HP Elitebook 8470p Switchable Graphics?

[MikeTheBlueFox]

Hello, I'd like to know if there's a list of notebooks that support this "switchable graphics" feature? Or at least if anyone can confirm or deny that the Elitebook 8470P supports Switchable Graphics? I've seen people struggling with it and I don't have my laptop with me at the moment, its in shipping. (I'm seeing family). So I can't really check. I've talked with an HP support representative and they did say it did but at the same time, I'm seeing people with Elitebooks 8570w struggling to find the "Switchable Graphics" option within the BIOS and its a big mess. I'm confused. I've googled this topic a lot and I found nothing that helps me.

Specifications of said laptop:

Intel Core i5 3360M 2.8Ghz (3.5Ghz Turbo)

8GB DDR3

Intel HD Graphics 4000 - Wanted to use it for power saving and QuickSync applications.

AMD Radeon HD 7570M 1GB - Useful for blender and 3D Games.

1600x900 Display

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

If those are the specs for the notebook you have, it has switchable graphics.

However, there are two kinds of switchable graphics, and since I don't own a 8470p, I can't tell you which type you have.

See these links for more info...

http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c02731962

http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c03048374

[redlofredlof]

There are 2 tyes of Switchable graphics.

1: Static

2: Dynamic

In static switchable graphics, as soon as the GPU switches, the screen would go off for a brief moment as if you plugged in a new monitor.

In Dynammic switchable graphics, you wont notice a thing. Just the performance difference in any app that uses the dedicated GPU.

IMO Static is way better when using legacy apps that were made when PC's could only run 1 GPU at a time.

These apps usually fail to pickup the dedicated card when switchable graphics is used in a Dynamic switchable graphics  platform.

[MikeTheBlueFox]

@Paul_Tikkanen Any HP laptop with two built in Graphics chips has Switchable graphics? Because I've seen people having issues with this and not having a BIOS option available to turn this feature on or off/switch it to dynamic/fixed mode.

That's my concern.

Also, does it have to be an option within the bios for me to be able to use this feature?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Yes.

Any HP notebook with the Intel/Nvidia or Intel/AMD, are notebooks that have switchable graphics.

There are no manuals online that have a listing of the BIOS settings your notebook has, so as I posted before...since I don't have your model notebook, I don't know what BIOS settings are available for the graphics.

I'm pretty sure that if your notebook has the dynamic-type switchable graphics, there are no BIOS settings to turn the dynamic feature on or off.

The notebook decides what GPU to use, and a lot of folks don't like that.  They complain that it doesn't switch to the higher performing GPU a lot of the time when they think it should have.

Also, you are forced to use the custom graphics drivers that are only available on the support page for the specific model, otherwise the switchable graphics won't work.

You're going to have to wait until you get your notebook and figure out how it works/look at the BIOS settings available (unless someone on this forum has a 8470p with the dual graphics adapters chimes in, and can fill you in on the specifics).

[MikeTheBlueFox]

It happens that no, my HP 8470p does not support switchable graphics even though it comes with both GPUs.

A lot of people were facing this issue and nobody knows how to fix it it seems, and HP doesn't care to address about it either.

All of the drivers were downloaded from HP's website:

Installing one of them gives me this:

Supposedly it is supported by the HP Elitebook 8470p, right?

Runs through the extraction and then nothing happens after that.

Downloaded another driver from the same set of drivers given:

Supposedly supports the HP 8470p, right?

This is what I get:

No there's no bios options to be seen related to switchable graphics.

I tried uninstalling all drivers related to video possible and reinstalling them.

Installing Intel HD Graphics drivers first weilds no results, gives me the same no hardware supported found error.

Using Catalyst control center gives me no option to use a lower powered graphics card, the only graphics card enabled at any given time is the HD 7570M.

Bios updates did not address the issue.

People have contacted HP themselves over this and there is no mention over this problem having a solution nor there's an explanation as to why Intel HD Graphics are hardware disabled in these model laptops, it doesn't even show up as a connected piece of hardware, for whatever reason.

If anyone stands for a correction, I'm open to try any given ideas.