X4 doesn't detect dedicated GPU - Resolved by driver updates.

[FreedomWarrior]

Hi,

Today, for the first time I installed X4 after watching a youtube video of Egosoft about it. It's looks like an extremely interesting game but the game simply doesn't work. This game is the only game that I ever tested that does not detect the main GPU, not even by forcing it in configuration file or in the system to run only with the main GPU. This problem seems unique to this game and I found out it was released 7 years ago and still have this problem! How can this be?

How to fix this problem!?

Thanks

[CBJ]

Please see the very first thread at the top of the forum and provide the information requested there. Problems like this are normally driver-related, but without any information to work with, we really can't help you.

[FreedomWarrior]

The game version is 7.60 from steam.

Dxdiag:
https://disk.yandex.com/d/89FYo0NgBqdYug

The thing is, driver or not, there's not another game were this ever happened before so if it's a driver issue, it's also a game design issue...

[CBJ]

The device not being detected is not something the game has any control over. At a guess, the other games you have played on this laptop all use the DirectX graphics API. The Vulkan API, used by X4 and some other games, can be a little fussier, often requiring drivers for all graphics devices to be up to date and correctly installed in order for it to work correctly. You may need to use DDU to uninstall drivers before installing the latest ones for each device.

[FreedomWarrior]

I didn't know what the game uses to communicate with the graphics card and the only time I ever used Vulkan was in a game that also supported directX and it worked fine although it was in another laptop but with 2 graphics card as this one.

I have the latest drivers from the manufacturer installed... Although I'll do what you said and I'll report back.

[Alan Phipps]

According to the DxDiag, your Nvidia driver (and hence Vulkan) is from February and so can definitely be updated. Your onboard Intel UHD graphics chipset driver and Vulkan are actually more recent, but the DxDiag shows several 'Unknown' entries for it in such as current mode that might indicate that it has not been set up fully. It might be worth addressing these aspects and seeing if it helps. Good luck.

[FreedomWarrior]

According to the DxDiag, your Nvidia driver (and hence Vulkan) is from February and so can definitely be updated. Your onboard Intel UHD graphics chipset driver and Vulkan are actually more recent, but the DxDiag shows several 'Unknown' entries for it in such as current mode that might indicate that it has not been set up fully. It might be worth addressing these aspects and seeing if it helps. Good luck.

I tried to update from the nvidia and intel themselves and not from the computer manufacturer and now X4 is working with the dGPU. This is very strange but it is what it is... I have no idea about the unknown entries are but seems like that the problem is solved. I just hope that not using the manufacturer drivers will not cause any problems in the future.

Thank you both for the help.

[alt3rn1ty]

I tried to update from the nvidia and intel themselves and not from the computer manufacturer and now X4 is working with the dGPU. This is very strange but it is what it is... I have no idea about the unknown entries are but seems like that the problem is solved. I just hope that not using the manufacturer drivers will not cause any problems in the future.

Thank you both for the help.

Dont worry about not using the manufacturers drivers, with all laptops you only get a couple of years driver update support, and then the manufacturers stop supporting it. After that you have to use the Intel and NVidia ones anyway to keep up to date with game developments.
In my experience with my last three laptops there have been no problems.

If I were you I would install the Intel Driver & Support Assistant, go here https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en ... /home.html
Click get started, and download the installer. Install it and you have a DSA Icon in your system tray. It will prompt you when new drivers are available, and they install via your web browser. You can also right click the system tray icon to do a check for updates, which will open up a tab in your browser and list anything that needs doing .. Just click download all and install all and follow any prompts for restarting the laptop.
Its good because a lot of laptop drivers (like WIFI, Bluetooth etcetera) are now Intel. So it keeps a whole bunch of drivers security updates going long after the laptop manufacturers drop their support.
And of course it keeps the Intel Integrated GPU drivers additional Vulkan drivers also up to date, and in step with the NVidia Discrete GPU drivers Vulkan installation, which as previously mentioned has become important in the last year.

And of course you need to keep up to date with NVidia aswell.

Edit : One exception I noticed to manufacturers dropping support was my previous machine (a Dell laptop) kept my BIOS updates going for a few years after its warranty ran out .. So dont ditch any bookmarks you have to the OEM drivers, you may be surprised by some of them still updating. Depends on the manufacturer I guess and if they want to keep your machines security good.

[FreedomWarrior]

Thanks for the tip but I rather have the minimum programs running in the background because Windows 11 is such a beast (in the negative way) that by itself takes 5 GB of RAM (or more) just to run so I prefer keeping the memory as clean as possible. It takes 5GB to run but it's the slowest OS from Microsoft I ever came across, probably in even slower than Vista. With 5GB in Windows 10 you can basically do everything, including playing many games... Anyway this is another topic not for this forum.

I tried to reverse the intel driver to the manufacturer and the game is still working. I guess it was just NVIDIA's problem.

[alt3rn1ty]

I tried to reverse the intel driver to the manufacturer and the game is still working. I guess it was just NVIDIA's problem.

You have two versions of the Vulkan API installed.
1 Installed by the Intel IGPU driver
2 Installed by the NVidia DGPU driver

Both Vulkan setups need to be as close to the same version as each other as possible.

What you have just done is revert not only the Intel IGPU driver, but also the Intel installation of Vulkan.
Things may seem to be working ok, but you may now start experiencing other problems which are hard to diagnose.

The DSA Service when it pings Intel for update versions of your drivers only uses about 2% CPU time, and this will not happen when gaming, on Windows 11 by default you will have Game Optimisation which supresses unecessary services, and includes this service (when its installed).

[FreedomWarrior]

I tried to reverse the intel driver to the manufacturer and the game is still working. I guess it was just NVIDIA's problem.

You have two versions of the Vulkan API installed.
1 Installed by the Intel IGPU driver
2 Installed by the NVidia DGPU driver

Both Vulkan setups need to be as close to the same version as each other as possible.

What you have just done is revert not only the Intel IGPU driver, but also the Intel installation of Vulkan.
Things may seem to be working ok, but you may now start experiencing other problems which are hard to diagnose.

I'm not sure why game developers use Vulkan if it doesn't work properly. Thanks for the advice. If I experience problems I'll update the intel driver.

[alt3rn1ty]

See also my edit reference DSA , you ninja posted before I finished.
Vulkan does work fine, but on optimus setup laptops you need to keep both installations nearly in sync (not always possible, as NVidia is usually much faster than laptop developers at including the latest Vulkan, even when the laptop is still supported by the developers updates). Intel DSA on the other hand is quicker than the laptop developers in my experience.

Anyway good luck

[alt3rn1ty]

Oh and watch out for Intel updates trying to install this ..

viewtopic.php?p=5280332#p5280332

.. Now that does take a bad chunk of your CPU time, last time I didn't check the custom installation options and accidently let it in, it would periodically take up 20% CPU time, and badly affected X4 performance when it happened.

[FreedomWarrior]

Oh and watch out for Intel updates trying to install this ..

viewtopic.php?p=5280332#p5280332

.. Now that does take a bad chunk of your CPU time, last time I didn't check the custom installation options and accidently let it in, it would periodically take up 20% CPU time, and badly affected X4 performance when it happened.

ahah I noticed that when I installed the driver, I obviously unchecked the option but to take 20% of CPU and your CPU is a lot faster than mine, it's just criminal.
I'll think about the DSA although I don't mind installing it manually if it is needed.