Which is dedicated and which is integrated

[pancakeloverz]

First of all I have a lenovo y520 laptop. Nvidia gtx 1060 max Q 3 gb. intel i5 7th generation. 8 gb ram.

MSI Afterburner tells me gpu 1 usage and gpu 2 usage. Which one of these is the dedicated and which is integrated. gpu 2 usage drops when playing games and causes fps drops, so I want to know which gpu it is. It seems like my gpu1 is pretty stable and increases depending on the game. On League of Legends gpu1 will be about 60% and gpu2 on 25%, but then gpu2 randomly drops down to 1% for one second, and this causes fps drops or freezes. If gpu2 is integrated, then why does it affect my gaming? Why doesn't my dedicated graphics card take full control?

BTW, if you can please tell me how to fix these random gpu usage drops. My laptop is brand new and shouldn't be lagging like this.

 

[jimmyEatWord]

you mean msi afterburner shows your onboard graphics too ?

 

[pancakeloverz]

you mean msi afterburner shows your onboard graphics too ?

I dont really understand your question. Do you mean if it shows ingame gpu usage? yes it does

 

[jimmyEatWord]

pardon me , it must have been a misunderstanding , nevermind.

 

[pancakeloverz]

pardon me , it must have been a misunderstanding , nevermind.

No it's probably my fault. English isn't my first language, so I have not learned technical computer words :/

 

[pancakeloverz]

pardon me , it must have been a misunderstanding , nevermind.

BTW I have updated the thread more

 

[Eximo]

In this situation you should use the Nvidia Control Panel to set which GPU to use on a per-program basis. You would almost never want to use the integrated graphics for gaming, except some light web-based game maybe.

 

[pancakeloverz]

In this situation you should use the Nvidia Control Panel to set which GPU to use on a per-program basis. You would almost never want to use the integrated graphics for gaming, except some light web-based game maybe.

I have been in control panel and set it to nvidia, but my question is more: What is this gpu2? is it nvidia or is it integrated? how can i find out?

 

[jimmyEatWord]

pardon me , it must have been a misunderstanding , nevermind.

No it's probably my fault. English isn't my first language, so I have not learned technical computer words :/

i thought you were talking about the onboard graphics , or maybe a laptop that connects to external gpu set ?

 

[pancakeloverz]

pardon me , it must have been a misunderstanding , nevermind.

No it's probably my fault. English isn't my first language, so I have not learned technical computer words :/

i thought you were talking about the onboard graphics , or maybe a laptop that connects to external gpu set ?

Oh no the graphics card is not external, it's built in the laptop. I still don't really know what "onboard" means sorry... But I do know that the laptop is in "out of the box" condition; basically I haven't changed anything, or added anything.

 

[Eximo]

It should tell you...unless something is drastically different in your MSI Afterburner. I stopped using it some time back in favor of EVGA precision.

The basic stats should also reveal it. I doubt the onboard graphics are consuming 3GB of memory, and the speed would be very high for the GPU memory compared to your system memory.

 

[pancakeloverz]

It should tell you...unless something is drastically different in your MSI Afterburner. I stopped using it some time back in favor of EVGA precision.

The basic stats should also reveal it. I doubt the onboard graphics are consuming 3GB of memory, and the speed would be very high for the GPU memory compared to your system memory.

I can't see it telling me anywhere. All I see is that one is called gpu 1 and one is called gpu 2. I can't see which one of these is which.

 

[Eximo]

Maybe some screenshots then?

 

[pancakeloverz]

Maybe some screenshots then?

At the moment I am not in game, and the gpu 2 is basically not in use. Switches from 0 to 1 %. Gpu 1 is at 39 to 40 %, but as you can see drops down to 0% sometimes (doesn't really do that in games, gpu2 is the problem).

 

[Eximo]

The little I for info button doesn't tell you which is which?

Also you can hover over the charts and get values, so the GPU with more VRAM is going to be the discrete GPU.

If you actually have Max-Q turned on it is going to limit frame production in games to maintain temperature and noise. If you want maximum performance, you would probably need to disable that, at least when you are plugged in. If the GPU is actually getting saturated and slowing down, that might explain some of the symptoms.

And when you drop back to the desktop I imagine the intel GPU will kick in and take over. I've found fullscreen vs fullscreen windowed mode also makes a big difference in some games. Performance is crap unless the game runs in a window. (I've mostly observed this with cryengine games)

 

[Aeacus]

Got a PM from OP to help out and now i'm here.

What you have in your laptop is i5-7300HQ CPU and GTX 1060 3GB with Max-Q design. i5-7300HQ has on-board graphics in form of Intel HD 630.

Try changing Power Plan settings to High Performance and look if you still get stutters,
further reading: https://www.howtogeek.com/240840/should-you-use-the-balanced-power-saver-or-high-performance-power-plan-on-windows/

But to know which GPU is dedicated and which is on-board, try using GPU bench tool and look which one is maxed out. Usually it's the dedicated GPU.
Unigine Superposition: https://benchmark.unigine.com/superposition

 

[pancakeloverz]

The little I for info button doesn't tell you which is which?

Also you can hover over the charts and get values, so the GPU with more VRAM is going to be the discrete GPU.

If you actually have Max-Q turned on it is going to limit frame production in games to maintain temperature and noise. If you want maximum performance, you would probably need to disable that, at least when you are plugged in. If the GPU is actually getting saturated and slowing down, that might explain some of the symptoms.

And when you drop back to the desktop I imagine the intel GPU will kick in and take over. I've found fullscreen vs fullscreen windowed mode also makes a big difference in some games. Performance is crap unless the game runs in a window. (I've mostly observed this with cryengine games)

Thanks, the I did show me which is which. it says that nvidia is gpu 2. That means that in games the intel is actually being used most, meanwhile the nvidia is just hanging around at 20-30% and dropping to 0% even though I have set it to be used in games in the nvidia control panel.

I don't think that you can just "turn off" max q, as it is a whole different gpu than the regular gtx 1060 (it's slimmer and 10% weaker I have heard.) But ofcourse if you know how to disable it, please let me know.

I will try windowed and fullscreen comparison.

 

[pancakeloverz]

Got a PM from OP to help out and now i'm here.

What you have in your laptop is i5-7300HQ CPU and GTX 1060 3GB with Max-Q design. i5-7300HQ has on-board graphics in form of Intel HD 630.

Try changing Power Plan settings to High Performance and look if you still get stutters,
further reading: https://www.howtogeek.com/240840/should-you-use-the-balanced-power-saver-or-high-performance-power-plan-on-windows/

But to know which GPU is dedicated and which is on-board, try using GPU bench tool and look which one is maxed out. Usually it's the dedicated GPU.
Unigine Superposition: https://benchmark.unigine.com/superposition

Hey thanks for coming. Usually it should be the dedicated but as I just said to the other answer, apparently my integrated is being maxed out and my dedicated is just hanging around on low % dropping to 0% causing fps drops.

I already have it on high performance.

 

[Eximo]

My current laptop has a GT740m? So I'm not really sure on that one. It has Nvidia Optimus as I recall, never really had problems with it. But I don't play a lot of games on it, WoW a few times, usually just old stuff and emulators for plane trips. (OpenRA definitely a new favorite)

Max-Q, I could do some googling, but it is pretty new. It is the same GPU, just software and firmware to make it behave differently. Basically they are touting a method to cram a powerful GPU into a smaller package by undervolting and binning, just like normal. The quiet mode is interesting. The rest seems like what a normal GPU would do, maintain a temperature envelope.

I'm sure setting each game up in geforce experience or the nvidia control panel might help.

 

[pancakeloverz]

I just played pubg to make some tests and found out:

Fullscreen:
iGpu usage: 99%
NvidiaGpu usage: 4%
Average fps: 120 on very low/medium (custom settings)

Windowed:
iGpu usage: 60%
NvidiaGpu: 30%
Average fps: 60 on same settings

Even though more nvidiaGpu is used on windowed the same lag spikes/fps drops happen on both.
I have set the game to use nvidia processor in nvidia control panel, but by the numbers, it doesn't look like it's doing that.

 

[Aeacus]

Did some digging and apparently Lenovo gaming laptops are designed in a such way where both, on-board and dedicated GPUs are used. Dedicated GPU only kicks in when on-board graphics doesn't have enough juice to render high graphical context.

Here's one solution to try if you haven't done that already,
link: https://support.lenovo.com/ee/en/solutions/ht078706

Another option would be trying to disable on-board graphics so your PC uses dedicated GPU all the time. Found a topic about it with a solution (last reply in that topic), but i can't confirm if that fix also works for you,
link: https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Lenovo-P-Y-and-Z-series/Y570-Completely-disable-Intel-HD-graphics-and-only-use-nVidia/td-p/1143609

 

[pancakeloverz]

you mean msi afterburner shows your onboard graphics too ?

I finally understand this. Yes it does show onboard too.

 

[pancakeloverz]

Did some digging and apparently Lenovo gaming laptops are designed in a such way where both, on-board and dedicated GPUs are used. Dedicated GPU only kicks in when on-board graphics doesn't have enough juice to render high graphical context.

Here's one solution to try if you haven't done that already,
link: https://support.lenovo.com/ee/en/solutions/ht078706

Another option would be trying to disable on-board graphics so your PC uses dedicated GPU all the time. Found a topic about it with a solution (last reply in that topic), but i can't confirm if that fix also works for you,
link: https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Lenovo-P-Y-and-Z-series/Y570-Completely-disable-Intel-HD-graphics-and-only-use-nVidia/td-p/1143609

I made the nvidia thing show down in the right corner (taskbar.) And it does go rainbowy when I play games, so it is being used but only 4% on pubg. On league of legends it actually uses 30% of both gpus, but the igpu shoots down to 0% once in a while which causes fps drops.

I don't really understand the second solution, but I will try to look more into it tomorrow.

 

[pancakeloverz]

Now that I kinda know the answer to this thread, I will make a new more specific one.

 

[pancakeloverz]

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-3496191/nvidia-gpu-usage-low-integrated-usage-high.html