If you've got a gaming computer, it'southward more than likely that yous've got two graphics cards inside information technology; an integrated onboard graphics card and a much stronger defended graphics carte. Some games mistakenly apply the onboard graphics carte du jour instead of the defended i, and since the onboard graphics card isn't powerful enough to procedure games, you're going to end up with very depression frames and graphics. That is, if your game doesn't crash outset, anyway.

Fortunately, you lot can manually tell your computer to utilize the dedicated graphics bill of fare for specific programs and games. Here'southward how.

Integrated vs. Dedicated Graphics Cards

The major difference between integrated and dedicated graphics cards is that integrated GPUs don't take their own processors or RAM. Instead, the integrated graphics menu uses the resource from the CPU and the computer RAM. So if you have 8GB of full RAM, and 1GB of shared graphics RAM, that's gonna reduce your available RAM to 7GB. All these handicaps reduce the processing power of an integrated graphics card and make it unsuitable for playing demanding video games.

A dedicated graphics card, on the other hand, comes with its own processor, RAM, and cooling system. This gives the dedicated graphics card the capacity to run high-cease video games smoothly, simply also makes the dedicated graphics card beefy, and a lot more expensive in price. If you want to learn more, read our article on what's the difference between integrated and dedicated graphics cards.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 GPUs.

Nigh modern processors come up with an onboard integrated graphics card. So then, if you have a dedicated graphics carte forth with a mod processor, then you've got two operation graphics cards. In this case, your calculator's software decides when to utilize each graphics bill of fare, to give you amend performance or longer battery life.

Sometimes, this software gets dislocated and uses the wrong graphics carte for a program. At present if that program is a loftier-end video game, and your reckoner is trying to use the integrated graphics to run and render information technology, you lot're going to get terrible operation. The workaround for scenarios like this is to instruct the software to use the dedicated graphics card for that video game, manually.

How to Set up a Video Game to Use the Defended Graphics Card

The software responsible for switching graphics depends on your dedicated graphics card. If y'all've got an NVIDIA, then it's going to be NVIDIA Control Console, just if y'all've got an AMD then it'll be AMD Radeon Software. We're going to cover the steps for both of these softwares in this article. Even so, the very first step is to place the plan.

1. Identifying the Executable for Your Game

Task Manager in Windows 11

The executable or .exe file that runs the game is unremarkably obvious as information technology mostly goes like GAMENAME.exe but sometimes that'due south not the example. The absolute method to find out what process is responsible for running the game is through the Task Manager.

  1. Launch the video game.
  2. Once the video game has fully launched, minimize the game. You can do this by pressing Win + D to go to the desktop.
  3. Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc on your keyboard to bring up Chore Manager. Alternatively, you can search for Task Director in the start menu.
  4. Notice the game process and so right-click on it.
  5. From the menu, select Open file location.
  6. A window in Explorer volition open to show you the executable file in its location. This is the file that you demand to instruct to use the defended graphics card.

2. Irresolute the Settings in NVIDIA Command Panel

NVIDIA Control Panel

Now that you lot know what the file is and where it is, yous can add it to the control panel for your graphics card and prepare it to use the dedicated graphics card all the time. As mentioned earlier, this is done through the NVIDIA Command Console for NVIDIA graphics cards.

  1. Right-click on your desktop.
  2. From the menu, select NVIDIA Command Panel. If you're on Windows 11, select Show more options and and so select NVIDIA Control Panel.
  3. Inside NVIDIA Command Panel, from the bar on the left, select Manage 3D settings.
  4. Click Plan Settings.
  5. Under Select a plan to customize, select Add. This will open up a limited list of your programs.
  6. In the Add window, click on Browse.
  7. Go to the file location you discovered in the previous department and then select the game file.
  8. Click Open. At present your game will announced on the program listing.
  9. Nether Select the preferred graphics processor for this programme, select High-operation NVIDIA processor.
  10. Finally, from the bottom correct, click on Apply.
  11. Your game will at present utilise your defended graphics card to requite y'all much better performance.

3. Changing the Settings in AMD Radeon Software

Adding a game in AMD Radeon Software

If you've got an AMD graphics bill of fare, y'all'll demand to add the game to the AMD Radeon Software then prepare it to the Gaming profile in that location.

  1. Right-click on your desktop.
  2. From the carte, select AMD Radeon Software. If you're using Windows 11, select Show more than options and and then select AMD Radeon Software.
  3. Inside AMD Radeon Software, select the Gaming tab from up top.
  4. Select the three vertical dots on the correct, and then click Add A Game.
  5. Select the game file and then click Open. This will add together the game and take you to its settings page.
  6. Under Graphics, click on Graphics Profile and and so select Gaming.

That's it! The next time y'all launch that video game, information technology'll be your AMD graphics card doing the hard processing piece of work and earning you lot more FPS.

Dedicated to Operation

Though integrated graphics have greatly improved in contempo years, with some being able to run enervating games, they're still nowhere every bit fast equally defended graphics cards. Now that you lot've learned to switch to your dedicated graphics carte du jour, your games should run smoother and perform better.

However, if even your dedicated graphics carte du jour can't handle the games properly, perhaps information technology's time for a GPU upgrade.