AMD’s Enduro Switchable Graphics Levels Up
by Jarred Walton on September 6, 2012 3:00 AM ESTIntroduction
A couple weeks back, I contacted AMD to let them know I was working on a notebook review—a Clevo P170EM from AVADirect with HD 7970M graphics. Much to my surprise, when I received the notebook I discovered it used AMD’s Dynamic Switchable Graphics, now rebranded as Enduro. It has been just over a year since my last look at the technology, where things were so bad that I felt most users would be better off if they had only discrete AMD GPUs and no switchable graphics—or they could simply buy NVIDIA Optimus enabled laptops. The short story is that my initial experience with the P170EM was largely the same, only the lack of driver updates was even more damning when looking at a notebook sporting such a high-end GPU. What could be done? AMD scheduled a meeting with me to go over the latest updates, and thankfully things aren’t quite so grim as I first thought.
First, let’s get everyone up to speed. Historically speaking, AMD/ATI has been on the forefront of switchable graphics technology. While the first laptop with switchable graphics tested at AnandTech used NVIDIA’s implementation (the ASUS UL80Vt), Radeon-based alternatives also existed in a similar time frame. The main problems with early switchable graphics solutions is that they required extra hardware on the manufacturer side (muxes), increasing cost, and more importantly you were generally locked in to getting graphics driver updates from the laptop OEM. NVIDIA addressed both problems when they launched Optimus in early 2010, and while there were certainly some teething pains the vast majority of users have been pleased with the result. Where did that leave AMD? Simply put: out of most laptops.
Was it because NVIDIA had superior technology, better drivers, or better marketing? I’d say yes to all three, and it has been painful to watch as the number of laptops with discrete GPUs (at least in the US) has largely shifted to being NVIDIA products. Up until now, if you wanted a laptop with a discrete GPU, the ability to switch off that GPU, and you wanted regular driver updates, your only viable option has been NVIDIA equipped laptops. Perhaps that’s why every major OEM (along with most smaller OEMs/ODMs) ships at least some of their laptops with NVIDIA’s Optimus Technology. With laptop sales now outpacing desktop sales, giving up so much ground to their competitor is a serious problem AMD needs to overcome.
I should note that AMD has other products that actually help get around our concerns with Enduro. The Llano and Trinity APUs for example offer integrated GPU that are as fast (faster in some cases) as discrete GPUs. If you’re looking for a good budget laptop that gets excellent battery life and you don’t want to deal with switchable graphics at all, Llano started the trend of providing a decent GPU with acceptable CPU performance and Trinity continues that trend. Even better: driver updates aren’t a problem as there’s only one AMD GPU to contend with. Trinity/Llano didn’t win any awards for pure performance, but in terms of bang for the buck and creating a well-rounded device, the APUs have proven successful. But we’re not going to worry about Trinity/Llano or other APUs; today’s focus is on discrete GPUs and switching between these high-power, high-performance GPUs and low-power, low-performance integrated graphics.
With that out of the way, let’s look at the history of AMD’s switchable graphics as well as where they intend to go in the near future.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
200 Comments
View All Comments
Seanzky - Friday, September 7, 2012 - link
They really should take this seriously if they want to stop slipping away from that market share they're dearly hanging on to. There are many like me who shop for the best bang for my buck, but won't hesitate to drop close to a grand just in order to avoid "learning another lesson."dczyz - Thursday, September 6, 2012 - link
Until they change their driver practice of only the laptop manufacturer supplying the drivers, I will avoid AMD for any switchable solution.kyuu - Thursday, September 6, 2012 - link
If you read the article, you'd see this is one of the issues that's supposed to be addressed. Anybody with an Enduro laptop should be able to use the generic drivers direct from AMD. This assumes that the OEMs don't make a fuss for whatever stupid reason, but if that happens, that's the OEMs' fault, not AMD's.dczyz - Thursday, September 6, 2012 - link
I understand that argument, but I dont care :)I know that if I go with Nvidia, I can trust them to keep my drivers working and updated. Until AMD makes that commitment, no thanks.
Vozier - Thursday, September 6, 2012 - link
you "trust" Nvidia a bit too much, in the past this hasnt always been the case.Dont kick the man in the ground, let it stand back up and fight fair.
We all know forums are NOT the place to make commitments, it almost always ends up with people yelling back to whatever one says.
For me is much more reassuring to read a "public announcement" of sorts made by AT an Jarred here. Of course we cant reply or ask questions, but thats not really what we want. We want a working driver, and as long as they work on it I will not ask them to loose time asnwering to every question and complaint.
I work in a hosting company and, no matter how much people you have, when there is a problem you want to adress it and not loose time trying to explain hundreds of people something not even you have clear at the time.
The damage is already done, no doubt about that, but lets be patient and hope for the best.
regards
Voz
extide - Thursday, September 6, 2012 - link
Lol, obviously you didn't understand, as your EXACT complaint is being addressed!tspacie - Thursday, September 6, 2012 - link
It's a small thing, but they're not using LDA on the Clevo.GPUs can be linked when they are controlled by the same kernel-mode driver. They could use LDA on computers with an AMD iGPU and dGPU, but not when an Intel driver controls the iGPU.
JarredWalton - Thursday, September 6, 2012 - link
You'll have to take that up with AMD, as they specifically told me they use LDA for Enduro on all systems.tspacie - Thursday, September 6, 2012 - link
Huh. They are either very clever, very strange or very wrong. :)Thanks for the response.
Wolfpup - Thursday, September 6, 2012 - link
I keep being blown away that an enthusiast tech site that strives for accuracy like this-that rejected DonutMark for years because it's a joke, and still goes "eh, here's this dumb thing if you want it" would keep pushing Floptimus and AMD's equivalent.I have NEVER seen a knowledgeable consumer asking for switchable graphics. It STILL causes all sorts of pain...heck, we're STILL at the point that even with Nvidia, even WITHOUT Optimus, not all notebooks are supported by Nvidia's drivers. Throw Optimus in there and problems just shoot up astronomically. There are forums full of people trying to disable Optimus, flash BIOSes to get rid of it, etc. because of all the problems it brings, and AMD has never been able to match Nvidia's drivers even WITHOUT the complexity of switchable graphics.
Why the HECK is AMD constantly supporting this garbage? If power draw is really such a big deal, lets get better power gating and the like.
Heck, Anandtech should be decrying Intel and AMD's integrated graphics solutions entirely. In both cases, they use piles of transistors that could instead be used for extra cores and cache, or even better designs that might be possible with more transistors. OR they could at least cost less and use less power because they're not powering 200 million + transistors of junky video.