Optimus/Enduro = DGPU turned off?

Hi,
So if Optimus/Enduro is active and we're using iGPU, does that mean DGPU is not using any power (0 watt)?
Or do we have to turn it off manually from device manager? I also heard that Enduro is not as good as optimus.
I am just eyeing Sager NP8265/NP8265-S and looking for more information regarding that.

Thanks

 

its still going to run at very reduced clock speeds, so yes its going to consumer power

 

I think it consume power(minimal ) but it is not clocked?

 

On Optimus the dGPU is sleeping in D3 (S3 for devices), which means that it is practically off (no power, no clock, no saved state). Only the PCIe bus link that connects it to the CPU is powered on.

 

AMD has a similar technology, called ZeroCore. It has been introduced along with GCN architecture.

GCN Architecture

 

It is similar, but although AMD *explanation* is crammed full of adspeak, one can gleam that it is in D1 or D2 power states, which are not the same. When a dGPU is off in Optimus, a year ago most system info applications couldn't even detect it, because

Now hw64 wakes it up just to see what model it is.

The current power state of the GPU is pretty transparent to an informed Windows user anyway, one can see it in Device manager, Details tab, Power data.

 

It depends. On Optimus it's always on, just on reduced clocks. On AMD, it does turn off. They turn off cores that that are being unused. Theoretically the cores should be at 0mhz running at 0 watts. That's why it's called zero-core technology. But difference? Nvidia plain fricking works. AMD does not.

 

This does't make sense. If the discrete Nvidia GPU's in systems without Optimus also downclock automaticaly when idling, then why do they have much lower battery life than a comparable Optimus-enabled system? A dGPU still consumes a lot more power than an iGPU even when downclocked at idle. I'm almost positive that the dGPU is in a non-powered state like Teerex says, which is why HWiNFO64 has a setting to wake it up if you want to see it's information while the laptop running off of the iGPU.

 

that would depend on how much the power gating of the gpu will work. its still on, albeit on a very reduced clock state that it won't operate normally otherwise if we were actually using it

 

The Nvidia GPU in Optimus, when unused, is completely off - i.e. the power is turned off at the PCIe gate and the graphics chip is without power. It could even be yanked out of its slot and the system wouldn't notice it. It supports PDCAP_WAKE_FROM_D3 so when it is needed, the Nvidia driver revs it up through the PCIe bus link.

 

DevicePowerEnumDevices function (Windows)

did you run any script to see it?

 

It's in plain text in Device manager, just read one of my posts above.