In the News -- The Inquirer

Nvidia pumps hybrid graphics to laptop makers - The Inquirer

SONY, FUJITSU Siemens and Benq have announced notebooks using hybrid graphics that allow users to “dynamically switch” between Intel’s Centrino 2 integrated graphics and a discrete Nvidia Geforce GPU.

The switch can be made without the need to reboot, giving the user the choice of whether to burn up the battery in 3D mode, or idly noodle about in 2D on the Interweb.

According to Nvidia, all its Geforce 9M Series GPUs support the hybrid graphics feature, but notebooks have to be specifically designed.

Four firms have joined the bandwagon, after guinea pig Acer tested the water. Sony’s new Vaio Z series, Fujitsu Siemens’ Amilo XI 3650 and Benq Joybook’s S42’s all have the feature.

“Performance when you need it, battery life when you don’t. And no rebooting!” said Nvidia’s chief spinner, Derek Perez, when we asked him about it.

Yes, but does it actually work?

“It’s clear that it is indeed working and in customers hands today,” Perez said

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4 out of 12 so far, so please keep sending your info:

01 Linux and Sony Vaio Z-series (intel/nvidia)
02 Linux and Fujitsu Siemens Amilo XI 3650 (intel/nvidia)
03 Linux and BenQ Joybook S42 (intel/nvidia)
04 Linux and ASUS N10J (intel/nvidia)
05 Linux and Dell Studio XPS 13 (nvidia/nvidia)
06 Linux and MSI EX630 (nvidia/nvidia)
07 Linux and Lenovo ThinkPad T500 (intel/ati)
08 Linux and Lenovo ThinkPad T400 (intel/ati)
09 Linux and ASUS M51Ta (intel/ati)
10 Linux and Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo Sa 3650 (intel/ati)
11 Linux and MSI PX211 12'' (intel/ati)
12 Linux and HP Pavilion tx2500 (intel/ati)

DSDT is an acronym for Differentiated System Description Table. This table contains the Differentiated Definition Block, which supplies the information and configuration information about the base system. It is always inserted into the ACPI Namespace by the OS at boot time.

If you've got a laptop with a IGP and a hybrid Nvidia or ATi card, and you have tried to use Linux on it, you may have noticed that there are issues with the hybrid graphics setup. To help improve the Linux hybrid graphics support for this laptop, please attach your DSDT information to this Launchpad bug report specifying your laptop model:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/312756

To compile your DSDT information, install if you haven't already the acpidump and iasl tools:
sudo apt-get install acpidump iasl           # on Debian-based systems

Then run the following commands:

sudo acpidump > acpidump.txt
sudo acpixtract acpidump.txt
iasl -d DSDT.dat

This will create a DSDT.dsl file that you can attach to the bug report. This information will allow the developers to fully implement the hybrid graphics features for Linux.