Computer not using Nvidia graphics; using Intel instead?

My Alienware has an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Laptop GPU.

Every now and then I have performance troubles with a game. I've been having trouble playing Fallout 76, with my computer fans (?) going crazy and grinding. I ran all of the on-board Alienware tests and everything looked fine. I checked further, and noticed that my laptop has somehow switched from the Nvidia graphics card to the other, Intel card.

My question is, how do I change it back to the gaming card on Win 11? I've been poking around and can't find it in my Settings, but my eyes are tired and the typeface is tiny and I may have just missed it.

I found in a search that the Alienware gaming laptops were known for this in the past, but I thought they'd fixed it. You should be able to set it back using the Nvidia Control Panel. I assume you can "see" your Nvidia card in your Device Manager?

Thanks. Yes I did find it in the end. My eyesight is really getting bad! Need new glasses. I have shelves full of precious books I can barely read.

It turns out it wasn't the graphics card anyway. I contacted Alienware Support. I paid for the Premium support, and they are really good. They work remotely. The tech uninstalled and reinstalled a number of things, not just graphics, which I had already done, but system items I would never touch myself. Whatever he did, the problem seems to be resolved. I won't know until I've played for a few hours, but normally it would have glitched out after between 30 and 45 minutes of gameplay. Fallout 76 does seem to be resource-heavy, as I played ESO last night for a couple of hours and it was fine.

It did seem odd since this laptop cruises through every game I'm thrown at it so far. I suspect it was a recent update that did it, probably the last Windows update. There was a bios update in there, I think.

I remember that you got the premium support, so that was going to be my next suggestion!

Glad you got it sorted. I grabbed Fallout 4 GOTY edition in a promo from GOG. Still have to go back in and finish Fallout New Vegas. I got stuck in a boss fight I wasn't ready for, got distracted by gardening last spring and never went back!

They told me this last glasses prescription would probably be my last as I'd get cataract surgery after that. I can't STAND not being able to see!

I loved FNV until I started the DLC, and got bogged down. I've never actually finished the main quest! I'm at the point in the main story line where I can launch the end game, so I might go back someday and do that.

In its current form Fallout 76 is a lot of fun. I freaked yesterday when another player started talking to me, I mean actually talking to me, with sound. Didn't know what was happening. And I couldn't work out how to reply. How embarrassing. I just used the waving Icon and went away, and I could hear him telling someone else about it.

OK, now that's a little creepy! You probably could have just talked to the other player if your audio was active! I really don't like to play with other people.

I laugh when I say that because every now and then I like to go play a little Plants Vs. Zombies Garden Wars to kill some time. If I go into a certain area, I will be doing a "mission" with other players. But no one is there during the day because they are all in school! LOL! So I am probably playing with a bunch of 12 year old boys!

Well, the problem is back.

I played for two hours this morning with no problem. Then I decided to shut down my computer as I'm going out for a while and was told I should shut it down frequently. A Windows Update wanted to install, so I installed, and decided I'd better play the game for a while to see if all is well. It isn't.

It seems to have something to do with Windows updates.

Definitely a problem for your premium support to sort out.

Yes, back to that. More hours gone.

In Nvidia control panel, go to "Manage 3D Settings" and select Nvidia GPU as the preferred GPU. You can do this for all programs under Global Settings, or individual programs under Program Settings:

You can turn off voice chat in Settings -> Audio, so you won't hear other players. Turn off "Push to Talk" so other players won't hear you if you have a mic. There is no text chat in this game like in ESO, so voice chat is the only way, but most people have it turned off because it is just not efficient. When a player is using voice chat, whether you have it turned on or not, you see a mic icon above their head.

There is very little PvP content in this game, so you also need turn off the one PvP setting in the game, which is enabled by default. You need to load into a world to see the setting. Load into a world, go to Settings -> Game, and turn ON "Pacifist Mode." ON means you can't hurt other players even if you accidentally shoot them. OFF means PvP is on, and you can hurt other players, intentionally or not. And when you hurt other players, you instantly become "wanted," and other players can kill you to collect a bounty.

GamingPhreak, she did all that and it didn't hold. She has Premium Support and the did a bunch of mojo and that didn't hold either. So they determined she has to sent it in for warranty work.