m11x r2 nvidia optimus and manual switching

Hello all, new user here, I will be getting my m11x this Wednesday and I was just wondering if there is some way to manually control the switchable graphics, I really do like the ideal of the r1 of manually doing this with a key setting, but this was not implemented as optimus controls everything. Also, I heard that optimus may make the GPUs run some of the time and sometimes using "partial" power, I can see this as a complete waste and would lower battery life. So, is it possible to create a software to manage exactly which graphics option is on or off. Or would I be able to disable the 335m somehow?

Sorry if there are many mistakes I am typing this on my phone

Thanks for the responses!

 

This has been asked and answered a couple times, but for the sake of posterity via google searching, there is no manual way to change GPUs on the R2 like one can do on the R1. It has been answered by the Alienware local rep, erawneila, that it is not physically possible to do, though I'm not sure why that should be the case. I expect there will be 3rd-party software to do this in the future if nVidia does not provide the option. Perhaps I am missing something about how it works at the hardware level, though.

I'm not sure what you mean by always running at partial power, so let me explain how Optimus works. First of all, to get output on a screen, a GPU must do two things, render frames (the part that requires a lot of processing power) and output what it renders onto the screen. On the R1 (non-Optimus), one toggled between cards so that only one was ever on. The one that is on is always doing both rendering and outputting. On the R2, Optimus switches which card does the rendering, but the outputting is always done by the integrated Intel GPU (IGP). Directly, when using the IGP, both rendering and outputting are done by the IGP and the 335m is completely off, and when using the 335m, the 335m does the rendering which then passes its results to the IGP for outputting on the screen. So you see, when the 335m is in use, both are on (though the IGP is not taking power to render frames), and when the IGP is on, the 335m is not.

 

We have enough rogue Optimus threads - use search or post here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m11x/492051-m11x-r2-nvidia-optimus-issues.html

Thanks.