Chrome/HTML5/WebGL - nVidia Optimus

MrShteeeve

Well-known member
Hi all,

Here's a question that should keep all you regular forum-goers busy for a short while - as i'm completely out of ideas...

I am currently running a HTML5/webGL based application within Chrome which will need the use of the GT555M - not the Intel HD 3000.

As standard you cannot assign in nVidia control panel the GT555M to Chrome... And even when using it as the 'preferred' Graphics card - it still uses the Intel C**p...

I've tried pretty much everything i can think of - so i'm hoping someone here has a bright idea to get this working...

If i've missed any blindingly important info please just ask.

Cheers in advance all.

Regards,

Steve
 

Everon

Enthusiast
The only things that come to mind are:

Go into your bios and disable the built in graphics adapter and force the machine to only use the GT555m.

Or try this that I came across on the SWTOR forums, a user was complaining of a similar situation as yours involving the GT555m:

Search using the start menu search box for "HDMI"
Click 'Connect to an External Display'
Click detect at the top
On the display drop down, click "available GPU"

I did read that connecting to your monitor/tv using the HDMI port on the GT555m forces the system to use only that device, may be worth a go.

Sorry thats all i can think of, Jay.
 

MrShteeeve

Well-known member
The only things that come to mind are:

Go into your bios and disable the built in graphics adapter and force the machine to only use the GT555m.

Or try this that I came across on the SWTOR forums, a user was complaining of a similar situation as yours involving the GT555m:

Search using the start menu search box for "HDMI"
Click 'Connect to an External Display'
Click detect at the top
On the display drop down, click "available GPU"

I did read that connecting to your monitor/tv using the HDMI port on the GT555m forces the system to use only that device, may be worth a go.

Sorry thats all i can think of, Jay.


Hi jay,

Thanks for your reply.

You have a point, and i may try and do that later on after work.

I know that infortunately that with optimus - despite having the GT555M active in things like games etc - you still have to have the Intel chip 'Active' as all the data gets pushed through the intel chip (the GT just does the processing etc) so it uses the Intel as a 'middle-man' of sorts.

Otherwise i would've tried disabling the Intel in Device Manager, therefore forcing it to use the GT as standard - no avail though!

I've also trawled through Chrome://flags to ensure that Hardware CCS/webGL is active but even checking that has no affect.

It may have to be custom driver jobby - but if i can steer clear of it i will...

All this ball-ache of optimus i'm actually thinking of selling the laptop and putting into a desktop...

Thanks again - i'll let you know the output later.

Regards,

Steve
 

Tom DWC

Moderator
Moderator
This is a really interesting (and highly annoying) one, it's the same with AMD Enduro as well as NVIDIA Optimus. I'm hoping a driver update or something may be able to resolve it because it's going to become increasingly problematic as more websites ditch Flash and Java for HTML5.
 

MrShteeeve

Well-known member
This is a really interesting (and highly annoying) one, it's the same with AMD Enduro as well as NVIDIA Optimus. I'm hoping a driver update or something may be able to resolve it because it's going to become increasingly problematic as more websites ditch Flash and Java for HTML5.

It's a no go on forcing through the HDMI as according to nVidia control panel the only output connected to the GT555M directly is the VGA! The hell??

As expected it's still running through the Intel HD 3000...

Sigh... I wish it were easier to sort c**p like this out...

GT555M.png
 
Last edited:

Ozal

New member
Solution

Hello all

I too had the same problem with my Optimus II 15'' running GT 555M /HD3000. I tried lots of things and googled around and I think I have found a solution. It worked for me and made the Nvidia GPU selectable in the Nvidia control panel after which chrome started using that GPU like I wanted.

Credit goes to Recursion93 over on the runescape3 forum. Here follows his solution.

I've found a way to manipulate the values set by the Nvidia Control Panel using a tool called 'Nvidia Inspector'.

What it does is allowing you to change the values set to several application profiles for the driver. It comes as a .ZIP archive which can be easily found on the Internet.

Actual solution:

After downloading the tool, extracting it from the .ZIP archive and opening it up, I did the following to resolve the problem:

1. In the main program window, I've clicked on an icon which has a wrench and a screwdriver displayed on it.

2. This opened up the 'profile settings' window. In this window, a drop down menu with a huge list of programs is displayed after clicking on the triangle next to the menu. I've then looked up Chrome in this list, which took a while to find because of the lists length.

3. I selected this profile since it was the correct one. I knew which value to look for, which is called 'Enable application for Optimus', found under the 'Others' category and changed its value to'SHIM_RENDERING_MODE_ENABLE' (without quotes).

4. After I've finished editing the settings, I pressed the 'Apply changes' and exited the editor and main program window.

5. Next was opening up the Nvidia Control Panel to verify if I could actually adjust the 'Select the preferred graphics processor for this program' setting.

6. This time I was allowed to do so, it was no longer greyed out. Chrome seems to have accepted the change as well.

Now everything is back to the way it was before updating my graphics driver for the GT 650M and I can happily get back to testing the HTML5 beta again.:)

Hopefully other players who ran into this same problem will find this a useful thread, as it was quite a struggle to find a solution.;)

Hope that helps!
 
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