NVIDIA Card Not Active When Using DisplayLink

[sinfante]

I have a Lenovo laptop with an integrated Intel HD graphics card AND an NVIDIA GT 730M for gaming. When my laptop is not using DisplayLink via my docking station, the NVIDIA card is my default - no problem. As soon as I dock my laptop to use my two external monitors the NVIDIA card is set to Inactive.

I ran DXIDAG and have two Display tabs when docked - Display 1 and Display 2 - both with the Intel card under the Render tab. Also, when I run the NVIDIA Control Panel, I get the message that says "You are not currently using a display attached to an NVIDIA GPU."

Am I missing something in the DisplayLink config that is preventing my NVIDIA card from being used when my laptop is docked? Any assistance would be appreciated...I really want to use the higher end card when playing EVE Online.

Thanks in advance...

[AlbanRampon]

Hello Sinfante,

With Windows 10 Anniversary Update, the graphics card chosen by Windows in the card used for POST (boot). As you've observed, it tends to be the integrated, low end, card.
The current workaround is to disable the low end graphics card, if the platform allows it, to force the Windows kernel mode graphics driver to use the card which is left...
Unfortunately, this is part of the OS and not something DisplayLink can change. I'm discussing it with Microsoft, but it would help if you could*you use the Microsoft Windows Feedback Hub saying the following:
The indirect display driver seems to be using the low end Intel integrated graphics instead of using my high end graphics card. This is affecting the performance of the games as my high end GPU is not being used.

We've flagged this as a bug, but we need more people to report this to Microsoft to get it prioritised higher in their development.

Kind regards,
Alban

[Marcin]

Hi Alban,

I'm experiencing the same issue. Does it mean that it has not been resolved in the 1703 windows build? Is there any particular issue submitted that we can up-vote?

Thanks!

[AlbanRampon]

Hi Marcin,

The Windows Feedback Hub is within your installation of Windows. I don't know if you can upvote existing content or will simply post a voluntary message to report it as I wrote.

Creators Update v1703 doesn't have any change compared to Anniversary Update v1607 regarding this.

Kind regards,
Alban

[Zibby76]

just disable the weaker graphic chip in "device manager" and the discrete one will work just fine with any DisplayLink device...

[aiwapro]

Perhaps Windows or DisplayLink updates have enabled this, as I got this working by turning on the laptop display in the Windows display settings, and then opening the nVidia Control Panel. In there, I was able to select the apps I wanted to run on the nVidia GPU. When I open those apps, and look at Windows Task Manager, the GPU is in-use. I can tell a difference in performance as well.

[dejudicibus]

Originally Posted by Zibby76

just disable the weaker graphic chip in "device manager" and the discrete one will work just fine with any DisplayLink device...

It does NOT work. Even if you disable Intel graphics by Device Manager, the monitor is NOT seen connected to NVIDIA GPU.

[BaNe TEK]

For a Mini Desktop we use with PCI-E Graphics Card, we use a HDMI Dummy Adapter Set as primary monitor, with Cloning to DisplayLink. This could be an issue with a laptop as you could imagine. But, now the DisplayLink Monitor is fully powered by the NVidia Graphics card. It's not impossible.

HDMI Dummy Adapter: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

We do this because this is the primary monitor for a CineBot Camera Robot we developed.

[DianaClark]

This is a common limitation with systems that use DisplayLink docks. DisplayLink works through USB graphics compression, so your external monitors are driven by the Intel GPU rather than the NVIDIA card. Because the screens connected through the dock are not wired directly to the NVIDIA GPU, the NVIDIA control panel will always say that no display is attached.

Unfortunately there is no setting in DisplayLink that can force the NVIDIA card to become active for external monitors. The only reliable way to use the NVIDIA GPU for gaming is to connect at least one monitor directly to the laptop’s HDMI or DisplayPort so the screen is physically routed through the NVIDIA card.

If you want to game on the external screens, try connecting one monitor directly to the laptop and use the dock only for peripherals and the second display. This usually lets the NVIDIA GPU stay active.