Try "-gl" in launch options

Got a slight boost in frames, not quite sure that did the trick.

There is a setting in nvidia control panel which enables a icon in the quick launch bar. Then you open tf2 and alt+tab and click on the icon and it will show how many and which programs are running of the discrete card.

LOD Bias does not work if you're using the latest NVIDIA drivers anyway.

Does this only happen in TF2? If so, try navigating to your "Team Fortress 2" folder, right click hl2.exe, "run with graphics processor" (don't know if this is exactly what it says, my Windows is in Portuguese) and check if the NVIDIA option is ticked.

Can yu explain the -gl thingie, cant found it what is it, in tf2 when i'm really close to walls i get like 340 frames but when i get to look at a pretty open area lika metal work mid, it drop to 145 and flicker from 145 to 185(capped my fps was even worse before because the flickering was going higher). i will try changing my nvidia options like LOD bias and stuff

changed to lower bias and lowered graphic card thingies, won 25 fps :D

This icon says that there's "one program" using the discrete card when I click it, but it doesn't say what program it is. It still says "one program" when I close TF2.

If I right-click the TF2 icon on my desktop, there's no option in the context menu to run the game with the NVidia card.

When I go directly to my /Team Fortress 2/ folder and attempt to run the game using "Run with High Performance Graphics Processor", I get the error message "Setup file gameinfo.txt doesn't exist in subdirectory 'hl2'. Check your -game parameter or VCONFIG setting."

This is normal, since the icon on your desktop is not a shortcut to an executable file, but rather sort of a "link"

What really matters is seeing which option was the default: if it was NVIDIA, then i can't really help you much more; if it is the integrated graphics, then you have to change the hl2.exe profile on the NVIDIA Control Panel instead of the Team Fortress 2, as seen in your screenshot.

I tried updating my driver last night, and all of my settings reset themselves. Now I can't choose hl2.exe to run through the high-performance GPU like I had set earlier - if I click it, it won't register and defaults back to AC4.

This is getting pretty ridiculous, and doesn't seem to be an issue any more with TF2 not recognizing the card, but the card's incompatibility with TF2.

If you have a problem with selecting tf2 in your driver. Use the add button and select tf2. Then change the videocard from hd4000 to the nvidia one.

Done. Still crappy performance. I'm starting to think there may be something wrong with the GPU, but other games (more graphics-intensive) seem to work fine.

care to explain how -gl works mate?

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=1216-JMTZ-0860

And afaik, client has no control to enable d3d -> OpenGL translation.

BRZ, could you use an application like GPUZ to monitor for gpu activity while it's in the background?
That way you'll know for certain which GPU is being used.

According to this it has been running on the discrete card. But the performance is still so shitty that it's hard to believe. I have friends with similar rigs that get double my framerate.

Looks like the next step is to contact NVidia. Thanks to everyone for your help, I did get quite a few frames out of this thread and continuing to search elsewhere. Thanks, guys.

Changing the GPU shouldn't affect too much because TF2 is pretty much entirely CPU based. Unlike something like CS:GO or even DotA, TF2 barely uses your GPU for anything.

e:

That said, if you are already running at DirectX then that's really weird, your CPU is more than good enough...