AMD GPU's and Haswell

mateikav

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Sep 22, 2011
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My question pertains to using an AMD GPU alongside Haswell, which has an integrated GPU now as I understand. Will an AMD GPU work alongside/in tandem with the Haswell GPU? My guess is no, but I am interested to know what Haswell graphics do when you have a discrete AMD graphics card. Does it function for anything at all?

Thank you for the replies, in advance.
 
Solution
Switching graphics only applies to laptops and those running virtu. @Ksham, I have seen you post that a couple times now and the comment is misleading.

The relationship has not changed any since virtu first appeared with sandy bridge. Haswell's igpu interaction is no different in any way. One huge misconception with virtu is that the igpu and dgpu combine power. They do not. Both are used together but the igpu is not handling any graphics processing. For the most part hyperformance is useless.

With modern gpus taking less power in 2d mode, there is less of a reason to have both running.
when the discreet card is put in it should bypass the on-board graphics. on rare occasion you might need to do a BIOS adjustment. Doubtful though.

after graphics card install don't forget to plug the monitor into the back of that instead of leaving it plugged into the motherboard.
 


Yes, AMD gpu's will work with Intel CPU's/Chipsets. It will automatically disable the onboard GPU in BIOS when a dedicated GPU is detected.
 
Hi Mat welcom to the forum. On new mb with ipgpus both amd and intel they now run as there own video card when turned on. You use some of your system ram when there on. Most people today use them for muilt monitor setup. There is software out there "MVP" from lucientlogic that can combined the power of the ipgpu and gpu in some games...the software does work in some games but most people have found it very buggy. For the average uses most people set the bios to boot from there gpu and turn off the ipgpu by turning off muilt monitor support in there bios.
 
Okay, thanks for the replies. They confirmed my thoughts. I was thinking that hopefully the on-die GPU would be used for some processes, while the discrete graphics would do the heavy lifting. ksham indicated that the on-die GPU might do something like web-flash. Although others indicated the on-die graphics get disabled or bypassed.

Cool. Thanks again for entertaining my curiosity.

If anyone has more technical knowledge on the relationship between Haswell on-die graphics and discrete cards, I would appreciate some more in-depth input.



 
Switching graphics only applies to laptops and those running virtu. @Ksham, I have seen you post that a couple times now and the comment is misleading.

The relationship has not changed any since virtu first appeared with sandy bridge. Haswell's igpu interaction is no different in any way. One huge misconception with virtu is that the igpu and dgpu combine power. They do not. Both are used together but the igpu is not handling any graphics processing. For the most part hyperformance is useless.

With modern gpus taking less power in 2d mode, there is less of a reason to have both running.
 
Solution


Thanks k1114 for your reply. That was the info I was looking for. Thanks all for contributing, tomshardware forums always seems to have abundant and quick replying people.
 

I did not say that they combine power.