If you use your PC for gaming, running video editing programs or 3D applications, it is advisable that you activate a dedicated graphics card GPU of good quality. For this reason, we recommend you read this article with which you will learn How to activate the dedicated GPU video card to play on my PC.
How can I activate and force the use of the graphics card in games
If you like PC games you should know that its quality is very important, it is great to enjoy a good game with the best graphics, here we will show you how to activate these graphics cards for your games.
NVIDIA graphics cards
When you have the NVIDIA graphics card, what you have to do to activate it is not very complicated because when you install the drivers, they automatically install GeForce, which will take care of everything for you.
Its control panel shows us information about our screens to be able to configure aspects of them such as 3D acceleration or adjust the quality of your games.
AMD graphics cards
The AMD graphics card is very easy to activate, it only consists of a few simple steps and you will be able to play with better quality on your PC.
- We will click on “Energy”.
- When the menu appears, look for the option “Switchable graphics settings” and access it.
- After this we only have to select the applications for which we want to activate the AMD graphics card.
What is a dedicated GPU video card for?
The dedicated GPU video card is used for the optimal execution of games and applications that require a high level of graphic design and 3D animations. With this device, it is possible to achieve smoother video rendering and better fluidity due to the speed of the VRAM.
How to activate the dedicated GPU video card to play games on my PC?
First of all, it is advisable to know what kind of video card you have in your PC. Then, you need to know a procedure to activate the dedicated GPU video card on the PC through a series of steps that we explain below.
Download and install the dedicated GPU video card driver
First of all, it is advisable that you download the driver for your device manually. To accomplish this step, you can follow the instructions provided by Microsoft from the Microsoft website.
You can also go to the website of the manufacturer of your dedicated video card (Nvidia or ATI) and locate the most up-to-date driver for your device. Download the software package and proceed to install it on your PC.
Disables the integrated graphics card from the processor
We advise you to disable the processor’s integrated graphics card to avoid conflicts when running applications. Sometimes when a game or program requires a powerful GPU there may be glitches that need to be addressed.
However, it is important to note that the devices of the manufacturer “Nvidia” have the “Optimus” technology that is used to switch the use of the integrated or dedicated video card automatically when any application is executed.
Activate the dedicated video card GPU
To activate the integrated graphics card, open the “Nvidia” graphics driver panel and select the “Global Settings” section.
Then click on “3D Settings” and choose “Control 3D Settings”. Under “Preferred Graphics Processor” select “NVIDIA High Performance Processor”. Finally, press the “Apply” button and then “OK”.
Through this modification in the configuration panel, the system will tell the Nvidia driver to use only the dedicated video card GPU and to disable the integrated video card of the processor.
Activate the dedicated video card from BIOS
If you do not have a dedicated GPU video card from the manufacturer “Nvidia”, you can activate it through the BIOS of your PC.
For this, restart the operating system and hold down the “Delete” key before the Windows logo appears.
Once the BIOS options window is displayed, locate the “Settings” tab and select the Graphics Settings. There, choose the dedicated GPU video card, save the changes and restart the computer. Make sure to update your graphics card whether it is Intel or Nvidia to maintain optimal performance.
Do you have an AMD Ryzen processor?
If your computer has an AMD Ryzen processor, then you don’t need to disable the integrated video card because it doesn’t (unless it’s a Ryzen APU). In this case, the system will automatically activate the dedicated graphics card GPU and so you can use it to play games on your PC.
How to assign a program to a GPU
Below you will see a step by step to know how to assign a program to a GPU on your computer, to start you will open the settings at startup. Then enter the system and followed by this to the screen, look for (Graphics configuration).
The next step is to choose the application that will be executed with a GPU in the menu that will appear. Click on “Browse” and go to the path of the installer of your application or game and find the file that runs the application, select it and press “Options”. Finally, you must choose the GPU you want to use from those that will appear on the list.
How can I check that the application is using the GPU
Perhaps it has happened to you that sometimes the default options for the performance that certain applications require are not enough because they do not have a suitable GPU. To know how the performance is or check if any application is using the GPU, follow these step by step.
Go to the Task Manager and in the open applications we will see the GPU Engine section that will indicate which GPU is being used, if you want to know which card each number is, just go to the performance tab.
