Hi everyone,

Forgive me if I've posted this in the wrong place or I shouldn't post this at all. But I'm having problems where I have both an integrated and dedicated GPU by AMD. And setting The Sims 3 to "High Performance" still doesn't use the dedicated graphics card. I've got a 8500m series dedicated GPU. Games such as Minecraft pick up the dedicated GPU fine.

I was on the online assistance for Origin for about an hour trying to solve the problem and he couldn't help me. The Sims Medieval is getting the same problem as well. Could anyone help me?

Thanks.

For AMD dual switchable graphics laptops with both integrated and dedicated by AMD, you'll still need to install your primary GPU driver first which is the integrated one, and once this done with restarting your computer, then you need to install your secondary GPU which is the dedicated one, although they both from AMD usually they packed their drivers independently and separately, therefore make sure you install each one of them (even if the drivers are exactly the same, make sure you install it twice), and make sure you install them in the following order, primary (integrated) first then followed with secondary (dedicated) gpu.

The reason you need to install them in that particular order for dual switchable graphics, is because TS3 always reads your hardware from the Windows registry first, and by its native how its set up for switchable gpu, it always the integrated as the primary gpu, therefore TS3 doesn't always work the same as for any other game like Minecraft when it starts the game with the secondary because you instruct them to, TS3 don't do that even if you instruct them to, because it always reads what it was registered in Windows Registry, in some case you may be able to tell TS3 to directly use your secondary gpu via AMD Catalyst menu, but that usually if both of your primary and secondary gpus are already listed in the GraphicCards.sgr list, meaning your graphics are older than TS3 when it was launched.

But for the newer generations after TS3 was launched, they usually were not listed in the GraphicCards,sgr therefore TS3 won't automatically recognizes them even if you already have its proper drivers installed, you'll need to edit the GraphicCards.sgr and make TS3 recognizes your secondary gpu, so then whenever you start your TS3, after TS3 reads what's in the registry, it will also successfully recognized your secondary gpu, when this is the case, TS3 will be controlled by your AMD Catalyst Manager automatically when is best to use the primary or the secondary one, depends on how you set it up from the Catalyst manager, which one are priority, power saving or performance?

The same thing applies for TS Medieval because it has the same game engine. Go here if you need step by step to set them up for your laptop, and please also note that it's better if your game version is 1.67 because you'll also need FPS Limiter to protect your graphics.

Thank you for replying.

So I should install my integrated GPU drivers first rather than the dedicated? Doesn't catalyst install both drivers at the same time? Or Isn't there a way to change which graphics card to use in the registry or is that a no go zone? I had arguments with EA and came to the conclusion that my games were basically faulty and they needed to be repaired by Origin (Which didn't even work).

In general, yes that's what you should do, install the integrated first, restart your computer, and then check in your Device Manager to see if your Win OS recognized your primary gpu. And then when you see your integrated GPU there in your Device Manager, just install the drivers for your dedicated one.

About the Catalyst driver, usually AMD bundled their chipset drivers and APU drivers, and this is usually also including your primary (integrated) gpu drivers (apart from the dedicated one) because it was built inside your CPU chip. Once this is done, you should see it in your Device Manager under Display Adapters, you should see 2 of them but one with drivers you just installed and the other one is still with Microsoft Standard/Default Driver.

Usually you'd have CD/DVD bundled drivers from your laptop manufacturer (if you don't, then you need to download them from your laptop manufacturer website), and if you have that came with your laptop, the one that said that it's your graphic drivers, means for your dedicated gpu, if you install this one first before the one above, it may messed up or skipped your integrated GPU driver to be installed, therefore your Win OS can't recognized as its suppose to to function its dual switchable graphics, and this would ended up TS3 won't be able to read your hardware registry correctly, your Win OS telling there's another graphic device but unrecognized and so TS3 will follow what's its registered there.

When this happened you may assumed everything are in its places but actually it still missing another device, this will disabled the dual switchable gpus feature you have automatically, and TS3 won't skipped that to use your dedicated gpu directly because it still following the one that missing in Windows registry, even if you edit your GraphicCards.sgr and tell TS3 from your Catalyst software manager, your TS3 DeviceConfig may say it founds your dedicated gpu, but that doesn't mean it actually running it, because the one its running is your primary integrated GPU and without any proper driver because it's been skipped when it should be installed first.

This is actually the same case with laptop using Intel CPU with integrated Intel HD GPU and plus secondary Nvidia or AMD Radeon dedicated GPU, but on Intel's case it's more easier to recognized because one should be Intel HD and the other one should Nvidia or AMD Radeon, but with AMD APU/CPU plus another AMD Radeon dedicated gpu, anyone may assumed they are both installed at the same time, and that's the common mistakes/misunderstanding that could happened to anyone (in the case for dual switchable graphics laptops).

Therefore I said earlier make sure you installed them twice (but one at a time), now even if you'd like to customize it to run directly your dedicated gpu only by editing your registry settings, you still need to install both of their drivers first, otherwise I doubt your TS3 will skipped the primary gpu, so yes you can do this if you want to, but then you won't enjoyed the advantage of dual switchable graphics feature you have in your laptop.

And I think TS3 is not actually faulty, maybe they need to consider to update the GraphicCards.sgr officially from them, but then again, it's their policy, maybe they don't want to support TS3 any longer.. I don't know, but that's usually what happened when TS3 is being run in newer machine, it needs manual steps to fit it in the newer machine so it would run as is suppose to be.

I just thought I'd update you. I wiped my laptop clean to prepare to re-install the graphics what not. And I went to the manufacturer's laptop and there's only 1 graphics driver available. I have a Lenovo B50-45 laptop. I couldn't find anything. What do you suggest I do? Maybe the graphics drivers are packed into one file?

I installed the graphics driver from the website (The only one) and it still didn't work. I've provided a zip with screenshots and specs. I'm sorry if I'm burdening you but the problem seem to keep persisting. I'll have a look in BIOS to see what the graphics is set at. I'm at a complete loss est to why it isn't working. I got this laptop specifically for the dedicated graphics card and because it doesn't even work... I don't even know why I bother.

I just check your Lenovo B50-45, and if I got the spec's correctly, according from here it's powered by the AMD A6-6310 (Beema) APU, and it doesn't have any secondary dedicated gpu which means your laptop doesn't have dual switchable graphics. Unless there's another spec of Lenovo B50-45 which equipped with secondary dedicated gpu, then your laptop may have the dual switchable graphics features.

And therefore after I double check it from its official support website here , it confirms that it's an AMD APU model with no secondary dedicated gpu and that's why, there's only one driver bundle in the Display and Video Graphic driver section, and there's no separate driver for its chipset driver bundle, which I assumed, the Display and Video Graphic driver is also bundled with its APU bundle (chipset), and that's why you didn't find one bundle for chipset and one for graphic.

So in your case, I guess the Catalyst management driver/software that says you can change/switch it to secondary dedicated gpu is misleading, the software may fit and run for your laptop's spec, but it may not actually for your laptop specification, so when you switched it, it doesn't have the secondary one as you thought so. And you can also check it to make sure from your actual laptop, you can check it from your Device Manger under Display Adapters, if it has 2 devices or only one graphic device.

If it doesn't have a secondary graphics card then why would device manager and system information say otherwise? And why does it pick up in other games like Minecraft but not Sims?

Update: I also looked in BIOS and there is something about switchable graphics. It can be changed to UMA (Not sure what that is).

Whoa.. that's weird, why from the Device Manager it says two but from your System Information it's only have one the R5 M230, from your System Information it confirms you only have one graphic device, maybe from your Device Manager it detects its controller separately from the gpu, that's why it says one for R5 Graphics and the other one for the R5 M230, I'm sorry but I think based on what we found, it's a single gpu not dual gpus, it may have another controller for additional secondary in your APU but you actually don't have one on your motherboard.

The second GPU is below the M230... Please look further down and I'll provide a screenshot of the other one.. Is says "AMD Radeon (TM) R5 M230" and then there's a space followed by "AMD Radeon (TM) R5 Graphics" (Which is the integrated one).

I've uploaded another ZIP. In it shows both details for the 2 graphics cards. Also in it is a picture of Minecraft which shows on the right side what GPU it's using. This shows it's using the "AMD Radeon(TM) M230". Is this something I should ring Lenovo about and tell them that they've missed the driver for the dedicated GPU?

Here's both pictures of Minecraft running on the integrated and then dedicated. I managed to change the GPUs for the game through Catalyst and making Javaw.exe set to high performance and low power but with Sims. This is not the case.

Um.. yeah I think you're right, my bad, sorry about that, I misread them, well in that case the R5 M230 is your secondary, and both are there installed and your Win OS recognized them properly, I don't see anything missing, maybe you just need to find how to switch it manually if that's what you intend to do, but the switchable feature should work automatically when the program/game needs more performance. I think there's only one more thing you need to do, edit your GraphicCards.sgr to make TS3 recognized your R5 M230, it should work/switch automatically after TS3 recognizes your R5 M230, you need to find the one from the GraphicCards.sgr list that equivalent to your R5 M230.

PS: (Edited) Your TS3 DeviceConfig should be [Found: 1, Matched: 1] after you edit the GraphicCards.sgr, and this should let your Catalyst work/switch automatically when TS3 started, the only thing I'm not familiar with.. is your AMD R5 M230.. equivalent to which one from the GraphicCards.sgr list.

I've provided another zip with screenshots of GPU-z. I'm not sure what I'm looking for so I hope you can sus it out.

So once The Sims 3 recognizes the integrated graphics... It should in theory recognize the dedicated?

You need to edit your TS3 DeviceConfig, it should be [Found: 1, Matched: 1] after you edit the GraphicCards.sgr, and this should let your Catalyst work/switch automatically when TS3 started, the only thing I'm not familiar with.. is your AMD R5 M230.. equivalent to which one from the GraphicCards.sgr list.

It's already recognizes and running your primary (integrated) one though it's not stated in your TS3 DeviceConfig, in order for the dedicated one to kick in when TS3 started, you need to edit your GraphicCards.sgr, replaces the one that equivalent to your R5 M230 with your M230 Device ID.

But if it's not recognizing the dedicated graphics then there's no point storing it in the GraphicsRules

You will only need to edit this one if there's 32MB Texture Memory Override, here's how it works, from your Win OS side perspective, your dual switchable gpus is already running fine when its need it, but from your TS3 side perspective, when tS3 started, your Catalyst Manager switch it to your M230, but your M230 4 digits Device ID needs to be placed in the GraphicCards.sgr replacing one that equivalent to it, otherwise your TS3 doesn't recognize your M230 though your Catalyst Manager has already instructed TS3 to switch to your M230.

Edit your GraphicCards.sgr first (now), then test run and go to TS3 main menu and then you'll see in your TS3 graphic options increasing in performance, just set your resolution from here, set your screen rate to 60hz, and then exit the game, and then check your TS3 DeviceConfig, if you see 32MB Texture Override then you need to edit the GraphicRules as well, if not, then you're good to go

The Sims 3 is recognizing the graphics now. But only for the integrated. Check the ZIP.

I know that it's not using the dedicated and only the integrated. My question is how do I make it switch to the dedicated. It's on the "High Performance" profile. So not sure why it wouldn't work.