(Windows Only) How to run Smaart on a specific graphics card

Created by Casey Guli, Modified on Thu, 27 Jul 2023 at 11:09 AM by Casey Guli

(Windows Only) How to run Smaart on a specific graphics card


Note: This article is for Windows only. If you're having issues running Smaart on a Mac, please contact support@rationalacoustics.com and provide a system report for further assistance.


Some computer systems come with more than one graphics card -- an integrated GPU that's built into the CPU, and a more powerful, dedicated GPU (such as an AMD or NVidia). One of the quickest ways to check this without physically opening the computer and checking what's installed is to use the "DXDIAG" utility -- if there is both a Display and a Render tab, then your system likely has both.


In some cases on these types of systems, Smaart will still crash even though one of the GPUs (typically the dedicated one) does meet the minimum requirements and therefore should support Smaart. This occurs because Windows automatically chose the less-powerful card to run Smaart, however there is a way to tell the operating system to run Smaart on the other one.



First, open Settings > System > Display, scroll down to the bottom, and select "Graphics settings".



Under "Choose an app to set preference", select Desktop app then click Browse. Locate the Smaart.exe, which should be in C:\Program Files\Smaart [EDITION]. A new block will appear once selected.



Click Options and select the GPU that fully supports DirectX 12 -- typically, Power saving will be the integrated card and High performance will be the dedicated one.


Click Save, then restart your device and try opening Smaart again. If issues persist, please contact support@rationalacoustics.com for further assistance.

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