Laptop not allowing me to access the Nvidia Display/resolution settings only 3d settings

[petdox]

I have a PC Specialist Laptop it has an integrated Intel(R) HD graphics GPU and a Nvidia GeForce GTX 950M GPU. The issues is i want to change the resolution through the Nvidia settings but because there is an integrated Intel GPU it has disabled access. Could anyone please help.

Note: I have re installed drivers already

Many thanks
Peter

 

[Aza]

Are you able to post your full specs from your order page?

 

[petdox]

Hello,
Yes i can
Chassis & Display Cosmos Series: 17.3" Matte Full HD IPS LED Widescreen (1920x1080)

Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™ i7 Quad Core Processor 7700HQ (2.8GHz, 3.8GHz Turbo)

Memory (RAM) 16GB Corsair 2133MHz SODIMM DDR4 (1 x 16GB)

Graphics Card NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 950M - 2.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 12

1st M.2 SSD Drive 250GB WD BLUE™ M.2 SSD (up to 540MB/s R | 500MB/s W)

1st Storage Drive 1TB WD Blue™ 2.5" SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 545MB/sR | 525MB/sW)

Memory Card Reader Integrated 6 in 1 Card Reader (SD /Mini SD/ SDHC / SDXC / MMC / RSMMC)

AC Adaptor 1 x 120W AC Adaptor

Power Cable 1 x 1 Metre Cloverleaf UK Power Cable

Battery Cosmos VI Series 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery

Thermal Paste STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING

Sound Card Intel 2 Channel High Def. Audio + SoundBlaster™ Cinema 3

Bluetooth & Wireless GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® AC-8265 M.2 (867Mbps, 802.11AC) +BT 4.0

USB/Thunderbolt Options 1 x USB 3.0 PORT (Type C) + 2 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT

Keyboard Language SINGLE COLOUR BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD

Operating System Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc DVD & Single Licence

Operating System Language United Kingdom - English Language

Windows Recovery Media Windows 10 (64-bit) Home DVD with paper sleeve

Office Software FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365

Anti-Virus BullGuard™ Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode

Browser Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)

Notebook Mouse INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE

Webcam INTEGRATED 1MP HD WEBCAM

Thanks

 

[Aza]

Im sorry, I dont know anything about the cosmos laptops.
Is there any sort of software suite/control centre stuff for it?

Have you checked the nividia settings/display settings that allows you to switch it to using just the GPU?

Its a 1080p screen, what resolution are you trying to use/want to switch to?

 

[petdox]

Ok,
I know by reading on other forums that because the intel GPU is integrated, the Nvidia GPU is only used for heavier processing, like games, photoshop, cad apps.... I'm trying to trick the laptop into custom changing the display resolution so I see more on the screen, This is possible with the Nvidia settings (under display/resolution) , but it doesn't even give me these options because of the integrated Intel GPU. I've actually disabled the Intel GPU but then the Nvidia GPU seems to be looking for it when I try to go into Nvidia settings it fails to open the control panel. Some suggest going back to pc specialist (oem) and download the drivers from there and not from the relevant Microsoft/Nvidia sites? seems I'm going around in circles. I suspect the settings I want to amend were never available since I bought the laptop.

And good point on the 1080p, I shall delve a bit deeper.

Thanks for your input
Peter

 

[petdox]

For info.
So in essence, because there is an integrated Intel Gpu in the laptop built by PC Specialists, the Nvidia GPU is really just a secondary display GPU and so there is much functionality removed! I think PC Specialists should be pointing this out to there customers, if they are still producing them like this? I want to use the full functionality of the Nvidia GPU? not limited functionality of the integrated Intel GPU. This is very poor imo. If you offer to add the Nvidia technology to the laptop why limited it?

 

[SpyderTracks]

For info.
So in essence, because there is an integrated Intel Gpu in the laptop built by PC Specialists, the Nvidia GPU is really just a secondary display GPU and so there is much functionality removed! I think PC Specialists should be pointing this out to there customers, if they are still producing them like this? I want to use the full functionality of the Nvidia GPU? not limited functionality of the integrated Intel GPU. This is very poor imo. If you offer to add the Nvidia technology to the laptop why limited it?

On any laptop you have what's called hybrid graphics.

It automatically switches between integrated and dedicated to aid battery life.

To enable the Nvidia all the time, you just select the Nvidia card in the Nvidia control panel.

But you can't get any better than 1080p on that laptop as the screen doesn't support it.

 

[petdox]

Thank you for a response, but I believe you are incorrect
"To enable the Nvidia all the time, you just select the Nvidia card in the Nvidia control panel." yes you can but this doesn't seem to allow you to access the "nvidia" display/resolution settings because the integrated GPU controls that.
For your information, I have another more recent laptop from pc specialist which does have a better screen, this one works exactly the same? No access to nvidia display options only 3d controls.
Unless you can suggest another way to access the nvidia settings, my view I'm afraid stands. Any suggestions otherwise I will gladly try.

 

[Scott]

What, exactly, are you attempting to do?

I may be reading this wrong, I hope I am, but it seems that you have a 1080p screen running at a resolution of 1080p but you want to increase the resolution? You won't be able to increase the resolution past 1080p... as that's the limit of the screen. You can reduce the resolution, but this would make things bigger rather than smaller.

To cover what you feel are shortcomings:

The resolution of the desktop can be changed by right clicking on the desktop and clicking "Display Settings". If you scroll down, you will see a box "Display Resolution". This will show the supported resolution options of the screen connected. It doesn't matter if it's using the Intel GPU or the NVidia GPU, the monitor is the limitation.

When using an application that uses the dedicated GPU, the resolution can be set within the settings of the application (when fullscreen). Again, this will be limited to a maximum of the screen resolution (1080p).

The one thing I can think of that you may be referring to is the scale of the screen. This is available in the same settings page as above, by right clicking on the desktop and selecting "Display settings". Under "Scale and Layout" make sure it's set to 100% as anything above this will increase the size of everything on the desktop and make you think that the resolution is off.

I'm fairly certain this is a case of misunderstanding the operation of the system, rather than a shortcoming in the hardware/software. I can't for the life of me think what NVidia settings you are referring to as there's nothing I would typically use like this on my Desktop, which only uses the Nvidia GPU. It's still the same operations as above I do to change anything to do with on-screen visuals.

 

[petdox]

Thanks for responding.

So if I can clarify.
If I right click on the desktop I can go to the nvidia control panel, this control panel only displays 3d settings, it should allow me to access all settings on the nvidia control panel? The attached below shows what I should see, but I only see 3d settings. To confirm I can not see the full tree as shown on the attached screenshot.
I guess what I'm doing is irrelevant to the question of access to all nvidia controls, the laptop can be tricked into doing what I want, but without that access to the nvidia display where I could set up a customised resolution setting 🤷‍♂️ it won't work.
Thanks for your time

 

[Alltruism]

If you go into the Nvidia Control Panel - 3D settings and enable some higher resolutions under "DSR Factors", Apply, then right click your Desktop - Display Settings, can you then pick the higher resolutions there?

This would allow you your Nvidia card to render your desktop at 4k internally (for example) but then downscale it to your actual screen resolution, so you'd see more (smaller icons etc etc) but lose some sharpness

 

[SpyderTracks]

Thanks for responding.

So if I can clarify.
If I right click on the desktop I can go to the nvidia control panel, this control panel only displays 3d settings, it should allow me to access all settings on the nvidia control panel? The attached below shows what I should see, but I only see 3d settings. To confirm I can not see the full tree as shown on the attached screenshot.
I guess what I'm doing is irrelevant to the question of access to all nvidia controls, the laptop can be tricked into doing what I want, but without that access to the nvidia display where I could set up a customised resolution setting 🤷‍♂️ it won't work.
Thanks for your time

It will only allow you to access Nvidia controls when the Nvidia card is enabled.

If you haven't enabled the card for all use, then it will be using the Intel GPU so you won't get additional settings in Nvidia.

 

[Scott]

Thanks for responding.

So if I can clarify.
If I right click on the desktop I can go to the nvidia control panel, this control panel only displays 3d settings, it should allow me to access all settings on the nvidia control panel? The attached below shows what I should see, but I only see 3d settings. To confirm I can not see the full tree as shown on the attached screenshot.
I guess what I'm doing is irrelevant to the question of access to all nvidia controls, the laptop can be tricked into doing what I want, but without that access to the nvidia display where I could set up a customised resolution setting 🤷‍♂️ it won't work.
Thanks for your time

We're going around in circles though. What is it you want to do?

Initially you wanted to set the resolution to make the desktop appear smaller to fit more in. You cannot set the resolution any higher than 1080p as that's what your screen is limited to.

Whether or not you do this via the NVidia control panel or not won't make any odds. You're insistent that the control panel will allow you to do this, it simply wont. If you attempted a custom resolution the screen would blank out as it wouldn't support anything past 1080p.

 

[Scott]

If you go into the Nvidia Control Panel - 3D settings and enable some higher resolutions under "DSR Factors", Apply, then right click your Desktop - Display Settings, can you then pick the higher resolutions there?

This would allow you your Nvidia card to render your desktop at 4k internally (for example) but then downscale it to your actual screen resolution, so you'd see more (smaller icons etc etc) but lose some sharpness

Is the above what you are looking to do? I'm still trying to figure out what it is that you're attempting.

 

[petdox]

So in essence this is what i'd like to do, i just did a simple youtube search for this.

https://youtu.be/pRTU8_Ah9v4

thank you

 

[Scott]

So in essence this is what i'd like to do, i just did a simple youtube search for this.

https://youtu.be/pRTU8_Ah9v4

thank you

Yes, that's basically what @Alltruism suggested, just a different way of doing it.

To have the GPU used all the time rather than the Intel option, go to:
3DSettings
manage 3D Settings
Click "Global Settings"
Click the drop down and then select "High-performance Nvidia"
Apply

That should remove the use of the integrated graphics and allow you to create custom resolutions.

 

[petdox]

ok thank you, I thought i'd already tried that but I'll give it another go, many thanks for your time,

 

[Scott]

Just wondering if you can perhaps select the dGPU in the BIOS to bypass the iGPU. If you can do this, I think you can solve your problem entirely. If you can't then it would suggest that it's not possible on your laptop, as suggested in the video.... one of the shortcomings of laptops in general.

Again though, this is not a shortcoming of the hardware provided by PCS, it's simply the way that every laptop of this style is provided.

 

[petdox]

Choosing the
manage 3D Settings/ "Global Settings" doesn't allow me to do anything different, I have been on 2 different laptops and the same results.
And unfortunately @Alltruism suggestion of "3D settings and enable some higher resolutions under "DSR Factors". I cannot see within the Nvidia control panel.
I guess amending in the bios settings is a last resort but won't this be the same as disabling the integrated GPU in device manager? which I've already tried (and gave me no access to the Nvidia control panel because this GPU is not physically linked to the display.

The other point and I guess at the time I wouldn't have thought of asking, is whether there was a Integrated GPU? But surely PCS should maybe warn it's customers there could be limitations when choosing the additional Nvidia option? Again I wouldn't have necessarily checked for it?

Thank you to all, maybe I need to get a new laptop 😊😊😊, wife will be happy about that 😁

 

[Scott]

Choosing the
manage 3D Settings/ "Global Settings" doesn't allow me to do anything different, I have been on 2 different laptops and the same results.
And unfortunately @Alltruism suggestion of "3D settings and enable some higher resolutions under "DSR Factors". I cannot see within the Nvidia control panel.
I guess amending in the bios settings is a last resort but won't this be the same as disabling the integrated GPU in device manager? which I've already tried (and gave me no access to the Nvidia control panel because this GPU is not physically linked to the display.

The other point and I guess at the time I wouldn't have thought of asking, is whether there was a Integrated GPU? But surely PCS should maybe warn it's customers there could be limitations when choosing the additional Nvidia option? Again I wouldn't have necessarily checked for it?

Thank you to all, maybe I need to get a new laptop 😊😊😊, wife will be happy about that 😁

I genuinely think you are misunderstanding the nature of a laptop.

If the iGPU is integral to the display, I believe this is called Optimus. If this is the case, you won't have the option of disabling it in the BIOS (I think that's right, it's been a while). The first thing to do, though, is go into the BIOS and try and see what happens.

If you watch the video you linked earlier to youtube, you will hear the person discuss that the tutorial offered is, unfortunately, not really much use to anyone who would want to do it, as it won't work for laptop users. That is to say, most laptop users. As I've stated, this isn't a limitation of the hardware supplied by PCS or any shortcomings in the offerings that would typically be highlighted. It's the standard layout and options contained within laptop specifications in general. There are always drawbacks to having a laptop over a desktop, unfortunately this is one of them, and it's well recognised as such.

You can get a DTR laptop (desktop replacement) which would likely do as you wish, but you are going to require to spend an awful lot of money for such a low end feature set.

You would absolutely need to do your own homework on this though as it's such a niche use that there wouldn't be any specification list, or likely any customer service agent, that would list this as a feature. You are looking for non-optimus display tech.