Discrete Graphics

For those of you who upgraded to the discrete graphics option for your laptop, what was the main reason?

I rarely play games, however I do watch videos, flash content, and sometimes perform video encoding. I dont know how much of this has already been optimized for intel's current IGP solutions. Also, I'm currently an XP user, if I switch to Windows 7, I assume the fancy gui interface will require more graphics processing power to display the same information I'd get in XP.

It doesnt seem like alot of money to do the upgrade, however, even with optimus, it sounds like I would take a hit in battery life. I'm guessing that if I'm not a gamer, I probably don't really need the NVIDIA option, the only thing I was thinking was that perhaps a few years down the road, the IGP solution won't be "good enough" anymore.

What would you recc? I'm thinking of getting a T420

 

Games, more or less. Windows 7's Aero runs on everything after the Intel 915GM chipset, so isn't very resource demanding at all.

Right now, the integrated chipset is roughly equivalent to the T410/T510's discrete model, so it should be way more than enough for regular usage. Optimus has a bunch of issues that still need to be ironed out.

 

All depends on what you are doing.

Intel GMA isn't as crummy as it was back then. No you won't be doing serious gaming but GMA will handle Flash, and tackle office tasks.

For my Vostro 1500, I was a big gamer so I bought the discreet graphics, but it came at a price; more heat and less battery life. If you don't game or do CAD then integrated graphics is plenty enough and the newest Sandy Bridge graphics is very potent. People are actually able to do gaming with it. Now I have a dedicated gaming rig so more than likely all my future laptop purchases will be integrated graphics due to the Nvidia defective chips from 2006-2008.

 

is the NVIDIA something that can be added later on. like if in 2 years, I feel like whatever I am running needs it.

 

Unless you are interested in playing fairly recent 3d games at high frame rates, Intel's current line of chips, Sandy Bridge, can satisfy your needs without descrete graphics.

The Sandy Bridge chips i3, i5, i7 followed by a 4 digit number. The previous generation used a 3digit number.


Two articles from anandtech.com you should read.

Intel's Core 2011 Mobile Roadmap Revealed: Sandy Bridge Part II - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News

Article2 - Looks at performance of the desktop sandy bridge processors. Intel's mobile processors won't be as fast, but you'll get some idea.
The Sandy Bridge Preview - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News

Check out this page of article 2 for video rendering info on Sandy Bridge.



You can compare all intel chips here.
ARK | Your source for information on Intel® products

 

No, 99.8% of notebooks have their GPUs soldered onto the motherboard. Only exceptions are certain Dell notebooks, high end mobile workstation laptops, ASUS G series gaming notebooks and other gaming laptops with MXM graphics cards. You would more than likely have to swap out the motherboard to get the Nvidia graphics.

 

On a desktop computer you have that option. Not on any notebook.

 

hmm ok, well if it isnt too expensive, I think I'll just get it just in case I need it in the future. I hope there is a way to manually disable it when I need more battery life.

Speaking of that, if it has optimus, and the current line of sandy bridge's are more than adequete, I suppose the nvidia gpu would rarely get activated with regular use.

 

If you don't do CAD work then Intel HD 3000 graphics is really enough. Optimus has it's issues with drivers, certain programs, and Linux. So be aware of that too.

 

well if I get the NVIDIA, can I set it to always use the intel chip?
I'm just thinking that maybe in the future I will need it and its just one more item that will allow my new laptop to last a little longer before it needs to be replaced.

And now that I think of it, I might need to do some CAD stuff sometimes, but very rarely

 

You can set it to Integrated only in the BIOS.

 

Actually, could someone with a SB optimus system elaborate on that? What options exactly are there in the bios (screenshot?), and for each one, what does the OS actually see on the bus (lspci output?). thanks.

 

For your uses the intel IGP would be more then enough.

 

After reading that review, it seems that there are "application profiles" that you can set. So you can whitelist certain apps to use the nvidia or intel. So can't I just set everything to use intel?

 

If you're going to do that, you might as well just set the BIOS to use Intel only. It's easier.