Hi, I have a question:
I have a laptop with two graphics cards (Intel HD Graphics 620) and (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M). My computer is getting slower and slower and I notice that my NVIDIA graphics card is not being used but only the one integrated into the processor as you can see from the screenshots. How do I change the default graphics card please?
Thank you in advance for your reply
Welcome to the Forum!
Open the Terminal and type sudo prime-select nvidia
And if You want back to Your Intel Graphics replace nvidia with intel.
One Option would be to look to your Ressource Monitor like on Your Pictures above. You could take a Look in Settings>About to check if Your Nvidia Card is shown. Another Thing to look would be in the Terminal with the command nvidia-smi if Your Graphics Card is shown.
it's normal for it to be marked as switched off ?
Assuming your using a notebook. Do you have a mux switch on the notebook ? If not it will auto switch from intel to nvidia (if set correctly to "hybrid graphics"). Mine looks like this, the intel is in use and the nvidia card has very low wattage.
When i game it will switch to the nvidia card.
the problem is that my computer is slow, even on the desktop, and it's not my processor because it's not used very much
I've just launched a game to test it out, and it launched on my Intel card.
Did you take a Look in Your BIOS? There should be an Option to switch between internal and external Graphics. When you set the external Graphics as default, it should be used by default.
Oh, and another Thing: do your system run in Wayland or Xorg? To check that go to Settings>About and there look for ''Window Manager''. If there stands Wayland try it with swtiching to Xorg.
To do that, go to the Login Screen and click on Your Profile so that the Password field appears. It has to be appeared! After it appears, you should see in the bottom right Corner a Gear Icon. Click on it and choose the Option ''Zorin Desktop on Xorg''.
Thats partly true, some devices have this setting and some dont. I have 2 graphic cards and i don't have any setting in the bios. I also don't have a mux switch. In windows it switched automatically (if it worked lol) and in linux is does too. However in Windows i had alot of resources running in the background which used the nvidia card, intel got side kicked by that. I have a power button that can be white or orange, orange is NVIDIA and white is Intel usage. In linux it's white alot when i am surving the net or do low tasks. When i am using a demanded app it's switching to orange (nvidia). Linux does this job so perfect, in windows my power button was orange all the time. Microsoft could learn from this / or intel. The main problem in windows whas the intel application for GPU (ARC). That one used so much resources so my power button kept orange. If i uninstalled that program it became white and worked as how i have it running now under linux.
Normal load (iGPU, see power button):
Heavy load (dGPU, see power button):
Can you open the nvidia settings ? and take a picture of it ? what games do you play ? and you do know the 950 is not really a gaming card ? (low end)
Good to hear that it works.
I use Cinnamon DE on Zorin 17.2 and of course Mint it has a setting in the Administration Selection of System Settings which allows me to switch between my two cards or leave it in auto ......
Thank you all for helping me. goodbye
