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    Quick question RE: Optimus

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by Serephucus, Jan 8, 2012.

  1. Serephucus

    Serephucus Notebook Deity

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    Hi all,

    I'm thinking I might jump back on the Alienware band-wagon closer to the Summer (whenever an Ivy Bridge touting Alienware rears its head), I've just got one thing that's been bugging me that I can't seem to find an answer to.

    I know you can force the dedicated GPU in NCP, or just by right-clicking on an application, but can you force the IGP for apps/games as well? I'm just wondering, because it would be nice for older games that do ok on the IGP to save power.

    Thanks!
     
    Serephucus, Jan 8, 2012
    #1
  2. widezu69

    widezu69 Goodbye Alienware

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    You can on AMD systems as that has manual switching. Not sure with Nvidia ones. I have not experience with this as I'm using 3D and I have like 2.5hrs battery with a stretch.
     
    widezu69, Jan 8, 2012
    #2
  3. bigtonyman

    bigtonyman Desktop Powa!!!

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    You can do it the way you discribed, but after a while it gets to be a hassle. Its easier to just use the modded bios and switch the cards through there. Its basically AMD'S switching function but through the bios :D
     
    bigtonyman, Jan 8, 2012
    #3
  4. Serephucus

    Serephucus Notebook Deity

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    The whole point of Optimus is that you don't have to shut down and reboot just to switch graphics cards; that's why I like it.

    So there's no low power / integrated graphics option per-application in NVIDIA Control Panel, or with applications?
     
    Serephucus, Jan 8, 2012
    #4
  5. YodaGoneMad

    YodaGoneMad Notebook Deity

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    I might be wrong here, I don't have my M17x yet, but on the older Optimus it was basically just a list of programs that would use the GPU. Thus, you could remove everything from the list and only add the games you wanted, it should then only power up the GPU for the games you put on the list.
     
    YodaGoneMad, Jan 8, 2012
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  6. Serephucus

    Serephucus Notebook Deity

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    Optimus is supposed to do that automatically. The idea of the whitelist is to force programs to use the NVIDIA GPU if they - for whatever reason - otherwise don't. I basically just want the opposite.
     
    Serephucus, Jan 8, 2012
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  7. bigtonyman

    bigtonyman Desktop Powa!!!

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    I just got frustrated when certain games wouldn't ever use the discrete GPU at all(GTA 4 Comes to mind). if you really need the battery life and can deal with the AMD drivers. Just get one of their GPU's in it. :)
     
    bigtonyman, Jan 8, 2012
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  8. Lanscaper

    Lanscaper Notebook Consultant

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    These are the options on my m17xr3 when I right click a game/application. I can use igp or the nvidia card. Hope that helps.

    Right Click Menu:
    [​IMG]5

    or change in nvidia control panel (nvidia card or IGP can be selected here as well)
    [​IMG]
     
    Lanscaper, Jan 8, 2012
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  9. maxheap

    maxheap caparison horus :)

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    yeah you can right click and say run with integrated GPU
     
    maxheap, Jan 8, 2012
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  10. Serephucus

    Serephucus Notebook Deity

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    @Lanscaper: Excellent! That's exactly what I was looking for, thanks very much.
     
    Serephucus, Jan 9, 2012
    #10