Lenovo IdeaPad Y510p Optimus?

Hey guys, I was looking into getting a Lenovo IdeaPad Y510p and battery life is very important in my decision. I was going to by the one off the Lenovo website with the DVD drive instead of the dual SLI 750M ultrabay. Since I'm not going to have SLI, rather one 750M does that mean I can enable Optimus? Has anybody had any experience with this and then importantly, what kind of battery life did you get with the Optimus?

 

Single GPU models do have Optimus So do Y410p's. Since i can get 4 hours on my Y410p doing light browsing on mid brightness (i just managed to achieve that at campus today), i assume the Y510p could do 5 hours due to it's bigger (62Wh vs 48Wh) battery. However, be sure to use power-saver mode and try to follow the general tips to preserve battery life.

 

True, but it also has a larger display than the 410, which can eat up some battery. Has anybody tried Optimus with the 510p and can vouch for how long they get out of the battery?

 

You have a point there, can't believe i completely missed that.

Anyways, you can toggle optimus by opening the Nvidia Control Panel, going to 3D settings, and selecting your Preferred graphics processor.
- AutoSelect is Optimus
- Integrated Graphics is the 4600HD
- High Performance Nvidia is the GT750M/GT755M

 

Right, but doesn't Optimus also require the bios setting for it? Does the laptop bios have that option even though it is meant for SLI?

 

Nope. Like all newer laptops, Optimus is no longer simple GPU switching. The IGP is used as a display controller when SLI is not present, and is used to tunnel the Single 750M. All is managed by UEFI.

 

Alright, I guess I'm just waiting on someone who's tried this with the y510p for their battery life. Thanks for the help!

 

After having it running for a few days I am getting an estimated 4 hr battery life now with optimus enabled. I haven't run it for 4 hrs on battery yet but based on how much I have used it then it looks like 4 hrs is about right. This was without switching the power saving to the lowest setting or disabling the back lit keys. I have done both of these now and I will report back in a few days on my finding.

 

When you are on battery, set to Intel GPU only and you'll get an even longer runtime.

Did you know that by default, Optimus turns the Nvidia Card ON when you open your browser?

You copied my siggy

 

I wondered about that, I will turn it to intel GPU only and see what happens.

(yes, I used your sig as a basis for mine, thanks!)