Quote Thank you Jeff.
I do not have any preferences for DELL, I bigh be better looking for another that support GPU
But it a jungle out there, an dI have no idea what to look for :

What to look for, as mentioned multiple times, the only really effective way to get PD to play 100% nicely with the dGPU in a dual GPU laptop is to make sure one can turn off the iGPU in BIOS. It's up to you if you really need the dGPU or if the iGPU will meet your needs.

This user found that out too: https://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/64906.page#post_box_295819 and returned one unit for another to get the BIOS option.

Virtually all the lower end laptops will not provide such BIOS feature as it requires additional circuitry. Best to understand what you are purchasing or make sure you have a reasonable return policy.

Jeff

Dell Precision 7000 Series models, in those systems, the iGPU and dGPU are each connected to switchers on the motherboard (called DisplayPort multiplexers), and those switchers are then connected to the built-in display and the external display outputs. Using those switchers means that users can go into the BIOS and CHOOSE which GPU they want to directly control the various displays, and they can even choose to disable the iGPU completely so that it works as a single GPU system, with only the dGPU.

Another alternative is to connect an external monitor on the DP port, either directly or on a dock. Those ports are wired on the dGPU. Then run PD on that monitor.
I know that in AutoCAD I can select the Quadro card to be used by CAD when I connect an external monitor. But that might be because AutoCAD is now a DirectX app.

Quote

What to look for, as mentioned multiple times, the only really effective way to get PD to play 100% nicely with the dGPU in a dual GPU laptop is to make sure one can turn off the iGPU in BIOS. It's up to you if you really need the dGPU or if the iGPU will meet your needs.

This user found that out too: https://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/64906.page#post_box_295819 and returned one unit for another to get the BIOS option.

Virtually all the lower end laptops will not provide such BIOS feature as it requires additional circuitry. Best to understand what you are purchasing or make sure you have a reasonable return policy.

Jeff

That's understood, however how do you in real life check that, when buying from a website ???
The suggested DELL is not what I would (think) consider "low end" laptop, as it is a Workstation.
I'm completly open for suggestions :

Quote


That's understood, however how do you in real life check that, when buying from a website ???
The suggested DELL is not what I would (think) consider "low end" laptop, as it is a Workstation.
I'm completly open for suggestions :

Look on Dell specific forums, people with a specific model, if their BIOS has the option to "deactivate" iGPU. That would imply that they have the DigitalPort MUX inside.
Like the Dell Precision 7000 series that I mentioned above (and you probably skimmed over that message).
See here:
https://www.dell.com/support/article/en-us/sln304550/precision-7510-7710-graphics-special-mode-setting-in-the-bios?lang=en

I have several Dell Latitude laptops, with NVIDIA and AMD dGPU (none equipped with the MUX) and, from my limited testing, PD doesn't know how to use them.
Example: The one with AMD dGPU (E6540), has AMD Professional driver/software and there you can see the option to run a software (PD or AutoCAD) with the dGPU. But even if that is selected, it seems that it only associates the cores inside to that specific program, but not the actual video decoder/encoder block.
That's because that video decoding/encoding block is a separated block (both in NVIDIA and AMD) from the rest of the GPU cores, is like a ASIC co-processor if you like.

Also, if you have a docking station, that sometimes might expose directly the dGPU on their DP or HDMI ports. I might try that later on my laptop, but that's not what I use for PD normally, so...

LE: I have tried, and no, the AMD software doesn't see the dock connected the display as attached to the dGPU.
On my work laptop, that has a Quadro K610M dGPU, I can see the two external monitors that are connected to the docking station as actually attached to the NVIDIA card. That's how I run AutoCAD. I am not allowed to install PD on that laptop for "testing".

LLE: I also have tried to associate the PD and GPUChecker to the dGPU, in Windows 10, following this link, but it still fails (probably it also does the association only with GPU core, not the decoding/encoding ASIC):
https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/103965-set-preferred-gpu-apps-windows-10-a.html

I also pulled out my old trusty, the Dell E6420 laptop, with NVIDIA NVS4200M GPU.
In it's BIOS, I have this option, to disable the iGPU:



Now in Windows 10 hardware list I can see only one GPU, the NVIDIA one, no more iGPU.
However this older Quadro is based on GF119 so it doesn't have an NVDEC/NVENC block inside. So obviously cannot be used with the new drivers to do hardware decoding/encoding.
And PD18 doesn't seem support anymore the old CUDA encoding method.