Question When is Nvidia card processing video/apps

[MAX61]

I have an ASUS FX705-GM laptop with a GTX 1060 GPU. It has both a USB-C port and Display Port. I am having trouble determining if the GPU is being utilized when there is nothing attached to the Display Port.

I have connected a Wavelink to the USB-C port and attached two 4K monitors to it, but I don’t see anything running on the GPU until I attach a monitor to the Display Port on the laptop. I use the GPU activity monitor built in the Nvidia control panel to determine what is running on the GPU.

When I disabled the Intel graphics via the Device Manager, I lose the ability to right click the desktop and access the Display Settings. Also, with the Intel graphics disabled, I get an error message saying there is no external display connected when I try to run the Nvidia Control Panel.

I want to understand if the GPU is processing all video, regardless of which port the monitor is connected to: internal, Display Port, or USB-C. As far as I can tell, when I use the Wavelink over USB-C, the Intel graphics is processing the video and not the GPU. The GPU only gets involved when the Display Port is used.

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

For starters, you should not disable the Intel graphics on a laptop, not even when there's a discrete GPU installed. Windows itself needs the Intel one. That's why some Windows features aren't working right.

No idea about the other stuff you're asking.

 

[MAX61]

For starters, you should not disable the Intel graphics on a laptop, not even when there's a discrete GPU installed. Windows itself needs the Intel one. That's why some Windows features aren't working right.

No idea about the other stuff you're asking.

Thank you. I connected three external 4K monitors to the laptop; two via the USB-C port utilitizing the Wavelink and one via the HDMI port (I wrote Display Port above, but it is actually a HDMI port). The laptop does manage to handle the three monitors at 4K resolution. I was hoping I would get the benefit of the discrete GPU on all external monitors, but apparently only the one connected to the HDMI port is rendered by the discrete GPU. The other two appear to be rendered by the Intel graphics.

 

[stevejewels]

I have an ASUS FX705gm-bi7n5. I disabled the Intel® UHD Graphics 630 and have no issues. In fact the desktop and everything else is much better.

Is there a particular Windows function I should check?

ASUS does not list a DisplayPort.

1 x COMBO audio jack
1 x Type-A USB2.0
2 x Type-A USB 3.1 (Gen 1)
1 x RJ45 LAN jack for LAN insert
1 x HDMI, HDMI support 2.0

Only HDMI.

 

[MAX61]

Thank you, Steve. Regarding the Display Port, I did correct myself in my post #3.

I was not able to access the display settings by right clicking the desktop. Did you try that?

 

[MAX61]

Thank you, Steve. Regarding the Display Port, I did correct myself in my post #3.

I was not able to access the display settings by right clicking the desktop. Did you try that?

The other thing to try is enabling the GPU activity icon in the Nvidia Control Panel under Desktop. With that running, look to see if any apps are running on the GPU. I only see apps running on the GPU if a monitor is connected to the HDMI port.