Computer with two graphics cards- Dolphin can't remember which one to use

07-09-2014, 06:46 PM #1

I am using a laptop with two graphics cards- an integrated Intel HD Graphics 4000 card (sufficient for browsing the web) and an NVIDIA GeForce GT 650, for gaming. After setting Dolphin up, I found it running extremely slow, and so I dug a bit and found that Dolphin was using the integrated card instead of the NVIDIA one. So I went into the NVIDIA control panel and told it to let Dolphin use the right card, went back to Dolphin and it said it was using the right card, but as soon as I boot up any game, it immediately goes right back to using the integrated card. (I should note, I upgraded to 4.0.2 from 4 after encountering this problem- before I upgraded, the framerate would remain stable for several minutes before dropping, but after updating it drops immediately upon loading a game) Ending the emulation doesn't fix it, but closing and reopening it does- at least until I try to run a game.

I already found that using the correct graphics card lets it run smoothly with a stable framerate, but for some reason I cannot get it to use the correct graphics card.

In case you need a few more details- when I open up Dolphin, I click on the "Graphics" tab, and the first two boxes read "Backend: Direct3D11" and "Adapter: NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M". After clicking "Open", selecting a game file and starting the emulation, the second box in the graphics tab now reads "Adapter: Intel® HD Graphics 4000". Note that the other graphics card does not show up as an option in the drop down either way- only the one currently selected. Closing and reopening Dolphin sets it back to GeForce.

Thanks for reading, any help would be greatly appreciated!

**JMC47** · 07-09-2014, 08:50 PM #2

NVIDIA optimus is weird, Dolphin is fine. I have two non-optimus graphics cards in my computer and Dolphin is perfect with knowing which one to use.

**KHg8m3r** · 07-11-2014, 02:59 PM #3

That's just Dolphin not playing nicely with Optimus switching cards. Even though it says Intel HD, its still running on the GT 650 as long as you follow this thread on the GPU part for setting up Nvidia cards: https://forums.dolphin-emu.org/Thread-unofficial-laptop-performance-guide