Is there a way to force a program to use a secondary GPU?

Question

I have 2 GPU's (Nvidia GTX 970 and 1080) and I want to force a program to use the 1080 for certain programs/games. Going to Settings>System>Display>Graphics Settings should give me the option to switch GPU's. Unfortunately it does not list both of my GPU's nor does it allow me to change to another one, only the default GPU is chosen (the 970). This is a desktop computer and I have tried the Nvidia control panel and UEFI settings without much luck. If I tried selecting a program to run on my 1080 (through the Nvidia control panel), it would still run it on the 970. I have tried switching the GPU's around with not much luck there either. If I can suggest to Microsoft the option in the Graphics Settings to list both GPU's for selection, that would be great. Otherwise I don't know what to do. Does anyone have any suggestions? Thank you for your time.

Answer 1

Hi Zeond1987,

Thank you for posting your question in the Microsoft Community. 

Are you getting any error message?

If you have a multi-GPU system running Windows 10, you can now manually specify the preferred graphics processor an app should use for performance or to improve battery life.

In order to force an app to use a discrete GPU instead of the integrated one, or vice versa to provide better system performance or battery life, I suggest you to follow the below steps.

    1. Open Settings, and click/tap on the System icon. Click on System.

    2. Click on Display on the left side

    3. Under “Multiple displays,” click the Advanced graphics settings link.

    4. Select the kind of app you want to configured using the drop-down menu:

        Classic app — these are your traditional Win32 desktop programs.

        Universal app — these are those app available through the Microsoft Store.

    5. If you select Classic app, you’ll need to click the Browse button to locate the “.exe” file to add the app. Otherwise, if you select the Universal app option, you’ll see a second drop-down menu to select the app.

    6. Select the app you added from the list.

    7. Click the Options button

    8. Set the graphics preference you want to use:

        System default — this is always the default setting, and Windows 10 decide which GPU to use automatically.

        Power saving — runs the application on the GPU that uses the least power, which most of the time is your integrated graphics processor.

       High performance — runs the application on the most capable GPU, which is most of the time an external or discrete graphics processor.

    9. Click the Save button.

I also recommend you to update the GTX 1080 drivers from the manufacturer website, and Check if that work.

Hope it helps,

Let us know if you got the help you needed by clicking Yes Or No

Answer 2

This is a desktop computer, not a laptop and the drivers are already updated. The 2 video cards I have are huge and would not fit in a laptop. I want to make a program run on either GPU and I was hoping that Microsoft could make it so that in the graphics settings, I could choose which video card I want to use. As this is not a laptop, it does not list both GPU's, only the default one (the 1080).

Answer 3

You all have been very helpful but this feels like it's starting to get a lot more complicated then what I can handle. I appreciate the sharing of your insights and knowledge but I don't think I should bother anyone or myself with this anymore. If this becomes a bigger priority for Microsoft down the line, I'll take a look again to see if anything has changed but I doubt it will. Again you are very nice people and Microsoft is a wonderful operating system. I hope all of you have a great day, goodbye.

Answer 4

My 1080 is connected to one monitor and is the primary monitor. The other 2 monitors I have are connected to the 970. They are not both connected to the same monitor.

Settings>System>Display>Graphics Settings I believe is a new option located only in Windows 10. I don't know if I can post links but if you search for it you might be able to see what I mean. The problem I have is that it doesn't list both dedicated GPU's (this is not a laptop). I personally can't find it useful until Windows 10 actually lists both GPU's to choose from in those settings.

Answer 5

"Going to Settings>System>Display>Graphics Settings should give me the option to switch GPU's."

• Did there used to be such an option on Desktop PC ? I though this was only available on laptops, so you could force

Windows to use the dedicated gpu rather than the integrated graphics.

• You didn't say how you have the two gpu's configured.

Assuming you have the GTX 970 connected to a second monitor, if you connect your GTX 1080 to the main monitor

your games will, or should, all run on the GTX 1080.

Generally games only run on the second monitor if you have it selected as the main display, or if you select Show only on monitor 2

in Display Settings with monitor 1 as the main display.

• If you have them both connected to only one monitor... Why ?

.