The title is pretty simple, and self explanatory. Will the HD Graphics/330M combo, or the 9400M/9600M GT ever be able to switch back and forth in Windows? And regardless of if it's possible, what is the limitation, drivers, other software, or a physical hardware limitation? It would be a nice way to get more battery life out of Bootcamp.
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Graphics Switching in Windows?
- Thread starter Quad 2.5 G5 =)
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I find it interesting that it would be a driver issue, as Optimus can obviously do it, but I'm not sure the latest way is on-the-fly. (Optimus drivers using a Windows laptop, with the correct hardware configuration).
I unfortunately have to use bootcamp, but not that often.
You want to use the integrated chipset and disable the dedicated one?
can you select graphic driver settings in the nvidia control panel in windows?
the driver you select to use would determine which device you use... otherwise you can goto device manager and disable it?
but seeing as you cant even choose in OS-X without additional software...
(Graphics Switching on OS-X) I wouldn't put much hope in it.
Sony among others have been doing it for a while now without reboot in Windows, much earlier than Apple did in OS X.
The Sony Z could switch between both GPU's manually without restarting the computer. ( so only 1 GPU is used )
So if Sony can do it, Apple can do it also for Windows. But they won't support Windows fully, no chance they'll give us switchable GPU option.
what does it matter if the cards it can switch between are crap?
LOL!, ok, but its the 16" F series that has the 330M, not the 13.1" Z series
Sony laptops are crap. they make computers like their 15.5" that have 1366x768 displays, and put blu-ray players in them and advertise Full 1080p HD.
Nvidia 330GT in MBP
Nvidia 9300M GS from VAIO Z
330GT has almost 2x the 3Dmark 2001 Score...
want to see something hilarious...
Intel HD Graphics
the Intel HD graphics thats integrated in my MBP is almost as good as the 9300M thats dedicated in that VAIO.
The Sony Z has a Full HD screen and it has a 1 Gb 330m btw.
And this isn't even the point. The point is, that it GPU's can be switched in Windows without the need of restarting;
It does have a pretty little Full HD sticker on it, doesn't it...Full HD does not mean it supports resolutions like 1080p24 as a bluray. NO it will not properly display a blu-ray unless your driving an external monitor that is 1920x1080 or higher. Full HD is really just a dirty trick played by some players in the industry on some, unnamed, unsavvy consumers.
the reason the 330GT has nearly the same scores at 512MB as 1GB (that link was for both buddy, not just the 512 in the MBP... did you read it?)
is because the memory bus width is only 128-bit for the 330GT, so it suffers a similar memory bottleneck as the 9600m GT (which also had a 128bit bus).
video memory only helps to a certain point.
has anybody tried testing battery life when manually disabling the 330GT from device manager? that doesn't require restarting it.
can it even use the 330GT when bootcamp isn't installed? (just windows on a seperate partition).
The Intel GPU is not exposed in Windows. The problem isn't a driver issue; it's an EFI/BIOS issue. Apple would need to expose it to the operating system before driver support could be put to the test. I don't anticipate Apple ever doing that so it's a moot point really.