My laptop launches FO4 on the Intel HD 4600 (okay, so title was a wee bit misleading)

I have tried all the work arounds: Various (DDU) clean installs of various driver packages; Nvidia Inspector settings; Nvidia CP settings; cannot disable integrated gpu with Razer BIOS; regedit of RequiredSignedAppInit did not help my windows 8.1 OS, etc...

Have I missed a possible solution or am I stuck waiting for Bethesda or Nvidia to solve the apparent optimus issue. My other games switch to the Nvidia card, so its a combination of software problems mostly inherent to FO4.

Ideas?

Trying renaming the Fallout4Launcher.exe to Fallout4Launcher.exe.old, and then renaming Fallout4.exe to Fallout4Launcher.exe.

Make sure the Fallout4Launcher.exe (previously Fallout4.exe) is set to 'High Performance' in the NV Control Panel.

Steam will directly launch to the game (bypass the launcher), so maybe, just maybe it will use the discrete card.

There is no need to rename files. One can already launch the game with Fallout4.exe, skipping the launcher. If you try to launch the game with GeForce Experience, it bypasses the normal launcher and loads a .pref and runs the Fallout4.exe. Even then, the game runs off the Intel HD 4600. When Nvidia's launcher cannot initiate a game with its own GPU, you know something is messed up. Other games launch with Nvidia GPU just fine. Its something specific to FO4's interaction with Optimus.

That's not a Bethesda problem. Most probably the Nvidia profile gaming library should be altered, and that's related to Nvidia and not to Beth,

as Optimus is a GPU switching technology owned by Nvidia.

Have you tried to make a Fallout4 gaming profile in your nvidia control panel, and set it to high performance?

Yea from countless other reports with these laptops that have two GPUs, it sounds like a problem with the way Optimus or the software interacts with Fallout, not the other way around.


It's the job of these system to work with games.

How do you know it is using the Intel rather than the Nvidia?

Of course. Current drivers already have a profile for FO4. Tried deleting the profile and making a new one. Tried making a profile with old drivers that do not have a profile already. No matter what I do, game launches with integrated card, not Nvidia.

1) Performance alone indicates the game is running on Intel HD 4600. GTX 870M should give good FPS on High settings and the resolution I play. 2) One can monitor GPU activity by using the Nvidia CP to place an activity monitor on the taskbar. Any open program running the Nvidia card will be listed. 3) One can play a game windowed with Nvidia Inspector open to monitor GPU activity. 4) most of my CTDs are caused by what appears to be a TDR issue with the Intel HD 4600 driver crashing and then recovering, usually triggered by use of the Pipboy, especially the map. 5) sD3Ddevice in the falloutpref file shows Intel HD 4600. If one tries to manually change the pref file setting to the Nvidia card, and/or try iAdapter=1, the game resets the pref file of still launches with inegrated card.

My issue has been reported by many laptop users. All the other games I have can be launched and run on the Nvidia card. Only FO4 fails.

As for blame, Bethesda and Nvidia share it equally and one or the other should have solved this issue by now.

Its a damn shame, because even when running poorly on the integrated card, I can sometimes have fun, despite terrible FPS. I can only imagine how much i would like FO4 were it running fluidly off my 870M.

There are pple running the game on the notebook https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nik-NnJQ8w

^^^ I know. This type of problem is reported multiple times across multiple hardware platforms. The game works for some but not others with identical rigs. Sometimes changing drivers corrects issues, sometimes it does not. The inconsistency is the issue. I suppose it can also be said that such inconsistency makes it easy for either Bethesda or Nvidia to shrug their shoulders and blame the other guy.

Its clearly an Optimus issue. These types of reported problems can be found for many games over the past 5 years.

My last course of action would be to wipe my computer and do a factory restore, then reinstall Steam/FO4. Since I'm on vacation, I do have the time, but since my computer is encrypted and loaded with work related software, it will be a pain to reset all my work software.

On the other hand, after a couple of failed Windows 10 updates, and various driver changes, maybe a factory restore is not a bad idea. /sigh

I have found that Windows 10 is best installed new, not as an upgrade.

Anyhoo, the big issue is the game launches in 2D for the splash screens and Launcher and whatnot. The software that is supposed to switch to the 3D card does not seem to get the trigger to do so as the game starts in 2D briefly.

So, you have to manually force the system to use the 3D card. You can do this in power options on the laptop, or in the Nvidia Experience (which is a known issue to have running with this game on some systems) or in the Nvidia Control Panel (which might be the same thing as the Nvidia Experience). If the control panel is separate from the Experience program, then create a profile that forces the real video card to be used. And, you might be better served to not run the Nvidia Experience program with this game.

This switching GPU issue is the reason I made sure my system had no way to use the CPU Graphics. I did this by getting a motherboard that did not have the parts on it to allow CPU graphics.

^^^ Tried all those things to force the Nvidia GPU to be used. Nothing was effective, although the game does run better under the Integrated card without Geforce Experience installed. But that is due to interaction with ENBboost/ENBseries, which I need to use to have any semblance of stability playing FO4 off the Intel HD 4600.

On a side note, the primary issue I had with upgrading to Windows 10 were the Code 43 errors generated by the Graphics cards, both the integrated and the Nvidia. There appears to be an issue with WDDM 1.3 working with WDDM 2.0 drivers in Win 10. All the Intel drivers are still 1.3 while the Win 10 Nvidia drivers are all 2.0. Reverting to an older Win 8.1 347.XX or earlier Nvidia driver got rid of the Code 43, but then I'm stuck with old drivers.

I followed the recommended upgrade procedures from Razer and used their driver packages for the upgrade, but still had code 43. May be worth retrying a Win 10 upgrade after a factory reset. One would think Razer would not have suggested their drivers if they were not functional on their machines.

Check this topic out: https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/861231/nvidia-amp-windows-10-how-i-solved-the-code-43-error-/

Yeah, I had tried that. None of the solutions in that thread allowed me to update to a current driver. Code 43 would only not appear if I used a new Intel Win 10 driver and an old 8.1 347.XX Nvidia driver. Believe me, I hunted down and tried all potential solutions I could find.

I performed a factory restore of my Razer after a backup, now I'm going to attempt Windows 10 upgrade again, and see I can avoid Code 43s. If so, I will then install Steam/FO4 and cross my fingers.

Why you don't try this?

http://www.howtogeek.com/224342/how-to-clean-install-windows-10/

After a factory reset of my Razer, and an immediate Windows 10 upgrade, I'm not seeing any Code 43s. Will try to install newest Nvidia Driver and see if i remain free of Code 43.

Then will proceed with Steam/FO4.

O wish you Good Luck...

Was able to install latest driver, and am now smoothly running FO4 off the Nvidia card. Game looks so nice and smooth now.

Note that I had put in ~175 hours of play on the Integrated card, with more than half that time stuck in loading and/or 1-5 FPS near frozen states, and still I felt compelled to try to play FO4, so good is the game when its running.

Now its such an elevated experience to run on my 870M, I want to bang my head against a wall to punish myself for not having spent the time to do a factory reset, etc, sooner. The hours I lost to long loading times and CTDs was much more than the time I have spent today and will need to spend to reinstall work software and re-encrypt my laptop. Alas, live and learn.

I can only assume something in my registry was behind the Code 43s I was getting in earlier attempts to upgrade to Win 10 and that was also influencing the Optimus and GPU recognition by FO4.

Problems resolved. Hope others can use my experience to their benefit.