Skyrim won't detect Laptop GPU

[Toastbre4d]

So I just got a new (my first) laptop (It's a Gigabyte P34G v2 with a GeForce GTX 860M) and I wanted to install Skyrim on it. Installed just fine, no issues up to this point. Battlefield 4 runs fine on half Ultra, half High settings, so I thought I could get right to modding the living hell out of Skyrim again.

 

Until I started the launcher. The launcher only detects my integrated GPU (Intel HD 4600), even though I set the Nvidia Control Panel to launch it with the Nvidia chip. When I force the launcher to re-detect my hardware by deleting the ini files, it prompts me that it's detecting my video hardware and then crashes (Standard Windows "XXX stopped working." window). When I try to start the game via MO, it starts up fine, but looking at MSI Afterburner reveals that it's still not using the Nvidia chip. 

This is extremely frustrating, because this GPU should easily be able to run this game with some pretty beefy visual mods. Not as heavy as my desktop GTX 770, but still. 

I didn't try running an ENB yet (it seemed pointless to me when the game itself can't even detect the good stuff), but there seems to be a fix for ENBs. 

Are there any of you guys with the same issues? Have you fixed it? If so, how?

Greetings, Toastbre4d

[sorsharavenwing]

I had the same issue when I installed Skyrim on my new laptop. I had to download the latest driver directly from nVidia. And I also updated the version of GeForce Experience.

[Toastbre4d]

Already did that, no success. When I try to set the preferred graphics adapter to the High Performance Nvidia setting in Nvidia Control Panel, it reverts back to Auto as soon as I fire up a game or change anything else in Nvidia Control Panel. I tried running it with Admin rights, no dice.

[sorsharavenwing]

Gotta love Optimus. You should be able to force the game to launch using the nVidia GPU. I believe if you right click on the executable that you launch Skyrim from (skse_loader.exe if you're using SKSE, TESV.exe if you aren't) you should see an option on the menu that says something like "Run with Graphics Processor" which will bring up a menu that gives the option to choose the nVidia GPU or the Integrated graphics. If you click on nVidia it'll force the system to launch using the nVidia GPU. You can also change the default setting from this menu, but it's my experience that this setting is sometimes ignored by the system. The way I solved my nVidia Optimus issues once and for all was to disable graphics switching in the BIOS. But not all laptops offer that as an option. And not everyone wants to force that choice especially if they want to conserve the battery life when not gaming.

[Rayblue]

BTW, if you're going to use ENBs I hear you'll have to use the injector version because, yes, Optimus.

[sorsharavenwing]

Yep. ENB wrapper version + Optimus =  They do not play well together.

[Toastbre4d]

After a while, I almost gave up. Two driver updates have been released in the meantime, and I decided to give it another shot and download Skyrim again. At first, it did the same as before. But then I set compatibility mode for Windows 7 and run as admin for all involved applications (Skyrim Launcher, tesv.exe, enbhost.exe, SKSE Launcher) just to try it and then tried to force skse_launcher.exe to use the Nvidia GPU. What's this, an error message? "You don't have the rights to change Display Adapter using this menu, use the Control Center instead". It didn't save the settings before, but after the driver update, I gave it a shot. And voila, it worked! I can now almost run TrueVision ENB with 2K textures, I'm getting 40-60 FPS indoors. Downgrading to 1K textures now. 

TL;DR: Set compatibility mode for Windows 7 and "Run as admin" for all involved applications (Skyrim Launcher, SKSE Launcher, enbhost.exe, tesv.exe), changed Display Adapter Settings in Nvidia Control Panel for all of the applications to "Use Nvidia GPU" and "Prefer Maximum Performance", and it works just fine.