Author:
Mike Adams
05/29/2012
Just bought yourself a brand new PC laptop with an NVIDIA with Optimus graphics card, and looking forward to doing some gaming or even watching some movies in High Definition? You start things up, but things don’t look exactly like they should. Your game winds up running at 15 frames a second, or your movie is choppy and always seems to be buffering. Well, with the NVIDIA with Optimus graphics card, you must tell programs when to run the onboard graphics (usually an Intel chip), or with your dedicated graphics card (the NVIDIA). Watch the video that NVIDIA posted on just how to do that right after the break.
UC Davis Bookstore TechTalk 
Thanks for the great video. If you do not mind, I am adding how to update drivers without breaking the Optimus controller access as this is actually the most common reason it will not switch.
Download the latest Video drivers for both Intel and Nvidia from the Notebook manufacturers website. Uninstall what you have for both Intel and Nvidia. Install the Intel first followed by the Nvidia. Next, go to Nvidia site and download the latest driver you wish to use. Start the installer to allow it to unpack and cancel after the Compatibility check. Go to “Start”, right click “MY Computer” and select properties. In the popup window on the top left, select “Device Manager”. Unstack the display adapters and right click the Nvidia to select “Update Driver Software”. When asked, select “let me choose” and then “have disk”, browse to Nvidia unpacked folder (default C:/Nvidia) and keep going deeper until you get to the Display adapter folder. In this folder it will automatically see the .inf so just select “open” and it will fall back to the original window where your driver is listed, select next and allow it to install, reboot and you are done without breaking the Optimus controller and have the lastest Nvidia driver. There is no way to update the Optimus or intel without breaking the controller and updating PhysX will break it as well.
Rev Ron that is possibly the greatest tip I have come across for the optimus nvidia/intel graphics system. Thank you!
It’s really work man! you are great, Thx this page a lot!!!
Hey mate, I think I’d need a little help here…could you please tell me what drivers are you referring to when you say “go to Nvidia site and download the latest drivers you wish to use” I’m a bit confused as you’ve already mentioned about downloading and installing Intel and Nvidia video drivers…what other drivers do I need to have? sorry for my poor knowledge about drivers and stuff 😀
I’m new to all this and I really don’t understand what all this means. I’m having a heck of a time live streaming with my dual graphics laptop using an Avermedia LGP. Why wouldn’t clean installing Intel(1) and Nvidia(2) drivers accomplish the same thing? That should delete the old drivers, correct?
And why is Optimus so easy to fudge if it’s so awesome? Seriously? UPDATING snaps it in half? WTF? I swear I should have just gone with a desktop from the very beginning.
install nvidia only once. and after intel
yea, and he says to install (1)intel and (2)nvidia from notebook manufacturer’s website first. then from (3)nvidia website. cancel that one and update through device manager.
Quick tip uninstalling. go to device manager, right-click uninstall on each video driver under display adapters checking uninstall driver software on each… reboot into safe mode and run driver sweeper, reboot again. run ccleaner.
the 1,2,3 part makes no sense and i can confirm it doesnt work or im stupid. but we are just trying to figure out how he means to do this. exactly. if you dont install a nvidia driver (aka the manufacturers one) first. then no video driver under display adapters will be shown for nvidia even after cancelling the setup after the compatibility check. so he must mean to install a driver as in step 2 above first.
its hard to pinpoint the battery saving side of this problem as everybody on the web wants to figure out how to get there dedicated card to work. not turn off when uneeded.
Thank you! I had to search for over 3 weeks to find this problem…
i installed the nvidia driver update on my newly bought laptop and it installed the physx software automatically.
so have i broken the optimus controller????
can i repair it by uninstalling the physx software??????
I dont have the drop down menu on the Nvidia control panel, why would that be?