Mobile GPU Faceoff: AMD Dynamic Switchable Graphics vs. NVIDIA Optimus Technology
by Jarred Walton on September 20, 2011 6:40 AM ESTVideo Demonstrations
With all of the discussion of problems and UI issues, I felt the inclusion of some videos showing exactly what I experienced were in order. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then an 11 minute video ought to speak volumes, right? I’ve already covered most of the material, but I put together two videos, one showing various games and UI interactions on the Sony VAIO C and the second demonstrating similar use of the Acer TimelineX 3830TG. The first and likely more interesting video shows the gaming experience on the Sony laptop.
[Note: I’m still working on the Acer video; it should go up some time today, but there’s not a lot to see—the games I tested all run as expected.]
Again, without a different laptop, we can’t say how many of our complaints are specific to the Sony VAIO C and how many apply to AMD’s Dynamic Switchable Graphics in general. There haven’t been any major UI changes to AMD’s Catalyst Control Center lately, but there are almost certainly some performance, compatibility, and stability changes. Take the above video as a demonstration of what the Sony VAIO C delivers, and hopefully we’ll be able to test a more recent AMD driver in the near future.
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JarredWalton - Tuesday, September 20, 2011 - link
Thanks for the input -- I've corrected the 6700M mistakes now. Somehow I got it stuck in my brain that 6700M was rebadged 5700M, but that's only the 6300M and 6800M. Thanks also for the updates on Linux--good to know how it does/doesn't work.rflynn88 - Tuesday, September 20, 2011 - link
Correction required:The 6700M series chips do support dynamic switching. I'm not sure if the 6300M series does. The HP dv6t can be optioned out with a Core i5/i7 Sandy Bridge chip and the 6770M with dynamic switching. There was actually a big issue with the dynamic switching not working on the dv6t for OpenGL applications, which was only recently remedied with a BIOS update.
JarredWalton - Tuesday, September 20, 2011 - link
Corrected -- see above note. I mistakenly confused the 6700M situation with the 6300M/6800M, which are rebadged 5000M parts and would not have the decoupled PCI-E interface to allow for dynamic switching.BernardP - Tuesday, September 20, 2011 - link
What I would like to do with Optimus is disable it completely and have my notebook always use the Nvidia graphics, even on the desktop. I don't care about battery life, as my notebook is almost never running on battery.After searching on the web, I have found no way to disable Optimus. Anybody here have a solution?
bhima - Tuesday, September 20, 2011 - link
Yes. Open up your NVIDIA settings. Change your Global Settings preffered graphics processor to the NVIDIA card. Voila!BernardP - Tuesday, September 20, 2011 - link
As simple as that? I'm hopeful...Please allow me a bit of residual doubt, considering, for example, the following discussion where there is a mention of this suggested setting.
http://superuser.com/questions/282734/how-to-disab...
However, I'll try your suggestion on a new Alienware laptop with Optimus one of my friends just bought.
JarredWalton - Tuesday, September 20, 2011 - link
The above change won't disable Optimus so much as always try to run programs on the dGPU. To my knowledge, there is no way to disable it completely, since with Optimus there is no direct link between the dGPU and the display outputs. All data has to get copied over the PCI-E bus to the IGP framebuffer.BernardP - Wednesday, September 21, 2011 - link
That's also my understanding, hence my doubts...seapeople - Tuesday, September 20, 2011 - link
I can see not caring about battery life, but you don't care about heat and/or noise either? More power use = more heat = constant fan turning on and off vs silent operation using only the integrated GPU.Less heat also equates to longer hardware lifetime.
I just don't understand why you would want a fat GPU idling while you browse AnandTech instead of the low power Intel GPU built into your computer?
BernardP - Wednesday, September 21, 2011 - link
Because I want a not-so-fat NVidia GPU, such as GT520M or GT525M, to pair with a high quality 1980x1080 IPS screen.... and then, use NVidia scaling to set up a custom resolution that will allow my old presbyobic eyes to see what's on the screen. For a 15.6 in. screen, 1440x900 is about right and with the NVidia custom resolution tools, there is no significant loss of quality.AMD graphics drivers don't allow setting up custom resolutions. Can Intel graphics drivers do it?
And I know that one can make things bigger onscreen with Windows settings, but it doesn't work all the time for everything. There is no substitute for setting up custom resolutions.