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I bought a new monitor to use with my laptop and I noticed that it is using the Nvidia GPU in my laptop.

I'm using the Acer Nitro AN515-57 along with the HP Omen 24.

If I'm not mistaken, I'm pretty sure previously my games and other applications used to run on the Nvidia GPU but the laptop monitor itself used the Intel GPU.

Is it possible to do this for the external monitor that I connected with a HDMI cable?

i.e. all the graphics using the discreet Nvidia GPU but the monitor only using the Intel GPU?

Edit 2: Not asking about application specific 3d settings in nvidia control panel. There are other settings in nvidia control panel that shows which display is using which processor. This is further confirmed by checking looking at the activities of the intel and nvidia gpu in task manager and also in OMEN gaming hub and nitrosense.

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    Without the laptop model, this can't be answered since it depends on the laptop and how the OEM routed the HDMI port and/or DisplayPort - some are allowed to route through both the integrated and discrete GPUs, whereas others are restricted to one or the other. For example, on my Alienware, the HDMI port is routed through the discrete GPU, whereas the DisplayPort is routed through the integrated GPU.
    – JW0914
    Commented Jun 23 at 13:53
  • @JW0914 Yeah, this is what I was afraid of. I thought my laptop had a displayport but it only has the HDMI and a usb c port. And I can't find any option to change the display adapter for the monitor.
    – RoastedMarshmellowes
    Commented Jun 23 at 14:30
  • If the USB-C supports connecting a monitor them most likely it supports Displayport-Alt mode. A simply adapter USB-C to Displayport should make it usable if your monitor has a Displayport in but not USB-C.
    – Robert
    Commented Jun 23 at 14:42
  • @Robert I was considering that as well. But I need to find out more about whether that will be practical for me. I'm mostly concerned about colour accuracy and fps since I'll be mainly using the monitor for some graphics work and some gaming sometimes.
    – RoastedMarshmellowes
    Commented Jun 23 at 14:49
  • fps? I think latency would be more important as the fps is not changed by passive adapters which only "extract" the Displayport signals from USB-C and forward it in a pure Displayport cable. Only if the adapter is an USB based graphic card than 3D capabilities and thus fps would be different.
    – Robert
    Commented Jun 23 at 15:06

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Windows allows you to associate specific applications to specific GPUs. I am not aware of a way to tell Windows to associate an entire display to a specific GPU.

It has never been the case that the laptop's internal display used the internal graphics only, but always that individual applications were assigned to the different devices based on workload.

In case your system is actually behaving in a non-optimal way, assigning workloads incorrectly and inefficiently, the way to resolve this is going to be to make sure your OS, applications, drivers, and firmware are all updated to the latest stable or available versions.

If you've already completed these updates, you can manually assign applications to specific GPUs. To tell a specific application to use a particular GPU:

  1. Open Settings > Display
  2. Scroll to the bottom, under Related Settings, and click Graphics
  3. If the app you want is not yet listed, under Add an app choose Desktop App or Microsoft Store App, and click Browse
  4. Choose the application you wish to apply the setting to
  5. Once the program is listed, select it and click Options
  6. Select the GPU or power setting you wish to associate with this application and click Save
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  • Practically it will associate the display with the GPU its running on unless there's another setting like that overriding it.
    – Journeyman Geek ♦
    Commented Jun 25 at 15:32
  • I know about directly assigning gpus to applications with the nvidia control panel. But when I'm using just my laptop without the external monitor, it shows up under the PhysX configuration settings where the laptop display is shown as linked to the Intel(R) UHD Graphics. When I connect my external monitor via hdmi there are more options under the video settings and others where it clearly shows that the discreet gpu is being used by the monitor.
    – RoastedMarshmellowes
    Commented Jun 26 at 11:49

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