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Ubuntu 14.04 here, installed the nvidia drivers. I run lspci and this is what i get:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Haswell-ULT DRAM Controller (rev 0b)    
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Haswell-ULT Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 0b)    
00:03.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation Haswell-ULT HD Audio Controller (rev 0b)    
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Lynx Point-LP USB xHCI HC (rev 04)    
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation Lynx Point-LP HECI #0 (rev 04)    
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation Lynx Point-LP HD Audio Controller (rev 04)    
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Lynx Point-LP PCI Express Root Port 3 (rev e4)

00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Lynx Point-LP PCI Express Root Port 5 (rev e4)    
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Lynx Point-LP USB EHCI #1 (rev 04)    
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Lynx Point-LP LPC Controller (rev 04)    
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation Lynx Point-LP SATA Controller 1 [AHCI mode] (rev 04)    
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation Lynx Point-LP SMBus Controller (rev 04)    
01:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 10)    
02:00.0 3D controller: NVIDIA Corporation GM108M [GeForce 840M] (rev a2)

I must say in BIOS for graphics device I use "discrete" and not "UMA only". And when I look in the nvidia x server settings it says that it is being utilized at a certain % when i watch videos and stuff.

My question is

Is my nvidia graphics card being utilized or not? If yes, why does my system show vga compatible controller as being the intel graphics controller? If not, how do I enable the nvidia graphics card?

Ganesh Kathiresan
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Zeno
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1 Answers1

4

You're running in "Hybrid" mode: both the NVidia and Intel controller are working! 

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Haswell-ULT Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 0b)    
02:00.0 3D controller: NVIDIA Corporation GM108M [GeForce 840M] (rev a2)

So if the PC isn't doing any anti-aliasing or 3D work, only the Intel card is being used. Once you start watching videos or gaming (not talking about Tetris, but about an advanced 3D-game) you'll see the NVidia Utilisation shoot up!

So: you're fine; perfect job! Don't break anything! Take a system backup... ;-)

Some background info:
Here's the output of my computer lshw -c video when my BIOS graphics setting is set to IGD: (Integrated Graphics adapter)

*-display               
   description: VGA compatible controller
   product: Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller
   vendor: Intel Corporation
   physical id: 2
   bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
   version: 07
   width: 64 bits
   clock: 33MHz
   capabilities: vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
   configuration: driver=i915 latency=0
   resources: irq:44 memory:f4000000-f43fffff memory:d0000000-dfffffff ioport:1800(size=8)

and here after setting it to NVidia:

*-display               
   description: VGA compatible controller
   product: G96M [GeForce 9600M GT]
   vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
   physical id: 0
   bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
   version: a1
   width: 64 bits
   clock: 33MHz
   capabilities: vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
   configuration: driver=nouveau latency=0
   resources: irq:46 memory:f2000000-f2ffffff memory:d0000000-dfffffff memory:f0000000-f1ffffff ioport:2000(size=128)

and lspci now gives:

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation G96M [GeForce 9600M GT] (rev a1)

So it's pretty clear from your settings that both cards are both doing what they do best individually, depending on your demands...

Fabby
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