Despite having changed the settings for a program in the NVIDIA Control Panel, sometimes a Windows 10 computer will still default to using an integrated graphics card for certain programs.

To resolve this:

1. Change settings in NVIDIA Control Panel

If using an NVIDIA dedicated GPU, ensure that you have actually specified to use the dedicated GPU for a specific program inside of the NVIDA Control Panel.

How to launch the NVIDIA Control Panel:

1. Press the Windows key.
2. Search for “NVIDIA”.
3. Click on NVIDIA Control Panel.
4. 3D Settings > Manage 3D Settings > Program Settings

2. Change settings in Graphics Settings

Windows 10 has a built-in Graphics Settings section. When the NVIDIA Control Panel fails, this seems to do the trick.

1. Press the Windows key.
2. Search for “Graphics”.
3. Click on Graphics Settings.
4. Click Browse under “Choose an app to set preference”.
5. Navigate to the programs executable file and open it.
6. Click the Options button under the program name.
7. Select the appropriate GPU.
8. Do this for all programs.
9. You will need to restart your computer for these changes to take effect.

3. Confirm that the change has actually been applied

An easy way to ensure this process works on your machine is to use Chrome.

1. Launch Chrome.
2. Go to url chrome://gpu.
3. Search for “GL_RENDERER” on page.
4. If the entry for that row does not match the name of your dedicated graphics card but does match your integrated graphics card, then your machine is routing all of your graphics processing for Chrome through your integrated GPU.
5. Follow the instructions on this page.
6. Check the “GL_RENDERER” value again. It should now be representative of your dedicated GPU.