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    laptop with two gpus

    Discussion in 'Gaming (Software and Graphics Cards)' started by redbonefish, Nov 2, 2007.

  1. redbonefish

    redbonefish Newbie

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    i was looking around newegg and i noticed this laptop

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834117564

    i noticed that it had 2 video cards: a dedicated and an integrated video card both in the same laptop

    whats the point of having both? do you get some performance boost because of the two video cards? do they work together like sli or you switch one on or the other off to pick which one you want to save energy??? im lost here :confused:
     
    redbonefish, Nov 2, 2007
    #1
  2. dexgo

    dexgo Freedom Fighter

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    alienware m5500 makes one too.

    kinda cool. with a switch from geforce 6600/7600 go to GMA950.
     
    dexgo, Nov 2, 2007
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  3. Lithus

    Lithus NBR Janitor

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    You switch between to conserve battery life.
     
    Lithus, Nov 2, 2007
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  4. redbonefish

    redbonefish Newbie

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    really so they don't work together like sli??? thats a drag......
     
    redbonefish, Nov 2, 2007
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  5. unknown555525

    unknown555525 rawr

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    Nope, and even worse, you must shut off the notebook in order to switch GPUs.
     
    unknown555525, Nov 2, 2007
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  6. Charles P. Jefferies

    Charles P. Jefferies Lead Moderator Super Moderator

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    That's definitely a con but it deserves some explanation. It is awfully hard to convince Windows to switch graphics adapters on the fly and the most reliable way to switch adapters is to do it when the laptop restarts. I don't know the exact reason why an on-the-fly graphics switch system wasn't implemented but all I know is that the programmers had one hell of a time trying to get it to work. It was unrealiable from what I heard.
     
    Charles P. Jefferies, Nov 3, 2007
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  7. poy

    poy Notebook Enthusiast

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    hybrid graphics? my friend has something similar on his sony vaio. He has a hard switch above the keyboard where its either "stamina or speed" in stamina mode it runs the intel gma900 or 950 i think... one or the other. In speed mode it unleashes brute nVidia 7400m power! LOL but yea kinda cool. And yes he has to restart to switch between modes. Too bad its not on the fly switching.
     
    poy, Nov 3, 2007
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  8. Taqwus

    Taqwus Notebook Consultant

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    The graphics drivers are loaded when the OS is still in protected (or real mode I can never remember) mode while booting up. I remmeber back in Win 98 there was an issue similar where if you changed video cards you were suppose to change to normal VGA drivers first then power down swap the card and then start and set in the new video drivers. I am guessing it has to do with the core drivers is loads when booting
     
    Taqwus, Nov 4, 2007
    #8