problem playing games on pavilon dv6-6176sa

[Epic-jargon]

im having problems with my laptop which i just bought the problem occurs when playing games as when i play minecraft its really laggy especially considering the specs of my laptop.

another thing that occured which makes me think thweres a problem is that when i installed civilisations 4 and tried to play it, the game said that my laptop doesnt meet the minimum requirements to run the game and turned all the graphics to minimum.

the second event makes me think the problem is the graphics card as the computer has two one dedicated which is shown in the specs in the link and the other is integrated that the computer uses just for display settings.

the problem i think my computer is having is that its not using the dedicated graphics and is instead using the integrated for everything does anyone know of anything else it could be or could anyone help me fix the problem.

the graphics cards as they appear in the device manager:

Mobile Intel(R) HD Graphics
Radeon(TM) HD 6490M

Ive checked all the drivers so i know its not them ive also installed and reinstalled java when i first had the problem with minecraft so i know thats not the problem with minecraft.

link to laptop specs:

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/hp-pavilion-dv6-6176sa-15-6-laptop-steel-grey-10783799-pdt.html

specs are in the product details tab at the bottom

 

[Troncoso]

im having problems with my laptop which i just bought the problem occurs when playing games as when i play minecraft its really laggy especially considering the specs of my laptop.

another thing that occured which makes me think thweres a problem is that when i installed civilisations 4 and tried to play it, the game said that my laptop doesnt meet the minimum requirements to run the game and turned all the graphics to minimum.

the second event makes me think the problem is the graphics card as the computer has two one dedicated which is shown in the specs in the link and the other is integrated that the computer uses just for display settings.

the problem i think my computer is having is that its not using the dedicated graphics and is instead using the integrated for everything does anyone know of anything else it could be or could anyone help me fix the problem.

the graphics cards as they appear in the device manager:

Mobile Intel(R) HD Graphics
Radeon(TM) HD 6490M

Ive checked all the drivers so i know its not them ive also installed and reinstalled java when i first had the problem with minecraft so i know thats not the problem with minecraft.

link to laptop specs:

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/hp-pavilion-dv6-6176sa-15-6-laptop-steel-grey-10783799-pdt.html

specs are in the product details tab at the bottom

it has switchable graphics - a feature that is becoming more and more popular. You'll have to look in your manual or some form of documentation for the key stroke to switch it.

What you can do is look at all the icons in the lower right of the screen (where the clock is) there should be an icon that looks like this:

right click on that and it should have an option that says something like "switchable graphics"
(this icon indicates you are using integrated graphics. If it's not there, you are using your HD6490)

What this does (as the name indicates) is let you switch between dedicated graphics and integrated graphics, mostly for the purpose of preserving battery life when you don't need the graphics card.
Can really come in handy. My batter life doubles when I turn off my GPU.