How to force NVidia 1060 on Surface Book 2

Question

Hi.....  proud new owner of a 15" Surface Book 2!

I cannot find where to tell the PC which GPU to use for an app.   I had owned the previous Surface Book and there was an NVidia Control panel thatgave you all kinds of control over that.

The new Surface Book 2 doesn't have that installed on it and it seems that it's stuck using the crappy Intel Pro 620 GPU on every piece of software.  I haven't modified ANYTHING since I unboxed it last night (in other words, I haven't screwed any drivers or anything up).   If I look under Device Manager, it shows both the Intel 620 and the NVidia 1060 as graphics adapters.

I'm sure this is something very simple but thanks for helping!

Answer 1

The NVIDIA Control Panel does not appear when pressing Start and typing because it is not in the list of apps in the Start menu. 

To open it, go to: Control Panel, Hardware and Sound, NVIDIA Control Panel.

Answer 2

try downloading the latest Surface Book firmware here:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=49497

go to your "system information" find "version" and download the firmware closest to that number.....

if all else fail...MS can "Fresh Start" your laptop.  Unfortunately, thats what I had to do but everything is working properly after that. Make sure you back up everything first.

Answer 3

Hi,

When I right-click on the desktop background, I see this:

Sounds like you are/were not?

What I don't recall is whether this was there when I first got the SB2 (I was thinking it was) or after I did some updates.

I did add NVIDIA GFORCE Experience and perhaps it showed up after this...

Here is the link to GFORCE Experience if you want to try that:

https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience/

Hope that helps.

-DM51

Answer 4

not really solved but here is a way to get to the Nvidia control panel.

go to C:\Program Files\NVIDIA Corporation\Control Panel Client and copy a link on your desktop to nvcplui.exe

this will get you access to the control panel, at least with ver 388.59 12/7/2017 the controls are not as inclusive as past Nvidia control panels but you can select which GPU to use. Maybe MS will supply an update in the future for a more granular control.

Answer 5

Right clicking the desktop never displayed the Nvidia control panel option for me even with all the latest updates from MS.

The Nivida control panel shows up now after installing the newest driver from the Nvidia website, it didn’t before that, I did install the GFORCE Experience after installing the newest Nvidia driver, I never had that option presented before. The functions with this control panel are minimal compared to other versions that I have used but at least you can set which programs that will force the use the 1060 card over the Intel integrated graphics.