Doubt about intel hd and dedicated graphics usability

[Sagar_20]

So my friend recently bought a budget gaming laptop called Acer aspire 5. I installed cpu-z in their laptop and now when i go to the graphics section the app displays both intel hd graphics and nvidia 150 mx graphics. While on my desktop intel hd graphics are disabled and cpu-z only displays the dedicated graphics. What does this mean? Can that laptop use both the graphics?

 

[Rdslw]

usually you should. intel uses much less power and mx150 will have good gaming performance. on battery, watching internet you want intel. Windows does manage that.

 

[Jesse_20]

What happens is that windows will use the integrated Intel graphics for most tasks that are not graphic intensive, in order to conserve power and make the battery last longer. The Nvidia gpu is used when it is needed for more graphic intensive tasks.
So, ultimately, yes, he is using both, just not on the same workloads or at the same time.

 

[kraelic]

It should be using both automatically, in optimus mode. The intel IGP is doing the desktop and the 150 mx should activate for 3d intensive tasks rendering the heavy graphics and then transferring the processed image to the IGP frame buffer for display to the screen.

right click the desktop, left click nvidia control panel, left click manage 3d settings and choose high performance nvidia processor under preferred graphics processor.