utilize their machine's dedicated graphics card for other intensive applications like video-editing or 3D-modelling programs.

Powering graphics-intensive games using an integrated card will not only cuff its FPS output, but will also cause a bottleneck and overburden the processor. This is because integrated cards don't have a dedicated memory pool and have to utilize the processor's memory to render graphics instead. Hence, make sure to switch to your machine's dedicated card for all your video gaming needs.