give me my card!
September 4, 2010 11:44 AM   Subscribe

Lenovo g460 graphics auto-switching?

So, I recently purchased a Lenovo g460 notebook secondhand. Although it's secondhand, it's still pretty new and it seems like the previous owner only used it (and barely) for 2 or 3 weeks.

When I purchased the item, the description said that the device has NVIDIA geforce card. However, when I received the item and ran dxdiag, I'm only seeing Intel HD graphics as the gpu.

At first I was like, omg, I've been ripped off, as the fact that the notebook was listed as having an NVIDIA card was one of the major factors in my purchasing it. I read a little more online and I'm seeing people saying that the g460 has switchable graphics... meaning that when you need to run graphics intense programs the NVIDIA card will kick in, otherwise the Intel HD will run to preserve battery life.

This datasheet seems to confirm the presence of both the NVIDIA and Intel HD within the laptop, but when I checked Lenovo's site, it just lists Intel HD as the gpu...

So, what? Is it in there or not? Is there a way I can manually switch between the two, in case the auto-switch function is just not working? Is there a chance that there is a problem and the computer is just not "seeing" the NVIDIA card, which is why only the Intel HD is showing up?

If it means anything, the version of the g460 I have has an Intel i5 quad core @ 2.4 gHz.
posted by joyeuxamelie to Computers & Internet (3 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
I find it improbable that there are two graphics chips. It is possible that the intel graphics are onboard, and the NVidia is an add-on card that takes over, but I don't think they do it like that any more. (It looks like some of the new Core i# processors have GPUs built right onto the chip. Surely it is disabled if another GPU is on the machine?)

The datasheet confirms that the laptop can come with either, but probably not both.

Put the type and serial number in here, and see what it says. The result might be cryptic, but you may be able to click on a parts listing and see the part (FRU) number for the mainboard, or the existence of an addon NVidia GPU.
posted by gjc at 2:40 PM on September 4, 2010


Not that this helps any, but if the Intel graphics are anything like the previous generation, the onboard graphics will probably do fine unless gaming is the goal. I have a PC that pushes out 1080i just fine with onboard x3100 graphics and a single core Celeron 1.something.
posted by gjc at 2:42 PM on September 4, 2010


Response by poster: at first, I thought about the "comes with either" idea, because I had never really heard of having two chips on the same laptop. However, I later read about the opposite on a news site/blog run by a guy affiliated with Lenovo.

And, yes, unfortunately, gaming is the goal~
posted by joyeuxamelie at 8:10 PM on September 4, 2010


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