Realtime priority, battery power, video drivers, and NVIDIA Optimus

[Keeby]

I’m running Windows 10 Pro 64-bit, I have a 8th Gen Intel Core i7 CPU, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD and GTX 1050. I’m not too familiar with Windows as this is my first machine that shipped with a Windows OS. While on battery power set to best performance, I can only obtain playable speed with the video drivers, D3D11 and D3D12, which would be fine if my thumbnails scaled like they do when using the other video drivers (see below). Would it be safe, and beneficial to set RetroArch to realtime priority?

I’ve read that realtime priority could be dangerous, so I wanted to ask before testing it out. I’m not sure if it’s relevant, but when plugged in I can obtain playable speed regardless of the video driver selected, although the fan is quite loud if I’m not using D3D11, or D3D12. I’ve updated my drivers through Windows Update, and have GeForce Experience installed, but I have not updated my drivers through GeForce Experience yet, because I’ve read that they may conflict with the drivers provided by Microsoft, or cause other issues.

[hunterk]

I don’t know anything about realtime priority, but have you tried setting your power consumption settings to “max performance” in your OS and GPU control panels?

[Keeby]

The OS is set to best performance, default was battery saver, and changing this setting has an impact. Although, any change I make from the NVIDIA Control Panel doesn’t seem to do anything. There is a setting, Power management mode, set to Optimal by default, I changed it to Prefer maximum performance, but it runs as if no changes were made.

[Keeby]

I took a risk and updated my drivers through GeForce Experience, Express Installation. I can no longer obtain playable speed with D3D11, and D3D12. However, Vulkan is now running very well plugged in, and on battery. I consider this issue resolved.