Nowadays, laptops and personal computers come with an inbuilt integrated Intel graphics card. Integrated graphics card are those, which are built into your processor and send display information through the motherboard. While it may be convenient to some average users, such integrated graphics card is considered less powerful and bring many issues in the performance of the device as compared to the discrete graphics card which you have added later mainly for gaming purpose or upgrading your computer’s performance.
Discrete graphics are separate cards from the processor which send display information directly from the card. Discrete graphics card usually connect through a PCI lane on the motherboard. Such cards have to be bought separately. NVIDIA is one of the most widely used discrete graphics cards with high performance, quality, and durability. NVIDIA graphics card are way more powerful in performance than inbuilt Intel graphics card.
Integrated VS. Discrete Graphics Card
| Integrated Graphics Card | Discrete Graphics Card |
| Pros: More powerful in computing and performance | Pros: Less heat production Smaller and power efficient |
| Cons: Comparatively expensive More heat production and more power consumption | Cons: Severe limitation in performance |
Now, if you are having an issue with your integrated graphics card or want better performance and quality, then switching to your installed discrete NVIDIA graphics card might be a good idea. Though users have an installed discrete NVIDIA graphics card, many of them don’t have an idea about switching from integrated Intel graphics card to their dedicated higher power NVIDIA graphics card.
HERE IS HOW TO DO IT:
Step 1: First, make sure you have an NVIDIA graphics card installed to your device.
- To know if you have the NVIDIA graphics installed or not, right click on “This PC” and go to “Properties”
- Go to “Device Manager” and then to “Display adapters”.
- There you can see your Integrated Intel graphics card and your installed Discrete NVIDIA graphics card
Step 2: Setting up the quality of Intel graphics card
- Right click on the desktop and go to “Graphics Properties”
- Click on “3D option”
- Now under “General Settings”, tick on “Quality”
Step 3: Enabling NVIDIA graphics card
- Right click on the desktop and go to “NVIDIA Control Panel”
- Now under “Adjust settings with preview”, set the slider fully towards “Quality” and click “Apply”
- Then under “Manage 3D settings” go to “Global settings” and in the drop down menu select “High-performance NVIDIA processor” and click “Apply”
- And finally, under “Set PhysX Configuration” drop down the menu and select “GeForce” or the name of your NVIDIA processor and click “Apply”
Now you have successfully switched from your inbuilt integrated Intel graphics card to the installed high-performance NVIDIA graphics card.
If you are still having an issue in the performance of your device, it might be due to fault in the driver or an outdated driver. Make sure that your NVIDIA graphics driver is up to date. To update or download NVIDIA graphics driver go to NVIDIA site.
Select your NVIDIA graphics card from the dropdown menu and click on “Search”. The link to the latest NVIDIA driver according to your selected graphics card will open. Then simply download and install the file to your device.
You should now realize a great change in performance of your device.
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