Switchable graphics ready for prime time, but will it really take off? Asus hopes so...
Graphics outfite Nvidia has thrown back the curtain on Optimus, a system that allows for the dynamic switching of graphics systems on notebooks.
Today's laptops usually have to suffer a trade-off between Intel's subpar but energy efficient integrated graphics processor (IGP) or a higher performance but power-hungry discrete graphics card that mounts a GPU from a graphics vendor like Nvidia or ATI.
Some vendors have attempted to strike a balance by creating a switchable graphics platform that allows the user to opt for which card they'd like to handle the graphics. Over time the switching process has developed from an actual physical switch, which required the machine to be shut down in order to move from one to the other, to a software switch that, in some cases, can be done while the operating system is running. However it's remained a manual process that usually requires at least a few seconds and a lot of screen flickering as the computer switches from one graphics subsystem to the other.
As a result, analyst Roger Kay from Endpoint Technology Associates reckons that only about one per cent of users who have a switchable graphics setup ever actually transition from one mode to the other.
"Switchable graphics is a great idea in theory, but in practice people rarely switch," he said.
"The process is just too cumbersome and confusing. Some buyers wonder why their performance is so poor when they think the discrete GPU is active, but, unknown to them, it isn't."
Nvidia reckons that Optimus changes all this as it allows the computer to seamlessly and automatically switch between the discrete and integrated graphics chips depending on what applications are running, or in some cases what features are used.
Locally, Asus is the first cab off the rank with Optimus tech in its machines. In the Ultra Slim and Light U/UL Series, the UL50Vf and U30Jc feature Optimus, in the Multimedia N Series, it's the N61Jv.
Issue: 133 | February, 2012