Knowledge Base

Category: IntelliCAD
Topic ID: 1123
Title: Changing graphics card settings to use your dedicated GPU on a Windows computer
Created: 2019-05-01Last modified: 2024-03-19

Your computer can render graphics through the integrated graphics on your CPU, or through a dedicated graphics card (also referred to as the GPU). Although integrated graphics quality continues to improve, dedicated cards offer substantially greater performance. For this reason, it is strongly recommended to run Carlson Software with a dedicated graphics card (see the Carlson hardware recommendations for additional information).

The below guide is intended to help you get the best performance possible. If you do not see some menus described in this guide, it could be that you do not have the proper drivers installed. Common driver locations include:

NVIDIA Cards

Automatic Method:

  1. Download the nvswitch.exe program at the bottom of this page
  2. Run nvswitch.exe
  3. When prompted to select the program, select icad.exe. For most users, this will be found under C:\Program Files\Carlson20XX_ICADXX_X
  4. Click on "High-Performance Processor with Recommended Settings"

Manual Method:

  1. Right-click on your desktop and select NVIDIA Control Panel
  2. In the control panel, select "Adjust Settings with Preview" on the left side of the dialog. Select the option for "Use my Preference Emphasizing" and ensure that the slider is set to "Performance", as shown below:
    NVIDIA setting 1
  3. Select "Manage 3D Settings" on the left side of the dialog. On the Global Settings tab, open the drop down menu for Preferred Graphics Processor and select High Performance, then click Apply as shown below:
    NVIDIA setting
  4. On the Program Settings tab, open the drop down menu to see if your Carlson Application appears in the list. If it does not, click Add and locate the application (for most users this will be C:\Program Files\Carlson20XX_ICADXX_X\icad.exe). With the program now showing in the first drop down menu, set the second drop down menu to "High-performance NVIDIA processor", then click Apply as shown below:
    NVIDIA setting 3
  5. Select "Set PhysX Configuration" on the left side of the dialog. Open the drop down menu and select your NVIDIA card, then click Apply as shown below:
    NVIDIA setting 4
  6. Note that users with NVIDIA Quadro graphics cards or the A-series of graphics cards (e.g. A5000) may need to make additional adjustments mentioned in article 992.
  7. To ensure the changes are applied, restart your computer.

AMD Cards

Note: There is a lot of variation in versions of the AMD Radeon Catalyst Control Center. The below steps are intended to serve as a general guide rather than an exact replication of what you may see. If your dialogs appear different you should still be able to locate similar options.

  1. Right click on your desktop and select AMD Radeon Settings
  2. Go to Graphics > PowerPlay. Change the "Plugged In" and "Battery:" options to Maximize Performance, then click Apply.
    AMD setting 1
  3. If applicable to your graphics card, go to Graphics > 3D and move the slider to Performance, then click Apply.

    Note: This function might not be available on all cards.

    AMD setting 2
  4. If your Catalyst Control Center has the Switchable Graphics tab, navigate to the tab and select icad.exe in the list of applications. If it is not present, you may add it by clicking Add Application and browsing to it (for most users this will be C:\Program Files\Carlson20XX_ICADXX_X\icad.exe). With the application selected, set the Graphics Setting option to High Performance, then click Apply.
    AMD setting 3
  5. To ensure the changes are applied, restart your computer.

Integrated Graphics Settings

Users who do not have a dedicated graphics card may still be able to improve graphics performance by modifying the integrated graphics settings.

  1. Open the Windows Start Menu and search for "Intel Graphics Command Center". Note that this program has replaced the Intel Graphics Control Panel. If you do not currently have the new program, download it from Intel's website.
  2. Navigate to System > Power Tab and change the Power Plan option to Maximum Performance, as shown below:
    Intel.png
Links:
NVIDIA Driver Downloads: https://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx
AMD Drivers and Support: https://www.amd.com/en/support
Intel® Graphics Command Center: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/docs/graphics/graphics-command-center.html
Attachments:
AMD_3.png
AMD_2.png
AMD_1.png
Intel.png
nvswitch.exe
NVIDIA_1.png
NVIDIA_2.png
NVIDIA_3.png
NVIDIA_4.png
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