Hi everyone,

I have a problem running the game with good performance due to my laptop not being able to use my dedicated graphics card. Other games work well (even the original Deus Ex, although I used Shifter with Direct3D 10 so maybe that's why).
I tried configuring DX2Main.exe for High Performance in the AMD Switchable Graphics settings but it doesn't work. It looks like it cannot recognize that the game is running.
In Power->Switchable Graphics Application Monitor the game doesn't even show when running.
I tried clearing all compatibility flags from the desktop shortcut of the game. The result is that the game shows up in the Application Monitor indicating the Power Saving mode.
Does anybody know of any workaround or a way to switch active graphics cards manually? I haven't found any settings in CCC, BIOS or the game's INI files. I suspect that using Direct3D 10 like with Shifter for the original Deus Ex would also solve the problem but there doesn't seem to be anything like that.

Thanks

I don't have this configuration here, so I can't tell, but instead of selecting a certain graphics card, you could try disabling the onboard graphics chip entirely, so that the game has to use the only remaining.

I haven't found out how to do that or if it is even possible. I looked in the BIOS for such an option but it isn't there. I suspect it might not be possible as the laptop almost always uses the onboard chip (the power button changes color depending on which chip is active), with the exception of the configured applications in the AMD Switchable Graphics panel and the boot process.

In BIOS, do you have an option to set graphics from dynamic to fixed? Try fixed.

Also look at your computer's (or motherboard's) manufacturer's homepage for a BIOS update.
If you haven't done a BIOS update before, read all the instructions that comes with it before you start!

No, I do not have that option in BIOS.
I am not really comfortable with flashing my BIOS, especially when I don't know if it will even work. I am worried it would cause other problems. I had to change some values to be able to replace Win8 with Win7 and MSI has two versions of BIOS for my laptop, Win7 and Win8, with a warning that cross-flashing must not be attempted - so flashing might cause bricking or inability to boot my OS.
Isn't there some other way?

I understand your concerns about BIOS flashing. It's usually a good thing, but one has to be careful.
I fear you're missing some crucial options for your graphics card in your current BIOS version, but that doesn't mean there's no other way.

Have you tried switching power saving off and telling your system to run everything in high performance. Reboot to let changes take effect.

Yes, I have everything that I know of switched to high performance. Windows Mobility Center shows "High performance", DX2Main.exe in Switchable Graphics Application Settings says "High performance", Switchable Graphics Global Settings says "Optimize performance" on both sides and the active power plan is "High performance".

I just tried reinstalling the original Deus Ex (mainly because of mods) and it didn't run on the dedicated card until I explicitly set it to "High performance" in the Switchable Graphics Application Settings. This seems like Deus Ex 2 really just isn't getting detected. I also tried adding a specific setting for DX2.exe but it didn't work.

EDIT: An interesting fact: When I tried to set both values in Switchable Graphics Global Settings to "Maximize performance", the highest value ("Optimize performance" was the second highest), I noticed that my power button turned orange after alt+tabbing to another application and stayed that way, so the dedicated graphics card stayed active. I tried starting Deus Ex 2 and the dedicated card stayed active all the way through the logo animations and when the loading screen appeared it suddenly switched back (power button turned white). After exiting the game, the dedicated card became active again.
Looks like this isn't a problem with the detection. I think the game is explicitly asking to use the onboard chip.

EDIT 2: I noticed there is another checkbox on the Switchable Graphics Global Settings screen called "Allow additional power-savings." When I unchecked it the power button didn't turn white on the loading screen and even in the game it stayed orange. However, the performance didn't get any better. I am really at a loss here. I'll try it out again tomorrow.

I don't think it'll make much difference but for what it's worth, try installing DirectX9. If you use Win7 or newer you might only have DirectX 11 installed and adding the missing old libraries might help.
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=8109

No, didn't work :( I am in the point in the game where I left the first elevator, in front of Leila Nassif's office. I have the texture pack installed and I followed this guide to make the game running in 1920x1080 if that has something to do with it.

I just tried reinstalling the game, deleting all data besides the saved game from last time (out of the frist elevator right next to the door that says "Leila Nassif"). I didn't even enter the settings screen so it ran at 1024x768 with default settings. And still there was horrible stuttering.
Is it just my computer that does this? I haven't found any mention of this problem anywhere on the net. When I get the chance I will try it out on a different system. I'll also try to continue playing for a few minutes. Maybe it will go away.

In the BIOS you not have and option to select the amount of shared memory for the inboard graphics?

In some motherboard, to disable the inboard graphics, your need to put this value to none.

Elsewhere, a workaround is in Windows itself, go to Control Panel, System, Device Manager and open Display adapters, right click in the inboard graphics and select "disable".

There are two display drivers, AMD Radeon HD 7660G and AMD Radeon HD 7970M. The dedicated card should be the 7970M but I am not sure what would happen if I disabled the other one. I don't think I should be risking that.

I tried playing more and there are only a few places where the slowdown happens. It also seems to happen much more for a few minutes after a map has loaded. So far it seems generally playable.

Let's just tick down the list here real quick.

You are playing on (almost definitely) an MSi GX60 laptop with an A10-4600M, correct?

So both your CPU speed and your *puny* integrated 7660G should still EASILY humiliate the specs required by Invisible War. Considering that Oblivion, Fallout 3 and New Vegas and even SKYRIM run well enough on it.

What is going on in your case is something completely unrelated to the "power" of your graphics. It could be as simple as locking the CPU clock speed or defragmenting your hard disk considering the problem happens just after loading into a level.

I say this from the perspective of playing the game on an A8-3500M with 6620G and NOT feeling the need to switch to my dedicated 6750M....one other possibility is you need to turn on vsync to stabilize your frame rate at only 60fps.

Yes, I am playing on MSI GX60 with A10-4600M.
Other games run great (Skyrim included), although every game switched graphics correctly (the power button LED changes color to indicate which is active).
Windows 7 performance settings were set to High Performance, which I assumed should not lock CPU speeds. It is certainly possible that CPU throttling also occurs when the dedicated GPU isn't active.
The slowdowns happened in certain areas of the game consistently, so we can rule out HDD problems.
Vsync shouldn't be the problem as this wasn't a problem with screen tearing, just general slowdowns in certain areas of the game.
My only conclusion was that the game is trying to render some graphics effects which the low-performance GPU has difficulty with.

It is more likely the game itself being buggy as heck. It's still neat when you get it sorted, but yeah sometimes *newer technology* graphics have to emulate certain older graphics effects. I should look into this more. My iGPU and dGPU both use the AMD VLIW5 cores and instructions in the graphics driver and support DirectX 11 games, your iGPU is VLIW4 which is a newer and BETTER core type and your dGPU should be GCN gen 1 which is even more efficient.

That said I suppose I can mess with this a bit.