Laptop switching to intergrated graphics after 10 minutes of playing Condemned - Hardware & Software

As said in the title, i have the game set to use the dedicated GT 730M, making me able to max out the game at 1080p. (Condemned Criminal Origins) After about 10 minutes of playing it switches to the Intel HD 4000, the temps stay below 72C too, so it's not throttling since the GPU doesn't start throttling until around 94C (found that out once when the vents were blocked) I have an Acer Aspire V3 571G 2.6Ghz Intel Core i5 3230M 12GB DDR3 1600Mhz Geforce GT 730M 2GB 750GB SSHD 1080P 15.4" Display

When you said you have the game set to use your GT 730M, did you set it in the Nvidia Control Panel? Just to be sure, I always select the Nvidia GPU instead of the "Use Global Option" selection to force the game to stay on the Nvidia one.

[QUOTE=huntingrifle;47369357]force the game to stay on the Nvidia one.[/QUOTE] Yeah that's what i'm doing, i've selected it specifically to use the GT 730M aswell as set the global option to "High preforming Nvidia processor"

How do you know it is suddenly switching to integrated? That shouldn't even be possible as the game would suddenly be presented a completely different GPU and would have to magically handle reloading everything, which simply isn't something games are programmed to do

If you mean that it is suddenly dropping frames like crazy, it is more than likely throttling.

[QUOTE=Darkimmortal;47372063] different GPU[/QUOTE] Because when i have HWMonitor up it says the GPU is at 72c, but when it switches to intergrated it drops down to about 55c, it's not throttling, because when i play Red Faction Guerilla it's at 77c and does not throttle. This does ONLY happen in Condemned. Oh and also Condemned dissapears from the "GPU Utilizing" windows, where it normaly shows which programs run on the GPU

Check your power settings, make sure it's on maximum performance.

Yeah, power settings to max perf when gaming on a laptop. Also don't try running it off batteries, the GPU usually downclocks when on battery power.

As i said, it only happens in Condemned, it's got nothing to do with my power settings, it simply switches to integrated. I started playing other games like Red Faction Guerilla and GTA IV and it never happened in those games, even though the GPU hit 79C then, but only 72 when playing Condemned

[QUOTE=Sn0peK;47373028]Because when i have HWMonitor up it says the GPU is at 72c, but when it switches to intergrated it drops down to about 55c, it's not throttling, because when i play Red Faction Guerilla it's at 77c and does not throttle. This does ONLY happen in Condemned. Oh and also Condemned dissapears from the "GPU Utilizing" windows, where it normaly shows which programs run on the GPU[/QUOTE] I think this requires further testing I don't think a fullscreen application can just switch which GPU it runs on suddenly

Tomorrow i'll go ahead and do this, i'll hook up my capture card to the HDMI out on the laptop and have HWMonitor on it, and have Condemned on the main display, then when playing it'll record the Nvidia GPU's activity and temperature when it drops.

Why don't you just connect it to a display?

Is there any visual dropout when it switches, such as a large stutter, black screen, etc.? If by some amazing set of circumstances the game is actually written to allow realtime GPU changes, there's no way in hell it has been written to do it seamlessly [editline]23rd March 2015[/editline] [QUOTE=Sn0peK;47373028]Because when i have HWMonitor up it says the GPU is at 72c, but when it switches to intergrated it drops down to about 55c, it's not throttling, because when i play Red Faction Guerilla it's at 77c and does not throttle. This does ONLY happen in Condemned. Oh and also Condemned dissapears from the "GPU Utilizing" windows, where it normaly shows which programs run on the GPU[/QUOTE] If you can see the temperature of the nvidia gpu at all when it's not in use then either your system is misconfigured and you're pissing away battery or it actually is being used, just at low speed When Optimus is working correctly, it will turn off the nvidia gpu completely to the point where monitoring tools won't read temperatures etc.

You shouldn't see any issues with Optimus since everything is being routed through the iGPU in the first place. Should be a seemless switch.

[QUOTE=Levelog;47377659]You shouldn't see any issues with Optimus since everything is being routed through the iGPU in the first place. Should be a seemless switch.[/QUOTE] The only (relevant) thing the intel GPU has in its memory at the point of switching is the framebuffer output from the nvidia gpu. Everything the game has loaded into the nvidia vram would have to be loaded again into the intel's memory, including recompilation of shaders etc. There's simply no way of doing this seamlessly without predicting the switch in advance, and even then there's astronomically little chance of a game being programmed with this situation in mind (which it would have to be as this goes way beyond the scope of Optimus).

The switch is seamless, no blackscreen or anything, the framerate goes from solid 60FPS to about 14FPS, the temperature drops and the activity drops to 0%. I'll record it when i get home, i'm at school at the moment. Oh and obviously when i'm gaming i run it on AC power, with the battery taken out. When i use it in school etc i have it on "Power saving" mode with the battery in.

[QUOTE=Sn0peK;47378464]The switch is seamless, no blackscreen or anything, the framerate goes from solid 60FPS to about 14FPS, the temperature drops and the activity drops to 0%. I'll record it when i get home, i'm at school at the moment. Oh and obviously when i'm gaming i run it on AC power, [B]with the battery taken out. [/B] When i use it in school etc i have it on "Power saving" mode with the battery in.[/QUOTE] Try it with the battery in + AC adapter plugged in, just to rule it out.

[QUOTE=Sn0peK;47378464]The switch is seamless, no blackscreen or anything, the framerate goes from solid 60FPS to about 14FPS, the temperature drops and the activity drops to 0%. I'll record it when i get home, i'm at school at the moment. Oh and obviously when i'm gaming i run it on AC power, with the battery taken out. When i use it in school etc i have it on "Power saving" mode with the battery in.[/QUOTE] I assume the software you're using doesn't show the usage for both GPUs separately? Use HWiNFO64 to get the full picture. If the usage on the nvidia drops to 0% in it and the usage on the intel spikes up, I'll be genuinely amazed

[QUOTE=Darkimmortal;47377681]The only (relevant) thing the intel GPU has in its memory at the point of switching is the framebuffer output from the nvidia gpu. Everything the game has loaded into the nvidia vram would have to be loaded again into the intel's memory, including recompilation of shaders etc. There's simply no way of doing this seamlessly without predicting the switch in advance, and even then there's astronomically little chance of a game being programmed with this situation in mind (which it would have to be as this goes way beyond the scope of Optimus).[/QUOTE] Is it possible that the iGPU and dedicated chip work together in a type of SLI configuration? Where the dedicated chip draws extra power from the iGPU? This could explain how the dedicated card would stop working, but because the integrated chip has still loaded the assets, it would essentially be a seamless transition

I'll check that, probably is something like what Dan said, strangely it does not happen in ANY other game other than Condemned.

Sounds like some sort of driver issue

[QUOTE=DanTehMan;47384321]Is it possible that the iGPU and dedicated chip work together in a type of SLI configuration? Where the dedicated chip draws extra power from the iGPU? This could explain how the dedicated card would stop working, but because the integrated chip has still loaded the assets, it would essentially be a seamless transition[/QUOTE] No, they function entirely independent of each other. The Intel gpu is simply there to output the framebuffer. That's about it.