4 ms·

I'll bite. Please tell me which laptops have fully supported graphics cards, including dynamic switching between integrated and discreet without reboot.

JasonFruit 14y ago
I'm not disputing your point, but as a long-time application developer (and of course general computer user), I had to look up what the difference was. I've never had the need to switch between them (that I'm aware of). In what circumstances does it become important?
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- arrrg 14y ago
  Do you really not know that? This is done to save battery life. In most situations the integrated graphics are more than enough, so the dedicated graphics chip can be turned off. If, however, that isn’t transparent to the user (i.e. happens automatically and on the fly) it’s nearly useless. Who is going to bother and reboot to switch graphics? This is a pretty standard feature, available in all Apple laptops with dedicated graphics and many (if not all) Windows laptops with dedicated graphics.
  - JasonFruit 14y ago
    Yes, I really didn't know that — it had never come up for me. It sounds like it's mostly really useful with games and similarly rendering-intense applications, which I don't use.
  - Symmetry 14y ago
    If you don't mind me asking, what would you be playing under Linux that would require discrete graphics? Modern integrated graphics are much, much better than they were a few years ago and you should be able to play any Source game, for instance, without trouble. Now they won't handle Crysis gracefully, of course, but if you're resorting to running things under wine then you have to expect some level of breakage.
    - tomflack 14y ago
      Plenty of other things use GPU other than games.
rjbond3rd 14y ago
Are you familiar with Bumblebee? It provides switching between integrated and discreet graphics without reboot for NVIDIA Optimus-equipped laptops. Although at the moment it's a manual install, it should find its way into popular distros soon enough. http://bumblebee-project.org/ http://bumblebee-project.org/
- alirov 14y ago
  Bumblebee works well for me on a Samsung QX411. Once installed, just prepend 'optirun' to any command (like when running a game) and it will use the discrete graphics card.
- driverdan 14y ago
  It's good to hear Bumblebee works now. When I was researching laptops earlier this year I read that it was unstable.

JasonFruit 14y ago

I'm not disputing your point, but as a long-time application developer (and of course general computer user), I had to look up what the difference was. I've never had the need to switch between them (that I'm aware of). In what circumstances does it become important?

deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
arrrg 14y ago
Do you really not know that? This is done to save battery life. In most situations the integrated graphics are more than enough, so the dedicated graphics chip can be turned off. If, however, that isn’t transparent to the user (i.e. happens automatically and on the fly) it’s nearly useless. Who is going to bother and reboot to switch graphics? This is a pretty standard feature, available in all Apple laptops with dedicated graphics and many (if not all) Windows laptops with dedicated graphics.
- JasonFruit 14y ago
  Yes, I really didn't know that — it had never come up for me. It sounds like it's mostly really useful with games and similarly rendering-intense applications, which I don't use.
- Symmetry 14y ago
  If you don't mind me asking, what would you be playing under Linux that would require discrete graphics? Modern integrated graphics are much, much better than they were a few years ago and you should be able to play any Source game, for instance, without trouble. Now they won't handle Crysis gracefully, of course, but if you're resorting to running things under wine then you have to expect some level of breakage.
  - tomflack 14y ago
    Plenty of other things use GPU other than games.

rjbond3rd 14y ago

Are you familiar with Bumblebee? It provides switching between integrated and discreet graphics without reboot for NVIDIA Optimus-equipped laptops. Although at the moment it's a manual install, it should find its way into popular distros soon enough. http://bumblebee-project.org/ http://bumblebee-project.org/

alirov 14y ago
Bumblebee works well for me on a Samsung QX411. Once installed, just prepend 'optirun' to any command (like when running a game) and it will use the discrete graphics card.
driverdan 14y ago
It's good to hear Bumblebee works now. When I was researching laptops earlier this year I read that it was unstable.