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Switching to Dedicated Graphics instead of Using Integrated
So I realized that my girlfriend's Alienware laptop, which I bought back in June of last year, is running on integrated graphics (Intel HD Graphics 4000 to be exact). The laptop is supposed to come with a 2GB GDDR5 AMD Radeon 7970M. I'm not sure if it was always running on integrated graphics, or if it switched over due to a bios patch or driver or something.
The model of the laptop is the M17X R4.
What I've tried:
I've tried updating drivers for both standard VGA adapters and the integrated graphics, but the device manager is simply not detecting the Radeon card.
You can't install AMD drivers or even run Catalyst Control Center because it can't detect that there is a relevant card to interface with.
I've tried disabling the integrated graphics card and rebooting, no luck. After rebooting I was however able to install drivers automatically, but it was for the standard VGA controller, and had nothing to do with the card.
Doing Fn + F7 to switch the cards switches me between the integrated graphics and the standard VGA. Again, nothing to do with the card. Even after I disabled the integrated graphics.
I have tried booting into BIOS and looking at the Dedicated Drive slot, and it says "ATI GFX." It's not giving me the name of the card, but it's also not saying "Not detected." I assume it's talking about the motherboard controller, but I have no idea.
In the BIOS menu, under the Advanced tab, I have no graphics options whatsoever. I've tried looking at this menu with the integrated graphics both enabled and disabled, but nothing is different.
That's about everything I've tried. I want to see if it's something I can do on the system before trying to crack it open and see if the card is seated properly and/or if the contacts need cleaning. Also, I haven't seen people having much success flashing the BIOS, but if it's something I need to try, I guess I'm willing as long as it doesn't screw up the whole system. It's still under warranty, but I'd much prefer to fix it myself than send it off if I can.
Any comments or suggestions would be very helpful and appreciated. Thanks!
Lapys
3 Posts
0
May 26th, 2013 23:00
Update: I upgraded to BIOS version A11, the newest available. Still no change. The card is not viewable from Device Manager.
Lapys
3 Posts
0
May 27th, 2013 09:00
I fixed the problem.
The issue apparently was that the laptop came with no drivers for the AMD card even installed. I've heard that if you get drivers from the manufacturer, you run the risk of the Switchable Graphics option not working at all (at least with NVIDIA cards).
What I did was, I went to the DELL support site, browsed to drivers and downloads for the Alienware M17X R4, and instead of looking at BIOS updates, I looked down at the Video updates. Right there, below the updates for the integrated graphics, was a driver download for the AMD card. I downloaded this, ran it, rebooted, and voila! Device Manager recognizes the card, the Switchable Graphics option is now available when I right click on the Desktop, and after setting an application to run in high performance (a game, for instance), it starts using the card whenever you use that application and stops when you're not. Pretty nifty.
For the sake of completeness, in case anybody else finds this topic, I still see "ATI GFX" in my BIOS for Discrete Graphics, and I still have no graphics or video options in my BIOS Advanced tab. Thankfully, after installing the drivers from the Dell website, I didn't have to fiddle with BIOS at all. Just had to enable the program in the Switchable Graphics menu.