Optimus IV IGPU and DGPU led lights

[wilpang]

Hi guys,

I recently bought the Optimus IV and pretty happy with it so far.

I was wondering how do you know which GPU the laptop is currently using! The VGA button is on orange and the IGPU and DGPU led tend to flick between themselves every few seconds...

All my GPU drivers are up to date!

Any clarification would be appreciated...

 

[ubuysa]

There are four led's above the keyboard. The right two indicate which GPU is being used. The green one (second from right) indicated the Intel iGPU is being used, the yellow one (far right) indicates the nVidia dGPU is being used.

Mine flick back and forth on boot but then remain stable. I use the iGPU for most standard stuff and the dGPU for applications that need it.

The nVidia control panel (right click on the icon in the system taskbar) lets you specify which GPU should be used as the default, if you use the iGPU as default you can use the whitelist to add applications that should use the dGPU. Both are set in the Manage 3D Settings section of the nVidia control panel, the default is set via the Global Settings tab and the whitelist is on the Program Settings tab. I have found that some applications simply cannot use the dGPU even if you try to whitelist them.

The VGA button forces either Optimus mode (orange) where the iGPU or dGPU is selected automatically or or UMA mode (green) where the iGPU only is used.

Hope that helps.

Edit: Check out https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/foru...st-games-and-how-to-enable-Nvidia-GPU-monitor

 

[Axeboy]

The VGA button forces either iGPU (orange) or dGPU (green) mode but the dGPU will only be used if the application being used supports it, otherwise it will switch back to iGPU even though the VGA button stays green.

Hope that helps.

Is it not the other way around? ie Green for the iGPU and orange for the dGPU?

edit: I don't have a IV, but thought the colours would be the same for all

 

[wilpang]

Thanks for your response ubuysa

Well in my case the led lights are not stable once I am logged in, they tend to flick between IGPU and then flick back DGPU and repeats!

Not sure why it does that and the Nvidia GPU indicator shows it being used for a couple of secs then not again

Weird

 

[sirbb]

Sounds like you've got what I had. If it is, and the nVidia drivers have been updated, then your problem is that when the PhysX part of the drivers was updated it automatically "breaks" (for want of a better word) and causes the Optimus system to go awry and get confused (hence the constant changes between the orange and green lights).

The solution (for me at least) was to roll the drivers back to when the lights were stable and never ever update the nVidia driver automatically. Read this post I wrote related to the HotKey facility which might also be part of the problem:

https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/foru...imus-III-VGA-button-stuck&p=209767#post209767

The other cause, I have discovered, is if you have GPU or CPU monitoring softwarre installed (for temperature etc.). If this is the case, try uninstalling it and the problem should go away.

Hope this helps.

 

[ubuysa]

Sounds like you've got what I had. If it is, and the nVidia drivers have been updated, then your problem is that when the PhysX part of the drivers was updated it automatically "breaks" (for want of a better word) and causes the Optimus system to go awry and get confused (hence the constant changes between the orange and green lights).

The solution (for me at least) was to roll the drivers back to when the lights were stable and never ever update the nVidia driver automatically. Read this post I wrote related to the HotKey facility which might also be part of the problem:

https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/foru...imus-III-VGA-button-stuck&p=209767#post209767

The other cause, I have discovered, is if you have GPU or CPU monitoring softwarre installed (for temperature etc.). If this is the case, try uninstalling it and the problem should go away.

Hope this helps.

+Rep. That reminds me, I did have several issues with the Hotkey driver supplied on disk with my Optimus IV. These were solved by installing the latest Hotekey driver from the Clevo site. My Hotkey icon reports itself as 8.0085. Perhaps that's related to your GPU issue?

 

[wilpang]

Thanks sirbb,

That has actually worked I removed RealTemp which I use on Start Up and the Led lights have settled down to what I expected!

Is there anyway I can use RealTemp without the Led lights going crazy?

 

[ubuysa]

Thanks sirbb,

That has actually worked I removed RealTemp which I use on Start Up and the Led lights have settled down to what I expected!

Is there anyway I can use RealTemp without the Led lights going crazy?

I suspect the problem is that RealTemp is trying to read the temp of your dGPU periodically and that's what turns it on briefly. Can you configure RealTemp not to monitor the dGPU? At least when you're not using it?

 

[sirbb]

The only program I have found that can read CPU temperatures without the GPU lights going crazy is the portable version of Core Temp which is fully configurable (although it won't read your GPU temperatures).

 

[wilpang]

Thanks guys for all your help at least I know what's causing the issue!