Sony Z11 - NVIDIA Optimus

Not too much new unfortunately. Not sure how many people are actually digging into this.

From my post on LV2G:

That is all.

 

I'm not really trying anything because I dont want to mess up my school laptop. I just really hope it's gonna work some time.

 

I agree with your 250 dollar netbook can get more done than an Ipad. I just sold my 32GB iPad (sold literally in 15 minutes of listing on eBay!!) and bought myself a samsung n150 (awesome little netbook).

But IMO I've been looking at the sony vaio z11 (has interest me greatly) to use as a portable notebook for school, multimedia, etc.. But its way too expensive. Basically I could do everything I'd want to do on my samsung netbook that I'd want to do on the sony z11 (minus playing 1080p mkv to the hdtv which I use my macbook pro + plex player for).

But I can watch hulu just fine on my netbook and it can even drive a 1920x1080 23" display without any problems and very fast. Of course I put an ssd drive in it along with windows xp and its fast as heck.

The samsung n150 has a matte screen which I really love and gives me about 7 and a half hours of battery life (close to 8). But the one thing I love about netbooks is that its so cheap you dont care too much about it when taking it around with you on campus.

When I take my macbook pro (had a 17" i7 2.66GHz model but sold it to save money and bought the 13") I always get paranoid (even with my 13" macbook pro) carrying it around (if I'm going to get jacked in the parking lot and crime has going up lately too) or if I might drop it while handling my notebook. But with the netbook you just throw it in your bag and just walk around without any worries while getting your work done in the best portable way.

But I do constantly stare at the sony vaio z11 as it is a very nice portable laptop! I do love its hdmi output with the cpu and gpu combo which is fast.

Only if they offered a regular hdd model without any dvd/bluray drive model for around $1500. I'd jump right on it. But as me being an apple fan boy, if I had decided on the sony vaio z11, I'd rather just use that money and get myself the 15" mbp. But thats just me.

 

Macbooks are underclocked POSes.
I went through many logic boards due to their terrible cooling. Also they severely underclock their GPUs because they can't cool them properly either. So I/we paid more for a 'pro' laptop who's pro functions are underclocked. I had a Santa Rosa 15" and the GPU was clocked at 200mhz D:.
I also get pissed off when I'm told by apple that they aren't laptops they are notebooks so don't use them on your lap.

Lastly the 13" mbp is quite heavy, especially compared to the Z and they have glossy not matte screens.

I love my Z and I don't miss my Macbook Pro at all. Eff you Jobs.

 

It seems that you had a bad experience with apple and sorry to hear it. As I've used macbook pros for the past 4 years, I've never had any problems with any of them. As for underclocking the gpu, its not big of a deal since under OSX with daily usages, you wont notice any difference.

Of course unless you want to overclock the 330m in the 15"/17" macbook pros you can under windows with updated gpu drivers. Underclocking or Overclocking GPUS only really matter in gaming, which I dont do at all on computers.

As for the weight of the 13" mbp, it is 1.5 lbs heavier than the sony z11 but then again, both laptops stuffed into a backpack, you'd hardly notice that its there. I used to lug around a 17" qosmio around for 7 hours a day, then moved to the 17" macbook pro which was much lighter for a 17" laptop and now a 13" macbook pro which I hardly even notice is in my backpack.

But now that I carry my samsung n150 netbook to campus, I can just stuff it in my backpack with the quickness and run around if I have to light as a feather and not worried about dropping my backpack as the samsung is dirt cheap!

I'd say netbooks are the best!

 

I'm less interested in the Optimus capability than just being able to work with more recent nVidia drivers.

 

Sorry but the 3x failure of my ibook G3 was a widespread defect and the warranty was extended to cover it. As for my mbp burning out that was also a KNOWN problem due to the GPU frying after years of use. This was ALSO covered due to widespread defect. You were lucky, or you don't drive the computer hard at all. On my Santa Rosa 10 mins of flash video drove the CPUs to 98c even with full fans.

Secondly, overclocking the chip in the macbook pros would be suicide due to insufficient cooling. The sony Z's cooler handles an over clock no problem with minimal increases in temps. This is due to the fact that the cooler is awesome in the Z and also they have proper venting on the bottom of the computer and the sides.

Lastly, I don't really understand why you buy pro units if you don't use them for anything other than browsing the web. I understand that macbooks look nice but you are arguing that there is no need to overclock something that is severely underclocked in the first place due to insufficient cooling. THESE ARE PRO UNITS NOT NETBOOKS you buy the to perform, not to find out that the perform worse than crappy $500 windows laptops.

So basically Steve Jobs and company has bamboozled you and myself (in the past) out of my money falsely advertising something as being pro.

Oh to add: Again sorry but the difference between 3lbs and 5.5 is huge you would notice it instantly even upon daily usage just moving it off the table onto your lap (then again you aren't allowed to use the macboIok on your lap as per Steve Jobs.) Everyone comments on how light this laptop is the moment that they hold it, then I tell them it is a beast in the performance category.

I'm sure you will counter my arguments with the usual Apple Sycophantic propaganda and that is fine. Try to see that there are flaws with Apple laptops and see the engineering beauty in this Z.

I will however admit there are flaws in the Z like any product I am not saying it is perfect. (Diagonal lines, really bad speakers, plastic palm rest, poor driver support).

 

diss, apple sux

 

Indeed between power & overlay problems with Optimus drivers and black screen issues with newer Hybrid Graphics drivers the VPCZ11 is much overdue for proper working drivers.

 

Do you/anyone know if the stock configuration supports 2048x1152 resolution on the DVI port???

 

Well were talking about macbooks now that runs the same intel chipsets as any other PCs not the G4s from the iBooks.

Inefficient cooling?? Where do you get these absurd ideas? Macbooks/Macbook Pros have excellent cooling infrastructure, and imo superior to the sony vaioz. Also the reason why the aluminum gets warmer than the sony vaioz carbon fiber is due to the aluminum (lightest metal) is a great conductor of heat and is used as a heatsink, this is why the macbook pros are able to be so thin (and it takes the heat stress away from the circuitry and moved over to the aluminum body). Using the Aluminum body, basically the WHOLE body as a heatsink is an ingenious idea and very efficient imo. Also they have great inner heat sinks and the positioning of the fans are great and pushes all the air out through the keyboards on top and the back of the notebook. IMO the macbook pros heat dispersing and absorption architecture is superior to that of sony vaios.

Also I've heard many stories of Sony Vaios overheating or dying due to the heat not being able to be absorbed especially the smaller heatsink compared to the macbook pros (the whole aluminum body is the heatsink + a dedicated heatsink inside the macbook pro). And especially the carbon fiber, it just doesnt crack, it shatters. At least the aluminum just dents and you can still use it without any issues.

Oh and dont get me started on the battery life, the macbook pros have the hands down best battery life in the notebook industry.

And 3.1 compared to 5.5 lbs? It seems that your shooting crap out of your mouth by making things up as you go. The 13" mbp is 4.5 lbs a difference of 1.4/1.5 lbs which is hardly noticeable when you have it in a backpack strapped to your back unless your some weakling who cant handle a pound difference? Especially when the macbook pro runs the far superior OSX (my opinion of course) combined with the best design in the industry (where all other manufacturers try to copy its design), the multitouch trackpad thats superior to any other trackpad in the industry that I actually prefer using the multitouch trackpad as to even an external mouse (which is worth it to me for using macbooks).

And just my opinion is that windows 7 isnt that great, imo I still prefer windows XP because windows 7 is still crap on top of windows xp (just less crap compared to windows vista that is all). Now dont get me wrong if the Sony Vaio can run OSX natively and have the same support for the multitouch trackpad I'd be all over it, but it isnt. Even so I do like the specs of the Sony Vaio Z11 and I am interested in it (even though I will run windows xp on it) but I do need xp for school and it would be an ideal solution.

I know this is a Sony thread and I know whats coming by calling me an Apple Fan Boy and all these name callings and of course you will be right in this thread as this is a Sony Vaio fan boy thread. But it seems that you are very arrogant and only pushing Sony to win from all sides of views without any real argument.

Even though I argued that there have been Sony Vaio's having carbon fibers being shattered, overheating and other issues, I'm going to say that I just brought those up to just show you what it feels like to be you, arrogant. There are problems with EVERY notebook, with some form of issues.

Just to be clear, yes I am an Apple fan boy (for the past 5 years now) but I always wasnt. Actually Sony Vaios was what I loved most originally, then it was lenovos, dells and now its kind of an Apple/Sony mix. I do appreciate sony vaio notebooks and their design, they are a different breed compared to the rest of the notebook market (yes even Apple) and I'm looking into a vaio z11 to see if its the notebook for me (as Apple doesnt have any models that come close to its form factor and specifications).

 

The new MBs reached over 100 degrees celsius during testing and burned deep down the testers laps. Hell, they even had to turn it upwards to complete the tests - but you are right - the heat gets efficiently off the components! ('off' as in 'an iPad in the sun').

I didn't hear any of this stories - but I'm really interested. Sources?


... resistance is futile!

 

The 100 degrees Celsius that one macbook pro reached doesnt really say much. I owned the 17" i7 2.66GHz model for 2 months before I sold it and I've used a terminal command to tax out all cores to 100% and left it that way for 4 hours straight and the highest temperature that it reached was 94 degrees celsius before the fan would rev up to 6000 rpm and it would cool the temperature back down to the high 80s. I've never seen it reach 100 degrees celsius or higher than 94 and I've stressed tested it for a couple of months.

I'm sure the macbook pro that reviewer had that reached a 100 degrees either had a defective macbook pro or their smc fan control was out of wack not running fast as it should. Or a sensor problem.

As for the carbon fiber shattering, I couldnt dig up the old article where I read this from (was a few years back) but there were forums posts about it with people showing their cracked and shattered vaio carbon fibers.

The issue had to do with the vaios being left in the car or being used outside in the extreme heat which causes cracks in the carbon fiber which lead to it shattering in the end.

One thing I was managed to find while searching for the old articles/forum was this:

http://gizmodo.com/5215296/unibody-construction-helps-macbook-air-survive-plane-crash

I thought this was pretty impressive that the macbook air didnt shatter. It was probably due to its sturdy aluminum unibody.

 

These temperature values are abnormal for Sony Vaios, because the thermal management in a Vaio is both efficient and effective. Are you using your macbook as a bonus lap warmer in winter?

 

My 13" macbook pro hardly ever gets warm. I use it on my lap all the time and its very cool to touch. Due to the 320m chipset I get dedicated gpu performance while getting 9 hours and 45 minute of battery life and absolutely cool to touch at the bottom.

As for the 17" i7 mbp, when I used "auto graphics" switching (where it would use the intel igp mixed with the 330m), it was dead cold to touch at the bottom. Oh and the 17" mbp battery life, I was easily getting 12 hours and 25 minutes, I never brought a charger to campus as I never needed to charge. And this is while running vmware fusion with windows xp 64 bit version as well.

I do miss the 17" sometimes, especially its battery life. Well not TOO much as I still get a respectable 9 hours and 45 minutes out of my 13".

 

I liked this thread before, can we please not drag Apple into this? I've never seen anything good come out of Apple versus brand X arguments. I really hope this thread don't get locked because of unnecessary off-topic arguments. Thanks!

 

Sorry about that, I KNEW this would happen. I dont want to hijack this thread (and it seems that I have already for the moment) but I'd like to talk about the vaio z as well.

Dont get me wrong, I love sony as well (originally was a Sony advocate) and I am interested in the z11. But I have one question, I've seen another thread that has the z12 releasing soon.. What are the differences from the z12 and z11?

Another question I have is does the Z11's gpu switch picked up automatically under windows 7? Or do you have to install a software for that to work?

And one last question I have is that does the sony vaio Z11 have a matte screen? Thats the one thing I hate about my 13" macbook pro though, the glossy screen. I really do hate glossy.

 

My bad, just had to comment on the dude who said the netbook is the best and his Macbooks are the greatest. I got it out of my system!

 

This is the wrong thread to ask that question, this is an Optimus thread, there are threads discussing the Z12 in the forum root.

 

second this.

 

Yeah lots of going off topic here. Too bad really.

I am going to mod up the inf for 257.21 whql drivers that were just released. I have already done so for M11xR2 users and noticed a new addition "OptimusEnhancements", not sure what it does if anything.

Not sure off the top of my head. I believe I saw that information posted somewhere on these boards.

 

Watching with anticipation!!!

 

Been gone for a while. This is still a Sony forum, right?

Thanks Nautis

 

Good stuff, will have two more INFs to test soon (257.21 & 258.49). I have also been digging apart the settings some more, doing some linux stuff, and working with the M11x guys since they now have both Hybrid Graphics and Optimus options in essentially the same notebook.

It seems to me that Nvidia has changed the way their drivers handle multiple GPUs a bit more recently. I am seeing a lot of standard SLI stuff configured with the coproc settings which were originally used on Optimus. Seems to me that some of these coproc and hybrid settings may be a bit interchangeable.

I have also been paying attention to gfxCardStatus for the MacBook Pros ( more info). gfxCardStatus is an application that allows for identifying of the GPU in use and manual switching of GPUs much like we can do with Hybrid Graphics except on Apples Optimus like tech. Seems to me that something like that should be able to be written for Optimus also.

 

Am I reading this thread right that you're making progress but Optimus does not yet work on the Sony? Or does it work and it needs adjusting?

Thanks

Bronsky

 

Well it sort of depends on your definition of "works". Currently Optimus functions on the VPCZ11. By functions I mean that it outputs the Intel part for most things and the Nvidia part as needed. Sounds great right? Well there are two issues. One is that the Nvidia part may not ever be powering down properly so while it is utilizing the output of the GPUs properly it may not be utilizing the powersaving (which is really the point of Optimus in the first place.) The second issue is that there is an overlay on top of whatever is being displayed with the Nvidia GPU. This overlay is a big block of text stating something like "Nvidia Confidential - Optimus Demonstration.. blah blah..". So Optimus is functioning on the output level but the power and overlay issues really keep it from being very useful. You can see the links in the first post for more info.

 

I don't know many attorneys who could have put it any better.

Bronsky

 

Hi. Any progress???

 

Got a hold of the Optimus test tools and posted them at LV2G. (link below) They are the same ones given to the reviewers to know when the Nvidia part was being used. One of the tools has a "Show Optimus Overlay" setting you can check or unchecked. Something similar to these test tools, I have been told, is built into the 258.69 drivers.

I have noticed a bunch of settings that may or may not so anything with Optimus on Hybrid Graphics. I am going to put together an INF for 258.69 soon with some of these settings.

There is a new version of PhysX that was just recently released that fixes PhysX not working with Optimus. (link below)

- Optimus Test Tools
- PhysX 9.10.0224 64bit

Screenies of test tools:

Optimus State Viewer


Optimus Test Tool

 

It's interesting that dwm.exe is actually rendered by the Discrete GPU...maybe that's why the nvidia chip never powers down?

 

No thats because the screenshot was taken on my Hybrid Graphics notebook. DWM.exe should not be rendered using the nvidia gpu on Optimus. Sorry forgot to make note of that.

 

Looking forward to the new INF file. Would love to move beyond the original Z drivers.

 

Has there been any additional progress since the Optimus Test Tool was outed? Thanks for all of your help Nautis.

 

Setting up PCI Config on Switchable NVidia notebooks to match Optimus-certified systems

Disabling the NVidia GPU altogether

Can a Z owner try disabling the GT330M as explained here and measure if there are any power saving gains?

Enabling APSM mode for power management

Found this option. Can check this using the DIY ViDock Setup 1.x or in Baredit. You can consider Setup 1.x to be like a bios extension, enabling/disabling functions that are no available in the bios using the setpci command. Need to have a series-4 and 965PM datasheet available to know what your doing. Seems Intel are including less and less info in newer chipset revisions. Eg: Series-5 datasheet has no info on the PCI Express registers but the registers are likely the same as the older series.

Here's the 965PM chipset definition of APSM and the options to set on the 0/1/0 device (PCI Express Graphics Device 1). You want to check if bit 0:1 are 11 (3h) for best power saving mode. If it's 00 then I would assume the GT330M is permanently on giving no power savings.

Code:

:: APSM: controls the level of active state power management supported on the given link
:: bit 1:0
:: 00 - disabled
:: 01 - L0s entry support
:: 10 - reserved
:: 11 - L0s and L01 entry support

:: Check state as set by the bios
setpci -s 0:1.0 40.w

:: Enable L0s and L01 entry support
setpci -s 0:1.0 40.w=3:3

Then just chainload into Win7 with 'grub4dos W7' and hopefully will give you powersavings when using Optimus.

Other PCI Configuration Registers

Would be worthwhile comparing 0/1/0 PCI Express config registers from a Optimus system against a switchable graphics system. DIY ViDock Setup's 'diag' can capture the pcitool output which can be loaded into PCISCope Trial For Windows and a comparison done easily and a list of registers set for programming using 'setpci -s'. lspci's output captures could also be used for manual analysis if pcitool for DOS fails to run as has been the case on some systems.

Other Notes

If Sony really screwed up with the powersaving on the GT330M then an option using the DIY ViDock Setup 1.x as a bootmenu disk image install with appropriate setpci commands in the startup.bat or autoexec.bat.

FYI: I run a 4500MHD+GTX470 DIY ViDock and with the help of Nautis have managed to get the Optimus driver working. So the 4500MHD renders and the GTX470 does the processing. There is some performance loss when compared to the GTX470 outputting to an external LCD which is to be expected since the GTX470 is on a x1 1.0 link.

 

Differences between 2.58.96 desktop and mobile Win7/32-bit drivers

I figured that the Optimus layer would be easy to see by comparing back to the desktop drivers. I'm specifically looking for VID DID pairs to modify in the Optimus files to add support for other IGPs and NVidia cards.

Optimus appears to be just using the existing Win7 APIs that can clone graphics across adapters. Eg: ATI setup can do this if it can be made to function without an LCD attached. Desktop (ViDock) users just attach a DVI dummy as a workaround.

I'm trying to get a X3100+GTX470 DIY ViDock setup to work with Optimus. While the driver loads, the Optimus functionality isn't engaged and along with it I don't get the performance boost I noted below with the 4500MHD.

- 4500MHD+GTX470 Optimus works with the infamous demo watermark. When I plug in my external LCD then no watermark. So it's only when it's cloning the data across from the NVidia to the IGP, and whatever DLL it needs that the watermark comes on.

- The Optimus drivers (with GTX470 modded INF) accelerated my 3dmark06 (5200->10200) and 3dmarkvantage.gpu (7600->10800) by a significant amount over the desktop version. dmcv4 benchmark shows significant performance improvements to give credibility to the synthetic benchmarks. See details here.

REF: NVidia Optimus works for Fermi desktop GPUS - more performance + Internal LCD setup!!

Other hacks attempted with no success

- hardware spoofing: make my X3100 believe it's a 4500MHD. Changed the system's bios vbios content from 8086:2a02(x3100) to 8086:2a42(4500MHD). A PCI scan still shows x3100 but looking at the bios at c000:0000 shows it to have 8086:2a42. So didn't work.

- hardware spoof the GTX470 to avoid the watermark. Attempted to set it as a GT335M in the vbios. nvflash reporting the bios image file to be a GT335M bios but after flashing a PCI scan still shows the GTX470. THis is even if I erase the eeprom (nvflash -9).

- swapped a HDD with the Optimus driver installed on a 4500MHD+GTX470 into my x3100+GTX470 system -> no Optimus functionality is visible. So the installer is not selectively chopping out bits if you don't have a Optimus certified setup.. it must be a driver that's doing it.

- compares the 3dmark06 profile in the Optimus and non-Optimus setups -> exactly the same.

- forced Power Management item to Performance -> still no improved performance.

- saved the GTX470 PCI config registers using r-w everything on the 4500MHD system. Loaded them onto the X3100 system pre-boot AND while system was running a 3D app -> no improvement.

- see if desktop users at overclock.net get performance benefit from the Optimus driver.

- see if series-4 or series-5 chipsets can have dormanet IGPs enabled and configured to bypass the Optimus driver checks to enable the internal LCD functionality as well as the performance increase. Details as explained here -> no go. Has to have the IGP as the active adapter.

 

Unfortunately you wont really be able to figure out the differences between the desktop and notebook drivers that way. Beyond the exclusion of some of the files mentioned in the desktop version there should be no differences in the other files. Nvidia uses a Unified Driver Architecture so the drivers should be the same for the most part with some of the only real differences being in the installation information file (INF).

You are largely correct on the files for 32bit. The files that were introduced with Optimus (for 32bit) are:
nvd3d9wrap.dll - Nvidia Direct3D Wrapper
nvdxgiwrap.dll - Nvidia DirectX (gi?) Wrapper
nvdet.dll - Nvidia (Detection?)
nvinit.dll - Nvidia (Initialization or Interposer?)
nvumdshim.dll - Nvidia (Ultra Mobile Device?) Shim
nvpciflt.sys - Nvidia PCI (Filter?)

The names inside () are my guesses.

The driver file names give clue to what they are for. That last kernel driver (nvpciflt.sys) was just introduced with 258.96 it is not present in any previous Optimus driver. I assume the file is included to check for calls for the " New Optimus Interface".

The other files you have listed are just for the setup/install program with the exception of NvCplSetupEng.exe/NvCplSetupInt.exe which is the installer for the Nvidia Control Panel. Int = International (Including UK English), Eng = US English.

There are no real differences on the Intel side when it comes to the drivers for the X3100. You are probably correct that the X3100 is locked out of having Optimus enabled based on hardware id checking or something similar.

Since our findings on Optimus on ViDock I have had to reevaluate why the watermark is being triggered. I had assumed it was due to the multiplexer in Hybrid Graphics notebooks but now this does not seem to be the case. The big question then is what is the real difference between the Nvidia GPUs in Optimus notebooks and their standard variants. I wonder if it might be something as simple as a trigger in the video bios.

 

As there are many optimus capable computers released which are not running optimus, could the difference from those running optimus be a special identifier from Nvidia, for exemple a suffixe added as an official nvidia optimus authorised chip (depending on the computer), or some whitelist/blacklist that will discriminate the computer ?

 

That is the assumption. Optimus is primarily functioning as long as the system has the following GPUs:
Intel = Intel GMA 4500MHD or Intel HD
Nvidia = ION2, 200M, 300M, or Fermi

 

FYI: NVidia Optimus works for Fermi desktop GPUS. Key benefits being for DIY ViDock users, which could also be applied to desktop systems using Intel IGPs:

- an internal-LCD only setup which is transparently managed by NVidia Optimus. The NVidia card renders the image and Optimus transparently manages the cloning for display on the Internal LCD.

- the Optimus driver also gives a rather impressive performance boost from 20-100% when using an external LCD in DIY ViDock implementations. Likely they've optimised the pci-e bandwidth usage when using Optimus. See linked benchmarks.

 

has the overlay been removed yet on the Z11?

 

I figured I would experiment around a bit with Optimus on the latest drivers and add support for as many GPUs as possible. These should work on the VPC Vaio Z AFAIK. I assume they will still have the overlay and Nvidia GPU power down problems.
258.96 Universal Optimus 32bit
258.96 Universal Optimus 64bit

Also the latest Intel HD driver:
Latest Intel Drivers 2182 32bit
Latest Intel Drivers 2182 64bit

Here is a video on activating new Optimus interface in 258.96.

Still working on getting rid of that dang overlay. The DIY ViDock stuff nando works on is fascinating and has helped give a lot more insight on Optimus. It is great having someone with a bit more hardware knowledge look into the issues we are experiencing.

Of course 259.12 Quadro was just released which also seems like it has proper Optimus support so back to modding I go. I am putting some finishing touches on a very experimental Nvidia 258.96/ Intel 2182 Hybrid Graphics driver for the VPC Z11/12. Not sure if it will even work but we will see. It will be posted on my Hybrid Graphics thread.

Not AFAIK without an external monitor plugged in. We are working on it.

 

Having some problems here. When opening a game the Optimus Tool and all say i'm running the nvidia GPU, but i get like 5-7 fps ingame performance in UT3, CoD4 and CoD6, what should be around 35 fps. So something not good in the switching part (or my installation?).

 

With the 258.96 drivers posted above?

 

Yes. It seems to switch (according to optimustool) but performance stays at intel HD levels.

 

Do you still see the Optimus Demonstration overlay?

 

Must say no, but that could be because the nvidia card is not properly kickin in.

PS: Offtopic question; getting an error when trying to install the intel driver a 2nd time (just to test if it's all working correctly). Something about can't register some components, got an idea? Tried reinstalling the intel drivers.

 

Also my hunch. Odd that the tool would say it is working when it isn't though.

Did you install on top of or uninstall and then install? I would try to uninstall (Control Panel -> Programs and Features) and reinstall it again. I would say use Driver Sweeper but it does not work with Intel GMA AFAIK. Driver Cleaner does but it costs. If you still get errors after an uninstall and reinstall let me know.

 

Got the installer working again, reinstalled the whole package, this time without the error. Must say the outcome is worse; optimus now not working at all, the nvidia card doesn't kick in when a game starts (even though i ''order it to do so''). Optimustool gives no response that the nvidia card is active. So .. i can try again tomorrow, but it seems like it's definitly not working.

 

I would be perfect if this could work. Who is holding this back, Sony or Nvidia?

 

Both. Without Sony paying NVidia to add it's hardware to the certification list the Optimus driver appears to be crippled and/or locked. The INF hacks to enable it provide some crippled Optimus functionality: you get a NVidia "confidential" watermark and no powersaving.