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My laptop has NVIDIA Optimus technology, which seamlessly switches between the integrated graphics and NVIDIA discrete GPU to provide an optimal balance between battery life and performance. There is an LED indicator on my laptop that indicates when the discrete GPU is on.

However, some unknown app causes the discrete GPU light to turn on even though I haven't launched a game or other GPU-intensive app.

How do I find out what app is using the discrete GPU so that it doesn't suck down limited battery power?

The laptop runs Windows 10 Pro v1511 64-bit.

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  • run ProcessHacker, open systeminfo, go to GPU and hover the mouse over spike you see. Now PH displays which process it is in a tooltip. Maybe this helps
    – magicandre1981
    Commented Mar 26, 2016 at 18:59
  • Bitcoin miner...
    – Fiasco Labs
    Commented Mar 26, 2016 at 19:22
  • @FiascoLabs: That certainly isn't the case. I'd hear the fans running loud if something was mining cryptocurrency.
    – bwDraco
    Commented Mar 26, 2016 at 19:26

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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Launch the Nvidia Control Panel, navigate to Desktop tab at the very top of the window, and in the drop-down menu, toggle on the "Display GPU activity icon in the notification area".

Your task-bar will now have a new activity icon detailing the GPU on your system, any displays connected to it (if applicable, depends on how the SKU is configured for Optimus) and the processes/programs running on the GPU.

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usually you should be able to see in the control panel for NVIDIA Optimus what is being assigned the discrete GPU, im not aware of it being able to tell you what is using it now.., but you should be able to determine if there is anything in there that usually runs on the background you do not want using the discrete GPU

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