Many people buy a laptop that has two graphics cards. The integrated Intel HD Graphics 3-4-5000, as well as a dedicated card. If the dedicated card is nVidia, the system typically uses nVidia Optimus to decide whether to use the integrated or dedicated graphics card at any given moment (based on resource demands and power efficiency).

The system usually dynamically switches between the dedicated and integrated GPUs, however this can cause errors and freezes in many games and applications, and the nvidia drivers regularly crash because of this.

Below I’ll describe how these problems can be eliminated based on my personal experience.

  • The power management mode should be set to „High Performance” under the control panel/power options.
  • In the nVidia control panel, under Manage 3D Settings, change the „Preferred graphics processor” to „High-performance NVIDIA processor”, and also set the following below:
    • Power management mode: Prefer maximum performance
    • Multi-display/mixed-GPU acceleration: Single display performance mode
  • Once you’ve done that, apply the settings.
  • After this, games should (hopefully) no longer crash.