Optimus, a waste on laptop, badly needed on desktop!

[taltamir]

bah, who would want optimus on a laptop! laptops are small work (not gaming!) devices with pathetic performance or ridiculous price tag... gaming is done on the desktop!
which is EXACTLY where we need optimus! Come on people, nvidia and AMD both promised us hybrid power YEARS Ago and neither delivered, now nvidia has the tech but is limiting it to the laptop!

I want my desktop GPU to shut down completely when not playing a game, and use the IGP for windows... I want complete silence when the GPU is not running and the power (and MONEY) savings that come along with it!

You have the tech nvidia, let us use it already!

 

[CurseTheSky]

I both agree and disagree. I would love for my desktop to revert to an IGP for non-3D applications (to save on power and heat). However, I also think switchable graphics is one of the best things to happen to laptops in the past several years. Now I can install a few games to play for when I have down time and I'm bored, but going back home to my desktop isn't a viable option.

 

[yh125d]

<30W idle on ATI 5xxx parts not low enough for you?


:|

 

[Keysplayr]

Optimus is pretty slick.

 

[taltamir]

<30W idle on ATI 5xxx parts not low enough for you?


:|

that's over 30$ a year at my current electricity rates. so no, it isn't...
its also heat and noise.

 

[yh125d]

that's over 30$ a year at my current electricity rates. so no, it isn't...
its also heat and noise.

You realize that IGPs arent much lower?

 

[cbn]

bah, who would want optimus on a laptop! laptops are small work (not gaming!) devices with pathetic performance or ridiculous price tag... gaming is done on the desktop!
which is EXACTLY where we need optimus! Come on people, nvidia and AMD both promised us hybrid power YEARS Ago and neither delivered, now nvidia has the tech but is limiting it to the laptop!

I want my desktop GPU to shut down completely when not playing a game, and use the IGP for windows... I want complete silence when the GPU is not running and the power (and MONEY) savings that come along with it!

You have the tech nvidia, let us use it already!

+1.

I think this is a great idea.

With All Sandy Bridge CPUs coming with IGP maybe Optimus's time for desktop has come?

 

[taltamir]

You realize that IGPs arent much lower?

from what I have seen of reviews, they are much lower.

 

[Voo]

Well since Optimus and a IGP also add up to the price (though no idea how much, anyone does?) of the MB AND an IGP also needs some energy, I'm not sure it's really a cost saving.

 

[Qbah]

I would welcome such a technology in a desktop computer with open arms. Hell, I have seen in on laptops and it works perfectly. This alone would make me buy nVidia cards "no questions asked".

 

[thescreensavers]

that's over 30$ a year at my current electricity rates. so no, it isn't...
its also heat and noise.

thats 15 bucks if you keep it on 12 hours a day.

Not that much.

Imo no point to put it in desktops. Laptops actually have limited power supply when on battery power.

 

[taltamir]

I would welcome such a technology in a desktop computer with open arms. Hell, I have seen in on laptops and it works perfectly. This alone would make me buy nVidia cards "no questions asked".

same here

 

[Fox5]

that's over 30$ a year at my current electricity rates. so no, it isn't...
its also heat and noise.

Do you leave your computer on all day? Power save settings are there for a reason, my computer shuts off the monitor after 5 minutes, goes to sleep after an hour (and I don't even really need that much time).

If you're running some kind of file server or something, the answer is more economical hardware dedicated to the task if it bothers you that much.

 

[taltamir]

I don't leave it on 24/7, but I game sporadically and I use it for non gaming about 10 hours a day. I use sleep mode often and my monitor and HDD also turn off automatically when not in use.

the answer is optimus... now they just need to allow me to use it on the PC.

 

[Fox5]

I don't leave it on 24/7, but I game sporadically and I use it for non gaming about 10 hours a day. I use sleep mode often and my monitor and HDD also turn off automatically when not in use.

the answer is optimus... now they just need to allow me to use it on the PC.

30W power draw at idle sounds really good for the graphics card. The idle power draw of the rest of the system is still higher, of which the cpu is going to be the biggest offender.

Still, you're right, it makes no sense that they won't offer optimus on the desktop. However, it requires the IGP as the primary graphics adapter and the framebuffer data from the other card is passed over the pci express bus, there likely isn't enough bandwidth to allow a desktop card to perform fully.

Heh, high end graphics cards could probably get away with just including a low end graphics chip on the same package and switching to that when power isn't needed and shutting off the GDDR5 and primary graphics chip entirely.

 

[taltamir]

30W power draw at idle sounds really good for the graphics card. The idle power draw of the rest of the system is still higher, of which the cpu is going to be the biggest offender.

Just because it isn't the worst offender doesn't mean it should be left untreated. I agree there are hungrier parts of the system... heck my monitor takes 55 watts alone.

Heh, high end graphics cards could probably get away with just including a low end graphics chip on the same package and switching to that when power isn't needed and shutting off the GDDR5 and primary graphics chip entirely.

That would work, or maybe implement something similar to the power gating intel has done in nehalem.

But the thing about otpimus is that they actually already have the tech for that.

Still, you're right, it makes no sense that they won't offer optimus on the desktop. However, it requires the IGP as the primary graphics adapter and the framebuffer data from the other card is passed over the pci express bus, there likely isn't enough bandwidth to allow a desktop card to perform fully.

I don't see why it would be a problem with bandwidth... in fact I would say the opposite is the case, that bandwidth is more of an issue for this type of system on a laptop than on a desktop (please correct me if I am wrong here) thanks to the desktop's 16x PCI lanes dedicated to the GPU.

 

[SolMiester]

]thats 15 bucks if you keep it on 12 hours a day. [/B]

Not that much.

Imo no point to put it in desktops. Laptops actually have limited power supply when on battery power.

Really...??

1000w will use 1 unit of electricity an hour which in NZ costs 20c, how much do you guys pay for your electricity over there?

 

[taltamir]

Really...??

1000w will use 1 unit of electricity an hour which in NZ costs 20c, how much do you guys pay for your electricity over there?

don't forget increased cooling costs in summer and reduced heating costs in the winter... its more expensive to cool than to heat, I calculated/estimated it to be about 2-3x the price of the electricity alone where I live.

Electricity alone costs can be found by: wattage * kilowatt/watt * hours/day * $/kwh * days/year
(not that you need to actually put values there... aka, day/year means you should put 365 day/1 year)

Google tells me:

The average cost of residential electricity was 12&#162;/kWh in the U.S. in April 2009, and ranged from 7&#162; in North Dakota to 26&#162; in Hawaii.

So, lets say your poor self lives in hawaii... you use the PC 12 hours a day (easily... could go higher with ease) during most of which your GPU idles...
use the equasion: wattage * kilowatt/watt * hours/day * $/kwh * days/year
30 watt * 1 kilowatt/ 1000 watt * 12 hours/ 1 day * 0.26$/kwh * 365 days/year = 34.164 $/year in electricity... now multiply by 3 to account for cooling costs = 102.492 $/year

And start praying if you try to run entirely off of solar energy that you generate yourself or some such... then it really gets expensive.

 

[cbn]

Maybe someone should start a poll on this idea? Hopefully enough people vote "in favor" so Keysplayer can pass the idea to Nvidia management.

 

[ArchAngel777]

bah, who would want optimus on a laptop! laptops are small work (not gaming!) devices with pathetic performance or ridiculous price tag... gaming is done on the desktop!
which is EXACTLY where we need optimus! Come on people, nvidia and AMD both promised us hybrid power YEARS Ago and neither delivered, now nvidia has the tech but is limiting it to the laptop!

I want my desktop GPU to shut down completely when not playing a game, and use the IGP for windows... I want complete silence when the GPU is not running and the power (and MONEY) savings that come along with it!

You have the tech nvidia, let us use it already!

Generally the motherboard with an IGP do not overclock as well as those without an IGP. Because of this, and the fact that I run a dedicated graphics card, I have never purchased a motherboard with an IGP for my main computer system.

 

[ArchAngel777]

don't forget increased cooling costs in summer and reduced heating costs in the winter... its more expensive to cool than to heat, I calculated/estimated it to be about 2-3x the price of the electricity alone where I live.

Electricity alone costs can be found by: wattage * kilowatt/watt * hours/day * $/kwh * days/year
(not that you need to actually put values there... aka, day/year means you should put 365 day/1 year)

Google tells me:

So, lets say your poor self lives in hawaii... you use the PC 12 hours a day (easily... could go higher with ease) during most of which your GPU idles...
use the equasion: wattage * kilowatt/watt * hours/day * $/kwh * days/year
30 watt * 1 kilowatt/ 1000 watt * 12 hours/ 1 day * 0.26$/kwh * 365 days/year = 34.164 $/year in electricity... now multiply by 3 to account for cooling costs = 102.492 $/year

And start praying if you try to run entirely off of solar energy that you generate yourself or some such... then it really gets expensive.

You are using the worst case scenario. In the winter, where I live, it acts as a space heater for 6 months out of the year... The energy doesn't go wasted... Honestly, I would start looking into energy saving appliances before I would invest in trying to save a few watts on a computer.

 

[cbn]

Generally the motherboard with an IGP do not overclock as well as those without an IGP. Because of this, and the fact that I run a dedicated graphics card, I have never purchased a motherboard with an IGP for my main computer system.

Pretty soon LGA 2011 will be the only Intel mainboard without IGP.

 

[cbn]

Honestly, I would start looking into energy saving appliances before I would invest in trying to save a few watts on a computer.

But what about SFF computers with small Power supplies?

Maybe removing the Discrete Video card from the equation (when it is not needed) will save on wear and tear for these type of parts?

Heat is heat and it all adds up when dealing with something packed in a very small area.

 

[LoneNinja]

I agree it would be a nice option, but an idle computer with proper power savings really doesn't consume that much. If you that worried about a few watts, you better be unplugging most electronics in your house when not in use, as they can consume small amounts of power even when off. Let's not forget shut every light off you don't need on, etc.

 

[cbn]

How many watts for Intel IGP to run windows aero @1080p?