nvidia optimus tech - good/bad/issues?

Hi all,

up untill a few days ago I was set, by default to get a nv 580m for my new laptop purchase.

however after starting reading more and more about this optimus tech that nv has been adding to their latest cards, I'm not so sure.

while a good idea in theory of switching between the IGP and dedicated GPU, in practice it seems like a lot of people (esp. on asus machines) seem to have trouble w/ this tech, whether because it doesnt switch over to the gpu at the right time/for the right applications, or even worse it seems to me, the inability to be able to switch it off and have the dedicated gpu be used all the time.

I am looking to buy a clevo/sager P170hm or x7200...... any thoughts/ideas as to how the optimus tech relates to these....or experiences?
I am starting to seriously consider the radeon 6990m as an option to the gtx580, simply because I dont want to deal w/ the possible hassles that I've read about from various nv owners when dealing w/ the optimus tech....

any thoughts would be appreciated..

 

P170HM and X7200 do not support optimus, so no hassles to think of..

Optimus is still a baby stage technology, it has more issues than benefits.

 

yeah....that's exactly my thought, at least from issues I've been reading...

I guess I'm confused on the IGP/optimus support....

I was checking out ava-direct's config site,

http://www.avadirect.com/gaming-laptop-configurator.asp?PRID=19611

and all of the processors available come w/ the integrated gp built in....so I thought that if I get an nv 580m w/ optimus, then it would kick in/switch back and forth......so I'm not sure why you'd think it doesnt support it....arent those the components needed for it work?...nv 500 card w/ optimus and a built in IGP?....or am I missing something?

 

This is because for these models, the screen is hard-wired to the dGPU.

There is no way to activate only the iGPU without using the dGPU.

 

cool...awesome....that's great news.

thanks for the quick replies!

 

Optimus is a software based solution- so you're heavily limited by driver support. This means that as you said, there can be some issues with select titles. Overall, it's a decent way to increase battery life and maintain performance.

That said, the competing solution is a hardware switch between the integrated and discrete card. While not as convenient (it typically requires a reboot), it doesn't run into any of the same software issues. Not to mention it can even extend the battery life over optimus.

 

as far as i know the latest gpu to be optimus enabled was the M555 from nvidia.

 

I would have purchased an Optimus enabled Notebook if Clevo would have had more options for GPUs within their current line. The higher end Nvidia GTX5xxM gpu's also support optimus (anandtech article), however I could not find a 3D capable 580wOptimus laptop other than the Alienware M17x R but that was way over budget. You can read about optimus specifics here: Nvidia Optimus White Paper

Optimus enabled GPU's are the first requirement, the second is the Notebook manufacture and whether or not they want to include Optimus technology as an option for that notebook. I believe in a years time all >Nvidia 5xxM gpu notebooks will support Optimus.

 

does amd have an equivalent to optimus?

 

Yep, it's jokingly called BACON until AMD settles on a name. It's still really new though. Previously, AMD used hard switching primarily.

AMD Dynamic Switchable Graphics (PowerXPress 4.0 / BACON) vs. Nvidia Optimus - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

 

Optimus is not really interesting unless laptops is equiped with a manual switch, and let the owner fully decide him/herself what gfx card should be used, or indeed if the whole thing should be turned completely off.