Tuesday, February 9, 2010

NVIDIA’s Optimus Hybrid Graphics Chip Streamlines Energy Efficiency

PIQOO | www.piqoo.blogspot.com


It’s getting easier to have your cake and eat it too, or so suggests NVIDIA in the announcement of its new Optimus technology. According to NVIDIA: “Consumers no longer have to choose whether they want great graphics performance or sustained battery life. NVIDIA Optimus gives them both - great performance, great battery life and it simply works.”

Optimus, at its heart, allows the automatic routing of graphics demands on a laptop to either a discrete NVIDIA GPU (which sucks up power), or to an Intel integrated graphics chip (which conserves power)--without the hassle of a reboot. Optimus directs the workload, as appropriate, to the most “efficient processor for the job”, thus extending battery life by up to two times.

According to Electronista, Optimus differs from Hybrid SLI in that it doesn’t need drivers to cooperate, but rather relies on the presence of an Intel chipset--be it the Core 2 Duo, Core i7 or Atom. NIVIDA also makes use of a new software model that ensures automatic switches occur when needed--in as little as 300ms. (Users, however, will be able to tweak these settings.)

NVIDIA says Optimus will first be available on an Asus line of notebooks (the UL50Vf, N61Jv, N71Jv, N82Jv, and U30Jc), which should be available soon.

Image Credit: NVIDIA

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