Make Chrome use nVidia card instead of integrated one for hardware accelerated elements

Question

So I have an Asus laptop with an Intel integrated GC and an nVidia GC. Intel's drivers behave badly and like to crash on occasion which leads to problems (PC starts being really slow after the drivers "recover"). So I've removed the Intel drivers and am now just using the generic Microsoft ones.

However, as you might imagine, they perform much worse. For example, playing 1080p video is very laggy. What I'd like to do is make Chrome play videos and 3D content using hardware acceleration, but use the nVidia card just for that. Render the rest with the integrated one.

The reason I don't want to run Chrome itself using the nVidia card is because it drains more power.

Is there a way to do what I want?

Solution 1

Yes, there's a nice and simple way to do this now. In Nvidia control panel you can select which graphic card you want to use in which application. By default, Nvidia graphic cards are "disabled" for internet browsers. To start using them in internet browsers:

• Open Nvidia control panel
• Select "manage 3D settings in left sidebar
• Click on tab "Program settings"
• Find "Google Chrome" (or whatever browser you are searching for) from dropdown list. If you can't find it in the list, click on the "Add" button on the right and add it from there.
• And now simply choose which graphic card you want to use from dropdown list 2.
• Apply changes (and maybe restart browser)

Don't know why they're disabled by default... I guess it has something to do with power saving / battery life / something....

Solution 2

Yes you can , any type of software or application can be setup to use Nvidia cards. Just looks into your Nvidia graphic settings at desktop (right click ) and then go to custom edit for application and find chrome.exe and then set to use high performance ..

But, your Intel gc drivers may out of date , try update 1st .

Otherwise just use the Nvidia cards on your all application and games.

Good Luck Have Fun

Comments

[jww]

There are some GPU related switches at List of Chromium Command Line Switches, but its not clear to me if any would help you since they appear to be related to disabling GPU functionality.

[NetworkKingPin]

This may also help.

[Ramhound]

This is not comment than an explaintion of how.

[Darwin]

As I've said, there are advantages to using the integrated card. Mainly that it uses less power which means longer battery life.