Multiple Graphic Cards?

[Bmandk]

Hey, I was recently experiencing some lag in my world, down to 10 FPS at it's worst. There are big lag spikes, very often, about every 5 seconds. This has really had an effect on my gameplay, and made me want to play it less, since the lag is getting annoying, and I can't have any higher res. texturepacks.

What I think may be a cause for this is, because my laptop (Yes, laptop) has 2 graphic cards. One of them is the NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M, which is my preferred gaming card. The other is Intel® HD Graphics Family. Now, I'm not sure at all if this is the reason, or just because 6 GB (Actually 4, but the launcher doesn't support 6, so I had to set it to 4 :/) isn't enough. Does anyone else have the Intel Family card? If so, is it affecting your gameplay? Is there a way to specify Technic Pack/Launcher/Java to use a specific graphics card?

Here are my specs:

Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit.

Processor: Intel® Core i7-2630QM 2.00 GHz

6 GB RAM.

Graphic cards stated above.

Monitor: Dual monitor setup, 17" for laptop, 27" for secondary screen (Could this be a problem? Too much?)

Software: NVIDIA Control Panel to set up my stuff.

EDIT: Just noticed under dxdiag that the family graphics card is set to my 27" screen, while my NVIDIA card is set to laptop screen. I also want to try to change this around to see if it helps, if possible.

[linkthegamer]

I have a laptop with 2 cards, have not really noticed lag spikes, but I don't use high res texture pack (what res, some seem to take a good chunk of memory to use). Mine is a GeForce 310m and Intel HD something or other. When configured correctly (try forcing global us of the nvida card in its control panel). You can also (likely) boot into the bios and turn of the driver for CUDA driver (if you have that set up and that is the right name). On mine it is an option along with something about the driver like "Load gaphics driver for:" and lets you choose windows vista/7 or other. Other seems to force usage of the nivida card so you can see if it is infact the intel card cause the strife. Note that this will reset your display ratio and you will have to set that back.

As for the monitor using the intel card, I think the VGA port is built into the motherboard (where the intel card is) so I don't know if you can force nvidia out on it. I only ever use my HDMI port.

[Bmandk]

I have a laptop with 2 cards, have not really noticed lag spikes, but I don't use high res texture pack (what res, some seem to take a good chunk of memory to use). Mine is a GeForce 310m and Intel HD something or other. When configured correctly (try forcing global us of the nvida card in its control panel). You can also (likely) boot into the bios and turn of the driver for CUDA driver (if you have that set up and that is the right name). On mine it is an option along with something about the driver like "Load gaphics driver for:" and lets you choose windows vista/7 or other. Other seems to force usage of the nivida card so you can see if it is infact the intel card cause the strife. Note that this will reset your display ratio and you will have to set that back.

As for the monitor using the intel card, I think the VGA port is built into the motherboard (where the intel card is) so I don't know if you can force nvidia out on it. I only ever use my HDMI port.

I am using the 128x128 Sphax pack found here. I am also using a HDMI port for my secondary monitor. I'll try and go to my bios and change it now and come back in a few minutes with how it's working. Thanks for the quick reply.

[Bmandk]

Hmm, everything seemed fine in the BIOS. The NVIDIA control panel was already set to use my NVIDIA GeForce card as standard.

[linkthegamer]

Hmm, everything seemed fine in the BIOS. The NVIDIA control panel was already set to use my NVIDIA GeForce card as standard.

Don't know then. Might 128x128 might just be a little more then your system can handle. Hopefully not though.

[Bmandk]

Well, I'm playing without the pack and it gets down to 10 FPS. With 4 GB of RAM, this shouldn't happen. And seeing as your graphic card isn't as good as the one I have, that shouldn't be a problem either.

I have also noticed that when I have a YouTube video running in the background while playing Minecraft, the FPS drops dramatically, down to about 5-10 FPS. Normally, my FPS is good at startup, but then within 30 minutes have decreased to 15 FPS. The YouTube could have something to do with Chrome but just by pausing the video it goes back to "normal".I also tried without having Chrome opened, but it didn't make a difference.

I can play games like WoW and LoL at almost maximum settings without lag. Even if I set my settings to the lowest, my FPS will still drop to about 20 FPS. Could this be a problem with having too many EE machines? I have 14 EE flowers, not anything else. Do these take a lot of power from my PC? If that is the reason, I hope it's going to be fixed in EE2, coming (hopefully!) in the next Technic Pack which is also (hopefully!!) soon.

[linkthegamer]

Ouch those are pretty bad FPSes. And I would not know about EE machines, I just got into actual machine building in Technic and have not made much of the EE stuff yet... i think i am up to the transmutaion tablet right now. Thought a Failed reboot cost me some items. You could try making a new world just to test how many FPS you can get without the machines, could also look around on here for some performance hacks or some such.