How to make SC4 run with the dedicated GPU on notebook?

[Lu 5]

I tried to follow some guides that I found here, but none worked, I hope that by creating a topic of my own someone can help me or I can understand better and be able to solve it. I have installed SC4 from steam, SC4Launcher, 4GBpatch for SC4 and SC4Launcher.

 

How far did I get>

my Video Cards.sgr

 

my Graphics Rules.sbr OBS: i dont know why, but this information always disappear when I launch the game and I need to put it back

 

 

The state of the game and GPU usage, first with the SC4Launcher:

If I try to open  with the High-performance NVIDIA processor its fail to open :v the windows explorer is restarted

 

Opening normally with the software option, it opens and is even smooth, maybe because of the SSD, but as you can see the use of the GTX 1050 is 0

 

It opens normally with the DirectX option, but the game runs with lower FPS.

trying to use the option of High-performance NVIDIA processor in SimCity 4.exe instead of the Launcher, it opens normally, but even so it does not use the GTX 1050, it opens according to the information saved in SC4Launcher. I hope there is some way for this to be resolved. Thanks

 

  Edited February 25, 2023 by Lu  
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[rsc204 21,808]

The problem is NVidia’s dim software, it ignores the setting for high performance when it detects a legacy version of DirectX is being used, such as with SC4. The problem with this logic is that you don’t need the dedicated GPU for power reasons, rather compatibility, a scenario I guess they never bothered to consider?

The only solution I know of is to use a DXWrapper that allows you to force use of the dedicated card, dgVoodoo2 probably being the best option here. 

[Lu 5]

7 hours ago, rsc204 said:

The problem is NVidia’s dim software, it ignores the setting for high performance when it detects a legacy version of DirectX is being used, such as with SC4. The problem with this logic is that you don’t need the dedicated GPU for power reasons, rather compatibility, a scenario I guess they never bothered to consider?

The only solution I know of is to use a DXWrapper that allows you to force use of the dedicated card, dgVoodoo2 probably being the best option here. 

I did these steps, but it still doesn't seem to use the GPU, on the contrary, most of the time it used all the integrated graphics. Including replacing the 'Graphics Rules.sgr', 'Video Cards.sgr' that you provided.

  Edited February 25, 2023 by Lu  
Important information was missing

[Ulisse Wolf 4,412]

47 minutes ago, Lu said:

I did these steps, but it still doesn't seem to use the GPU, on the contrary, most of the time it used all the integrated graphics. Including replacing the 'Graphics Rules.sgr', 'Video Cards.sgr' that you provided.

You need to log in to the Nvidia control panel --> Force use of the GPU dedicated to Simcity4.exe and dgVoodooCpl.exe.

Also on SC4 Launcher you have to set in render mode DirectX

To insert the video card you can use this tool

https://www.simsnetwork.com/tools/graphics-rules-maker

[Lu 5]

57 minutes ago, Ulisse Wolf said:

You need to log in to the Nvidia control panel --> Force use of the GPU dedicated to Simcity4.exe and dgVoodooCpl.exe.

Also on SC4 Launcher you have to set in render mode DirectX

To insert the video card you can use this tool

https://www.simsnetwork.com/tools/graphics-rules-maker

I couldn't do that exactly, " Nvidia control panel --> Force use of the GPU dedicated to Simcity4.exe and dgVoodooCpl.exe." the Nvidia control panel when I go to the tab to put these 2 manually it closes by itself, but in the previous tab I put the GTX 1050 as the preferred graphics processor in global settings. And then I did the graphics ruler maker stuff and finally the game is running on the right GPU.

[Ulisse Wolf 4,412]

18 minutes ago, Lu said:

I couldn't do that exactly, " Nvidia control panel --> Force use of the GPU dedicated to Simcity4.exe and dgVoodooCpl.exe." the Nvidia control panel when I go to the tab to put these 2 manually it closes by itself, but in the previous tab I put the GTX 1050 as the preferred graphics processor in global settings. And then I did the graphics ruler maker stuff and finally the game is running on the right GPU.

Make sure you have updated drivers