video cards are only enabled during 3D applications?

[ingear]

in a review of this laptop Acer Aspire E5-575G http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?sdtid=9395951

The GTX 950M is only enabled during 3D application via the Optimus technology for reducing the power consumption, as opposed to simple desktop applications that are accelerated via the HD 620.

- http://www.notebookcheck.net/Acer-Aspire-E5-575G-i5-7200U-GTX-950M-Notebook-Review.178326.0.html

seriously?

is there a way to force it to take off the load from onboard Intel HD 620 chip?
and make the laptop faster when plugged in?

is it like this for all other laptops?
how can we tell?

I do not think this was the case on my old Sony VAIO S VPCSA290X - http://www.laptopmag.com/reviews/laptops/sony-vaio-s-vpcsa290x

thank you ...

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more details
https://slickdeals.net/f/9395951-ac...-hdd-gaming-laptop-for-554?page=4#commentsBox

 

[whm1974]

The iGPU will work just fine for normal desktop use. The dGPU is only needed with heavy graphics usage. There is really no point with having the dGPU run all the time.

 

[Valantar]

Why on earth would you want to use a far more power hungry GPU for tasks that the efficient iGPU is more than capable of tackling?

This wasn't the case previously as iGPUs were too crappy to even play high-res video. This is no longer the case - decent ones can even do light gaming. And anything in desktop usage that isn't heavy 3D (like CAD) is very manageable on an iGPU. Of course the dGPU is activated for tasks that gain from GPU acceleration and need some oomph (say, adding filters in Photoshop). Other than that, the dGPU can - and should - stay dormant.

That being said, most laptops like that have an option to force the dGPU to be "always on", although I struggle to see why you'd ever want that.

 

[ctk1981]

The last "Optimus" laptop I had was a Lenovo. In the bios you could select Optimus, iGPU or dGPU. Might be vendor specific, or maybe they are all this way.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[daxzy]

The last "Optimus" laptop I had was a Lenovo. In the bios you could select Optimus, iGPU or dGPU. Might be vendor specific, or maybe they are all this way.

When I had the XPS 15-9550, the Nvidia drivers had a list of applications and you could select dGPU or onboard. Of course it would try and detect games and automatically set those to dGPU, but that wasn't 100%.

Pretty sure OP is just uninformed about onboard being bad for non-3D tasks.

 

[2is]

Echoing some of the other replies here... Not sure why you'd even want to do this. What exactly do you think you're going to gain by using the DGPU in regular desktop use?

 

[SlickR12345]

As others said what 2d programs do you think you are going to benefit from when running the dgpu?

 

[ZGR]

Integrated Graphics have come a long way. I still use my Ivy Bridge''s HD 4000 for playing movies, browsing the web, and even light photo editing. my 650M is barely even used.

If 4 year old iGPU is fast enough for desktop usage, your iGPU will be able to do everything. The dGPU is becoming less and less important every year in laptops except for gaming.

The battery life advantage iGPU''s provide is well worth it as well.