HP Envy 6 Switchable Graphics Problem

Introduction

Recently, I bought a new HP Envy 6 Sleekbook with dual graphics cards (Intel 3000+ Radeon 7670m 2GB). Since the laptop had a dedicated graphics card of 2Gig I thought I would play some high graphics games. However I soon found out that it was not that easy to play games without lagging at high settings.

Problems

According to AMD Catalyst, the high priority programs (games, etc) must be assigned as "high performance" from the switch graphics control panel.

Fig.1

Fig.2

However when assigned and saved, some games start to work with the dedicated graphics card whereas others revert back to "not assigned" (Ex GTAIV.exe works with the dedicated Radeon whereas Alan Wake.exe Reverts back to "Not Assigned and start to lag)

Also even when the programs are assigned, all games show the video card as Intel Graphics 3000 with the Radeons Ram of 2000MB

Solutions

For one, there are no straightforward solutions to this problem as HP hasn't released a new BIOS for Envy 6 to switch between graphics cards at the BIOS setup, so the selected card will kick in at any program you run afterwords. For an example Envy 14, 15, etc... has a new BIOS F.1A whereas the Envy 6 has the F.0A BIOS version at the moment which is unable to switch between graphics cards at the BIOS setup.

As a result of that what you need to do is to install the recommended drivers for your HP Envy 6 from HP's official  website and restart the computer.

Here's how

1.Leave the original catalyst software installed. Official one as in link

2. Download this driver (My card is 7670m) 

3. Install it,double click on sp57269.exe, NEXt NEXt ,ect...

Then goto Computer Management > Right click the dedicated AMD card > Update driver from My compiter >Find the driver manually on  C:\swsetup\Bin64\ > Next and So on..

4. Eventually my display went black for several seconds and AMD card appeard above Intel one.

****************RESTART the computer******************************

5. goto "configure switchable graphics" on catalyst and "assigned" and "save" your game .exe

6. Download and install AMD System Monitor

7. Run AMD System Monitor (Look the pic below, it doesn't show the Radeon card in use)

8. Run the game while AMD System Monitor is on (Set game to max graphics)

9. While you are on the game, pause it and press Windows button on your keyboad, hopefully you will see the dedicated card in action as follows. :)

Conclusion

Thus this shows that at least the dedicated card works at switchable graphics on at least some applications without the BIOS F.1A.

However the reason that HP gives on reverting back to "Not Assigned"  on "High Performance" .exe's is that  "When configuring the Dynamic Switchable Graphics in the Catalyst Control Center, the notebook does not permit any OpenGL applications to be associated with the Discrete (dGPU) or high-performance GPU. The OpenGL applications will work using the power-saving or Integrated GPU (iGPU) but the performance levels may be lower than expected."

Thus their solution to rectify the problem is.... 

"Enable Fixed Mode Switchable Graphics in the BIOS"

which we (Evny 6 Owners) dont have in the current, latest BIOS F.0A .