I'm sorry! 10,000 search results . . help please!

I've got a T400 from a couple years ago. I'm trying to figure out if I'm ever using the 'switchable graphics' feature that's supposed to be there. When I click on the symbol for a plug (along the bottom with all the other symbols like the mouse and the battery) it gives me a choice for Switchable Graphics. I click High Performance and then the choices 'go away' yet every time I click on that plug, Switchable Graphics says Energy Saver.

How do I know please if High Performance graphics is running? I assume that's how you switch graphic cards but maybe I'm on the wrong road with that?

Do the power settings (Energy Saver; Power Saver; High Performance) have anything to do with the graphics card?

Thank you!

 

if you let Power Manager display a gauge in the taskbar, you can right-click on it and see which mode is being used.

If your T400 has a HD3470 card, then Energy Saver = onboard, High Performance = discrete card

 

thank you vimvq:

I can bring up Power Manager but I don't know how to get it to display a gauge in the taskbar. Just looking at Power Manager, I don't see where it tells about a graphics card.

So I can see the difference in Energy Saver and High Performance in the battery settings but that's not telling me about the graphics card (I assume...).

Sorry if I'm being confusing!

 

You can open Power Manager, switch to "Options" tab and check "Show Power Manager gauge in task bar".

For fast-switching, you can right click on that gauge, choose switchable graphics => energy saver or high performance

 

Thank you again vimvq - I surely must be missing something.

Apparently I had "Show Power Manager gauge in task bar" set as it was set to yes when I just looked.

So the gauge could be either the plug looking thing or the battery looking thing which both behave the same way - when I left click I see a choice for Switchable Graphics (right click launches power manager). I click High Performance and then the choices 'go away' yet every time I left click on the plug or the battery and look at Switchable Graphics it says Energy Saver.

So still I can't tell if I ever get to use the feature of High Performance (Switchable) Graphics since all I ever see is Energy Saver (Switchable) Graphics.

Thank you for your patience in following this with me.

 

If you have switchable graphics, you will see the Intel Graphic logo on the systray next to the clock when you have Energy Saver enabled. Otherwise you will see an ATI logo.

 

Thank you killer - I see a digital clock at the bottom of my screen in the farthest right. Next to that moving left in order are symbols for: the speaker, network connection, current power plan (Energy Star), Access Connections, Google Calendar sync, Lenovo Mouse Suite. . and more but nothing I can tell that is either an Intel Graphic logo or an ATI logo. Am I looking in the right place? Thank you!