Easy way to get Surface Book 3 to use GTX 1660 Ti

optodata

Senior Contributor Location: California, USA Joined: Sep 16, 2011 16:04 Messages: 8630 Offline

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Jun 26, 2020 00:43

I just got a new Surface Book 3 and it has an integrated GTX 1660 Ti GPU to go along with the Core i7-1065G7 CPU.

I'm aware of the difficulties many people have when trying to get PD to access nVidia GPUs on laptops, (especially with MX series), but I didn't know if this system would have that problem or not.

The default setup shows the Intel logo on the About PD screen and has Intel Quick Sync available for producing.

Fortunately, all that needs to be done to switch to the GTX 1660 Ti is to set both GPUUtilityEx.exe and PDR.exe (both located in the C:\Program Files\CyberLink\PowerDirector18 folder) to use the High performance GPU from the Start > Settings > Display > Graphics Settings page:

Note that BOTH apps must be set to use the High Performance GPU, otherwise PD will use Quick Sync.

Now I can use the Turing NVENC when I'm away from my desktop

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at Jun 27. 2020 13:09

optodata

Senior Contributor Location: California, USA Joined: Sep 16, 2011 16:04 Messages: 8630 Offline

Jan 28, 2021 21:58

Now there's a much easier option!

Regardless of which GPU is selected when PD starts, with PD365 V19.2.2520 you can now simply choose which hardware device you want to use directly from the Produce page:

I believe this feature will be coming to the perpetual edition of PD19 soon via the GM4 patch, and it will make a huge difference for anyone needing to change GPUs for producing.

JL_JL

Senior Contributor Location: Arizona, USA Joined: Oct 01, 2006 20:01 Messages: 6091 Offline

Jan 31, 2021 10:32

Quote I believe this feature will be coming to the perpetual edition of PD19 soon via the GM4 patch, and it will make a huge difference for anyone needing to change GPUs for producing.

Perpetual owner, so second class purchaser and can't evaluate yet. What hardware is verified as doing the decoding when encode options are toggled? The CPU, prime GPU, or does it follow the encode set option?

My guess, finally catching up with other packages and simply toggle the encoding task only.

Jeff

optodata

Senior Contributor Location: California, USA Joined: Sep 16, 2011 16:04 Messages: 8630 Offline

Jan 31, 2021 13:13

Intersting question, and the answer may be complicated as it turns out this feature depends on the state of the graphics settings I posted about above.

If the "power saving" GPU is selected, the Intel logo appears in PD's About screen and both Quick Sync and NVENC encoder options are present on the Produce page.

However, if the "high performance" GPU is selected, the nVidia logo is present on the about screen but no hardware encoding is available, no matter which output profile is chosen. It's either SVRT or nothing:

So the first step in having any hardware producing (at least on a laptop) seems to be to let Windows decide (the default option) or to force the power saving GPU for PD. I no longer have a desktop with an iGPU so I don't know if those systems might be also affected.

Since PD has to be set to be use the iGPU, it may be using that for decoding when producing but the task manager graphs in my initial tests aren't showing that clearly. I don't have time now, but I'll run some tests later and post what I find.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Jan 31. 2021 13:15

JL_JL

Senior Contributor Location: Arizona, USA Joined: Oct 01, 2006 20:01 Messages: 6091 Offline

Jan 31, 2021 13:23

Quote Intersting question, and the answer may be complicated as it turns out this feature depends on the state of the graphics settings I posted about above.

If the "power saving" GPU is selected, the Intel logo appears in PD's About screen and both Quick Sync and NVENC encoder options are present on the Produce page.

However, if the "high performance" GPU is selected, the nVidia logo is present on the about screen but no hardware encoding is available, no matter which output profile is chosen. It's either SVRT or nothing:

So the first step in having any hardware producing (at least on a laptop) seems to be to let Windows decide (the default option) or to force the power saving GPU for PD. I no longer have a desktop with an iGPU so I don't know if those systems might be also affected.

Since PD has to be set to be use the iGPU, it may be using that for decoding when producing but the task manager graphs in my initial tests aren't showing that clearly. I don't have time now, but I'll run some tests later and post what I find.

Thanks for the update, I'll have to bring a box home that has proper hardware as I don't either if/when it's released to perpetual keys.

Maybe related to what forum member states with "cannot Enable Hardware Acceleration when producing" here: https://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/84422.page#post_box_348961 as wording a little unclear without a pic perhaps.

Jeff