Description: This article contains some of the most frequently asked questions about Switchable Graphics from Fall 2019.

Q: What is Switchable Graphics?
A: Switchable Graphics is a feature offered in many laptops to save battery life but still provide a great gaming experience.

Q: Do all laptops have Switchable Graphics?
A: No, only laptops with a dedicated graphics card will have this option.

Q: Does switchable graphics only apply to certain brands or manufacturers?
A: No, both AMD and NVIDIA, which are two of the most popular consumer graphics chipsets, support switchable graphics on various brands of laptops.

Q: Can I choose when the laptop uses the better graphics card?
A: Yes, each control panel offers a setting to assign a graphics card to each application or to have it set always on or off.

Q: Should I always use the high performance graphics card?
A: No, some applications will not benefit from using the graphics card and always using the high performance card will drain the battery faster.

Q: Why doesn’t my game see the better graphics card?
A: You may have to set the application to use the high performance graphics card, by default computers use the integrated graphics card and only switch to the high performance card if it is required.

Q: Where do I find the graphics control panel to make changes to the settings?
A: Windows 10 computers typically have the option listed by right clicking the desktop background. The software would be called Nvidia Control Panel or AMD Radeon Settings.

Q: Why can’t I locate the graphics settings?
A: If the control panel is missing you may need to reinstall the driver software for the card. These are downloaded directly from nvidia.com or amd.com depending on which graphics chipset you have.

Q: Do the video ports on the laptop use the dedicated graphics card?
A: Yes, the video ports on the laptop can utilize the dedicated graphics card when necessary.

Q: How do I find out which graphics card is in my computer?
A: Device manager will list all the display adapters included with the computer. The information will be under Display Adapters and will usually have two listed for a system with switchable graphics.

Q: Are there any options in the BIOS regarding switchable graphics?
A: Yes, an option to enable or disable switchable graphics will be present. This option is typically enabled by default.

Q: Would I ever need to change the option in BIOS?
A: No, the default option is enabled and would only need to be changed if you noticed the options no longer available in Windows when trying to install the drivers.