Does Nvidia Optimus work for you? It doesn't for me.

Today, I decided to re-enable the integrated graphics on my Thinkpad T420 because I was tired of my laptop's battery lasting only two hours at most (I kept the NVS 4200M on all of time). I installed the Intel driver. The difference was amazing. I can now get 4.5 hours on a single charge now. My CPU temperatures are also 5-10C lower with the Nvidia GPU off.

However, I am discovering that the Nvidia drivers are terrible at detecting when games were running and switching the graphics chip on as needed. I have used the Nvidia control panel to set specific parameters on which the GPU would be enabled (on a game by game basis), but Optimus still has trouble switching when needed. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

Given that I game quite a bit on the go, I am wondering if I should simply re-enable the Nvidia GPU and live with the lower battery life.

I am also using the latest beta drivers so that I can play the BF3 beta, by the way.

 

Works fine for me, haven't failed me yet ... It does have an steep learning curve to use it though.

For me, the difficulty lies in locating the right binary that should be using the Nvidia card, when using the manual profile.

Some applications/games hides behind a launcher or uses name that sounds too closely to what you think it is.

Have to understand that it doesn't apply the same profile setting to their child process.


If you want something easy ... just use tried and true method using only the card you use on all cases. No switchable tech stuff.

 

Oh. I see. I need to set the setting for every single game/application. Silly. It should simply do an auto-detect if that's the case.

 

Most of the game I played can be detected automatically. Which game(s) is/are giving you troubles?

 

My optimus switches when needed. The only time it didn't was when I played minecraft and I just set it to use the NVIDIA GPU and it auto-switches now.

 

Works fine for me too

Havent had a problem with optimus since i updated my Intel and Nvidia drivers

 

It does auto detect ... but most of the time, they usually fail depending how dated and popularity of the application.

You just need to configure for every one that fails.

 

Well if Optimus is still giving you problems, you can instead use RivaTuner and set lower GPU settings when you are not gaming, create two profiles, etc.

I think of that as a mini-switchable graphics tool for my computer

As for battery life, I don't know if the two profiles would give you battery life. I haven't tested (the battery life part), but I have used RivaTuner

Theoretically, it should work.

Mr. Mysterious