Want to use IGP in 785g mobo instead of 4890 when idle

[Mothergoose729]

I have a gigabyte 785g motherboard coming in a trade from a member from this forum. I want to enable the use of the IGP when idle and the dedicated graphics card when gaming. How would I go about that?

 

[Drakula]

That is not quite possible...

 

[Rifter]

not going to happen, you do know the 4890 downclocks when not gaming right?

 

[Mothergoose729]

Yes I do. So its not possible?

 

[alizee]

Not really possible, unfortunately. AMD has never developed something like this for the desktop, but back in the day, nvidia did have HybridPower on the desktop, which is exactly what you are looking for. Supposedly because the idle power of their 55nm parts was low enough, they dropped support for HybridPower on anything newer than a GTX280. It did have some limitations (no resolution above 1920x1200, small performance impact), but they're pretty negligible.

Rather short lived, but cool nonetheless. I have it running on one of our media centers so my girlfriend can play Sims 3, but be able to keep the idle power low when it's watching and recording TV. Nvidia doesn't have much info on whether or not it will work in Windows 7, but after installing the latest chipset and graphics drivers, it's working fine.

I believe the only way to get what you're looking for is to shutdown the copmuter and manually remove the card when not gaming and reinstall it when you are. Not at all practical...

 

[MalVeauX]

Yes I do. So its not possible?

Heya,

You cannot `turn off' the 4890. It will downclock when it's idle so long as it's plugged into your machine, powered, and installed. You're going to use less power if you disable the IGP of the motherboard all together and just use the 4890; it will be idle during everything other than playing an intense game (it stays idle even when using heavy apps in windows, etc). If you're worried about power, you could sell the 4890 for a good resale value and nab a new 5830 at the end of the month for less than you paid for the 4890; it'll use less power and perform the same.

Very best,