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NVIDIA Shows Off "Optimus" Switchable Graphics For Notebooks

Posted by Soulskill on from the that's-some-prime-namespace dept.

Vigile writes "Transformers jokes aside, NVIDIA's newest technology offering hopes to radically change the way notebook computers are built and how customers use them. The promise of both extended battery life and high performance mobile computing has seemed like a pipe dream, and even the most recent updates to 'switchable graphics' left much to be desired in terms of the user experience. Having both an integrated and discrete graphics chip in your notebook does little good if you never switch between the two. Optimus allows the system to seamlessly and instantly change between IGP and discrete NVIDIA GPUs based on the task being run, including games, GPU encoding or Flash video playback. Using new software and hardware technology, notebooks using Optimus can power on and pass control to the GPU in a matter of 300ms and power both the GPU and PCIe lanes completely off when not in use. This can be done without being forced to reboot or even close out your applications, making it a hands-free solution for the customer."

21 of 102 comments (clear)

  1. VOODOO by Hodr · · Score: 5, Funny

    I knew if I just held off upgrading my Orchid Righteous 3d (Voodoo 1) card long eoungh discrete 3d cards would become relavent again. You guys with your fancy Banshee cards can suck it.

    1. Re:VOODOO by Tetsujin · · Score: 3, Funny

      oh happy memories.
      I'm sure you're finding the massive 640x480 resolution just as awesome as I do.

      Well, you're clearly not aware of the nature of the sham that pervades high-resolution graphics.

      For instance, graphics hardware manufacturers will happily tell you that a resolution like 1920 x 1080 has nearly seven times as many pixels as 640 x 480. But what they don't tell you is that all of these pixels are a whole hell of a lot smaller than the ones on your good old VGA monitor! With my monitor, I may not have a lot of pixels, but I'm damn sure I'm getting my money's worth out of every single one!

      --
      Bow-ties are cool.
  2. no transformers jokes? by DJCouchyCouch · · Score: 4, Funny

    But that's my Prime form of entertainment!

    1. Re:no transformers jokes? by twentynine · · Score: 4, Funny

      You might wanna Jazz up that joke a little bit...

  3. What a relief by s2theg · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Optimus can power on and pass control to the GPU in a matter of 300ms"

    That's good. I'm tired of finishing before my video player can render the first frame.

    1. Re:What a relief by Bluesman · · Score: 2, Informative

      Getting older will help your stamina too.

      --
      If moderation could change anything, it would be illegal.
  4. Hey if it extends battery life... by planckscale · · Score: 2, Interesting

    ...I'm all for it. But by how much will it extend the battery life? And when they say it will "Drastically" change the notebook market I doubt that; netbooks folks won't care about 3D and Desktop Replacement folks don't care if their machine is plugged in. Mabye in a smaller segment of mobile gamers this will make a difference.

    --
    Namaste
  5. Re:I like my desktop. by Monkeedude1212 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    What all the cool kids are doing is dropping cases altogether. Thats right, nothing looks more badass than your motherboard laying on the desk with silicon chips sticking up in the air, with a giant fan overhead to help keep things cool and circulated. Your friends will be so jealous at all the blinking lights.

    As for the Optimus, I think its a great idea. This change can come for desktops as much as it has for notebooks, if there is enough demand for such a product.

    Think, you had to factor in the power supply when you bought that new Graphics card. So imagine how much power its actually eating up. Imagine if your desktop didn't have to use that much power when it didn't have to?

  6. Can't they make a 'smarter' GPU? by JSBiff · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I would have thought that, instead of switching between a 'low power' video chip, and a 'high power' GPU, they would have concentrated on just making the Nvidia graphics cards use lower power when not doing things like rendering 3D graphics, or decoding video? I mean, mobile CPU's have some smarts built into them to allow them to vary how much power they consume, can't they do that with GPUs?

    1. Re:Can't they make a 'smarter' GPU? by billcopc · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The problem with GPU throttling is it's far more visible (pun intended). If your CPU is rapidly switching between 3.0ghz and, say, 1.2ghz, you probably won't notice at all, but if your game or video app has uneven framerates or the dreaded micro-stutter, you will feel the overwhelming urge to smash your laptop against the nearest brick wall.

      GPUs typically have two power modes: power-saving (idle), and full-blast (gaming). Your device drivers kick it into high-power mode whenever you launch a 3D app, so the stutter of switching speeds happens before any animation takes place, and it stays that way until you exit the game. This is representative of typical GPU usage: you're either using it to the max, or not at all. I don't know anyone who runs their games at lower quality settings just to "save power on the GPU", you'll push the flashiest pixels your hardware can handle.

      What would be quite appreciated is if the high-end GPUs had a true low-power mode that shuts off all the excess pwnage, but that's just my bias. I tend to buy the fastest GPU I can afford, and stick it out for a few years until it starts bothering me. My latest acquisition, the GTX 295, is a power hog. Even when sitting idle at the desktop, my PC chugs a hearty 400 watts to do nothing, roughly 300w to the two GPUs and the remainder for the CPU and motherboard. While gaming, this number swells to around 800w, again 3/4 of that goes to the GPUs. I'm fine with the 800w active consumption, it's the idle power draw that bothers me, because I only game for an hour or two a night, 3-4 nights a week. If I replace those two GPUs with a low-end card, my 2D performance is unaffected yet power usage drops to a much cozier 100w. Why the big GPUs need 200 more watts to do absolutely nothing, that defies even the most usurious logic. Now given the greater number of high-end desktop vs laptop GPUs, I think they should figure out how to shut down parts of the desktop GPU when not in use, rather than investing in some never-gonna-sell IGP+GPU trickery. The $25 drop on my monthly hydro bill would more than justify the expense of a higher-efficiency device. Hell, that's enough to buy the latest GPU every year!

      --
      -Billco, Fnarg.com
  7. something like it on linux by je+ne+sais+quoi · · Score: 5, Informative

    For years, the proprietary NVIDIA drivers for linux have been using a feature called powermizer that changes the performance of the GPU based on what the PC needed. E.g., under normal conditions, the GPU is underclocked but when you run an openGL window or run a game, the GPU bumps up into full speed. In principal it sounds like a great idea, but it's been really annoying to wait around for what seemed like at least a year for NVIDIA to get it to run well enough with a composite manager like compiz. For a long time, things like highlighting text in firefox and then dragging it led to flickering of the screen, or the new kde has composite things built right in which didn't work well. During that period we had to do things like fool the GPU into running full tilt all the time because NVIDIA didn't give us an option to switch powermizer off until AFTER they fixed the problems with it.

    --
    Gentlemen! You can't fight in here, this is the war room!
  8. Re:MacBook Pros by Vigile · · Score: 3, Informative

    Nope, not really. I have one of those and the video on the PCPer article shows the process on a MacBook Pro. You have to change a settings in the control panel and then logout of the system to change GPU modes.

  9. Re:HybridSLI? by Vigile · · Score: 3, Informative

    Read the article at pcper.com - it talks about the current versions of switchable graphics and how the new Optimus differs.

    It's not a cosmetic change.

  10. Linux hybrid graphics by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    The current progress of Linux hybrid graphics.

    There has been a lot of progress in this area the past few weeks. Wonder if this will let NVIDIA switch gpu's without restarting X.

  11. Re:I like my desktop. by vlm · · Score: 5, Funny

    I guess when they have dual CPU notebooks with full size keyboards and 21" displays, I might be more interested in them. But I'd also want solid state hard drives and hdmi cables to wire them to the TV...

    But... But ... But ... Marketing told me you guys wanted postage stamp size touch sensitive screens, batteries that last two hours, and 3 second e-ink refresh rates. And its gotta use a cloud, whatever that is. And an app store, gotta have an app store. I guess you must be wrong.

    --
    "Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
  12. About time, if it works as advertised. by Happy+Nuclear+Death · · Score: 2, Informative

    I have suffered from one of the multiple-display-device solutions, in the form of an Alienware M15X, so Optimus sounds like a huge step forward.

    While in theory it was nice to have both a battery-friendly Intel GMA and a reasonably powerful Nvidia GeForce card in one (relatively) portable package, in reality it was lousy. As suggested by TFA, you had to reboot to switch between them, whether running Windows XP or Vista. That would have been bad enough, but wait, there's more!

    This effectively meant that I could never switch, because us mere users were not permitted to authorize UAC prompts or do "admin" things under XP. Yes, you needed administrator-level access to switch between display devices. I don't know why, maybe because it involved changes to startup files. Huge software limitation there, as well as a shortcoming of our boneheaded IT rules.

    But you really shouldn't have to reboot to switch devices.

  13. Re:I like my desktop. by Chris+Burke · · Score: 2, Funny

    Here's the crazy part. I don't even care about battery life or even having a battery. I just want something I can plug in wherever.

    Sounds good, as long as we don't let the folks in the adult novelty department get word of it.

    --

    The enemies of Democracy are
  14. Re:I like my desktop. by datapharmer · · Score: 2, Funny

    NO NO NO! You can't do that! You'll fry the thing with static electricity, coffee, and dust. Everyone true nerd knows you've got to brown bag it. That's right, a quick trip to the feed supply for a burlap sack and you are working with some serious overclocking potential. It is breathable, protects from dust and light spills, and you can hatch chick on the heat sink...

    --
    Get a web developer
  15. Re:MacBook Pros by Vigile · · Score: 2, Informative

    It starts at time stamp about 3:00

    http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=868&type=expert&pid=1

  16. Re:Boring by Khyber · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Why? So when my GPU fucks itself I have to buy a whole new cpu/GPU combo?

    No thanks, I'll stick with discrete individual parts - makes repairs and upgrades so much easier.

    --
    Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
  17. Re:MacBook Pros by Belisar · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The new thing seems to be that you can actually switch between the onboard and 'real' GPU on the fly and fast while everything is running.

    The previous laptops with switchable graphics, such as my Sony Vaio which had a Geforce and an Intel chips, did have to at least reboot the graphics system (on OS X) or reboot the whole computer (Windows) in order to go to the power saving mode.

    In my experience, I usually was too lazy / didn't want to close my work and kept using the good GPU all the time. The only times I'd work up the enthusiasm to actually switch over was before a flight or something where I'd know I'd not need the power.