[K0064]Laptop Graphics Card Not Suitable

[bonalste]

I purchased a new laptop last week - a Lenovo Legion 5 with an RTX 3070 GPU. Today I tried X4 for the first time and was disappointed to see an error message come up when starting the game, stating that it couldn't run because it couldn't fund a suitable GPU.

I searched Google and the forums and found a solution that worked - I disabled my integrated GPU. The thing is, that's a terrible solution.

No other game I have run has this problem, and this 'user-based' solution requires me to actively disable my hardware that can't then be re-enabled without then going through a frustrating process of disabling my dedicated GPU, resetting the laptop with the power button, re-enabling the integrated GPU, re-enabling the discrete GPU, then re-applying all my desktop graphics options.

This makes no sense. I am able to select which GPU I used in the graphics options anyway. If the software struggles so much to work out that I want it to use the one I'm currently using on my desktop, why not let us make that selection before the game starts? Why not move the check for the correct GPU to the point where you actually choose a save or a new game?

This really shouldn't be necessary. I saw a post about this from 2018. 3 years ago! How can a bit of coding that forces a user to actively change their hardware configuration, or they are unable to even run the game to a point where they can select their hardware configuration, still here?

Anyway, this has really disappointed me. I know I don't need my integrated GPU on, but I don't see why I should be forced into it. It just seems like something that should have been prioritised some time ago.

[timon37]

Hi, we'll need your vulkaninfo, and dxdiag: https://www.egosoft.com:8444/confluence ... VulkanInfo
Preferably two of each, once when both gpus are enabled, and another set with the integrated gpu disabled.

[Rei Ayanami]

I purchased a new laptop last week - a Lenovo Legion 5 with an RTX 3070 GPU. Today I tried X4 for the first time and was disappointed to see an error message come up when starting the game, stating that it couldn't run because it couldn't fund a suitable GPU.

I'm not sure if you tried this/know this, but just in case :

If you have a NVidia card then you should be able to open up your NVidia control panel (rightclick on desktop->Nvidia control panel)
There, select "manage 3d settings" and in the tab "global settings" change your preferred graphics card to your Nvidia before starting the game.
You can also leave it at "auto select", which usually (but not always) works.
After playing the game you can switch it back to integrated graphics or auto-select.

If you want to absolutely make sure that your graphics card gets used for X4 while leaving it as auto-select for everything else, in the tab "program settings" you can also add setting for X4 by searching for the X4.exe in your Steam/steamapps/common/X4 Foundations/ folder and set the preferred graphics card for this executable to your Nvidia. If you do that then your laptop should automatically switch on the 3070 whenever you start X4.

[alt3rn1ty]

I searched Google and the forums and found a solution that worked - I disabled my integrated GPU. The thing is, that's a terrible solution.

Thats also not recommended, you are lucky you are able to recover from disabling the IGPU and still be able to see what you are doing, some laptops with Optimus setups always depend upon the IGPU for delivering all graphics to the screen, even if they do use the DGPU for games as the High Performance GPU the output of the DGPU still goes through the IGPU to the laptop screen.

Read up on Optimus setups here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia_Optimus

As Rei Ayanami says you need to set your Nvidia Drivers to use that nice Geforce RTX 3070.

Being a new laptop, you may be running off Lenovo Custom NVidia drivers.
After a few years supporting your machine model, the manufacturers will stop producing these custom drivers and you will have to switch to using the NVidia drivers direct from their site for your specific GPU, personally with each new laptop update I dont bother keeping up to custom made drivers and drop them immediately in preference for the NVidia originals from here https://www.nvidia.co.uk/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-uk
Your choice ofc, but if you use this site be sure to get the correct ones, in your case choose:
Product type = Geforce
Product series = Geforce RTX 30 series (Notebooks) <- Make sure it is the notebooks variety
Product = Geforce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU

These days with NVidia DCH drivers, the drivers do not install NVidia's Control Panel by default.
You now need to install that from Microsoft Store, and Windows will keep that up to date for you ..
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/nvidi ... verviewtab
(however, windows only keeps the Control Panel up to date, iaw what NVidia Drivers updates you have installed, the NVidia Drivers updates you have to keep on top of yourself periodically).
Windows may have already detected you need the NVidia Control Panel and install it for you, my Dell Laptop didn't (see signature).
You may also need to uninstall the Lenovo custom drivers and perform a clean install ..
In the NVidia drivers Installer, choose the second option without the Geforce Experience, then custom installation, and you will be able to install just Driver and PhysX .. Plus tick the "Perform a clean install" check box.
https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/im ... 281543.png
https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/im ... 361533.png
https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/im ... 361617.png

Geforce Experience may seem nice, but its just another overlay you dont need, and the Game settings it recommends are crowd sourced from the public, and sometimes are the recommended settings for desktop computers, so may make your laptop overheat and struggle to keep up.

Once NVidia's Control Panel is installed you may need to reboot, and then access it either through the Start menu, or right click anywhere in empty space on your desktop, it should be in the context menu.
Once its up on screen follow Rei Ayanami's post to set your High Performance GPU to kick in when a game loads.

[bonalste]

Thanks, guys, for all your suggestions.

I've discovered what I believe is the issue: the laptop was running in hybrid mode, which is okay, but it means it uses the iGPU when X4 tries to start. As X4 runs a check at this point to see if the GPU is good enough to run it, and sees the laptop using the underperforming GPU, it throws a wobbly. I set the Geforxe settings to use the 3070 and it didn't do the trick. The laptop had to not be using the integrated GPU in order for X4 to accept it.

So I turned off hybrid mode. It's a shame, and I find it frustrating that after so many years this still hasn't been given a decent fix. There are quite a few people who have the same issue, you see. I do believe that simply allowing the software to run regardless of the GPU that is present is the most logical solution. I mean, what's the worst that can happen if the GPU isn't good enough? This would resolve the issue that quite a lot of people have had when trying to play through a laptop.

It's just a bit frustrating. It's been 3 years, you know? And this seems like quite a major problem. But hey, at least I've found a workaround that doesn't require me to start disabling GPUs.

Sorry if I come across as entitled, I'm just a bit disappointed is all, and being a non-programer, I obviously assume it must be a very easy thing to fix. I'm sure I'm mistaken. Thanks again for the help.

[vega e7]

Does the problem still exist or has it been fixed in the meantime? I am also considering buying a Legion.

[CBJ]

What problem, specifically? The game is able to run on systems with multiple graphics devices, and you can choose which device it should use, but it's important to ensure that drivers for ALL of the graphics devices are up to date, because otherwise there can be problems. This is a driver/Vulkan issue rather than a game issue.

Note that various things have changed since this thread was created, which is why digging up old threads is a bad idea, and it's much better to ask your question in a new thread with a full explanation of what you want to know.

[Imperial Good]

I mean, what's the worst that can happen if the GPU isn't good enough?

X4 crashes immediately due to lacking required API features or running out of resources such as video memory to allocate.

Vulkan API works by allocating resources against a device. Unless some kind of magic virtual device is created that automatically shuffles the resources between IPGU and DGPU, something that is unlikely to perform well, X4 will need to be aware of the DGPU from the start and to be given enough information for it to prioritise using it over the IGPU.

This sort of issue is usually fixed by updating both IGPU and DGPU drivers. If that does not work, a clean install of both may be required.