Err, I agree: it's an old video. But, what evidence do you have for the contrary, that Optimus is even less power efficient than at its inception?
Disable discrete GPU?
- Thread starter netuser
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Err, I agree: it's an old video. But, what evidence do you have for the contrary, that Optimus is even less power efficient than at its inception?
I was in meetings with the team that built the devices last week in Redmond including the designers, engineers and team lead.... most of the issues that are occurring is Intel's new SoC's and GMA drivers. Intel is onsite with the Surface Team working on the fixed drivers.
That's great to hear about the iGPU bugs getting addressed.Did they hint at when that next firmware/driver update might be dropping? I'm surprised there are so many issues regarding Intel's GMA drivers...usually, they aren't fast, but at least they're stable.
But...that didn't exactly answer the question about the NVIDIA GPU's power consumption when the Intel GMA is being used. Did they give you any insight about that? The PCIe specification has a few power states (L1 to L3) for lower power consumption...
Unfortunately any specific dates for the next fix would be covered under my NDA, but I can say very soon assuming Intel can get to the root cause (they said they were close based on telemetry data). The NVIDIA GPU due to the dual nature of using both GPUs does require that it maintain frame buffers, etc. so that it is available when evoked.
No. They were purchased with dGPU because the 8GB 256GB model without dGPU was not available from the vendor when the order was made and they didn't want to wait.
The use case for these devices does not require a dGPU and it seems it will be adding bugs and instability for no benefit.
The dPU will not make RDP and PowerPoint work any better, but may still cause crashes, lock release failures and reduced battery life.
How come you didn't get the surface pro 4 instead? I figured the only types of ppl who care for Surface Book are the ones who want a bigger screen or the ones who want a dedicated videocard.
The bigger screen as you mentioned plus better keyboard and much more battery life than a SP4. It will be a benefit for users to be able to charge them at home and not have to carry the power adapter around in most cases. The dGPU is not needed. It adds more complexity and bugs for no benefit to theses users other than possibly encouraging them to goof off and try installing games on them.
I actually do need the dGPU netuser. Its the reason why I got the book over the pro. Video Editing using mercury engine helps run effects faster. I also need it for Maya. So I wouldn't say its useless. Its useless for you, but there is another model of the Surface Book, the lower end one without the dedicated videocard. You probably could have just waited for that to come back in stock and save yourself a few hundred, a grand even. It only takes a few days to place an order. At least for me it only took a few days.
I never said it was useless for everyone. I was specifically talking about this use case of using the device for running Office apps and RDP, so I wanted to see if there is some way to disable it and save some battery and have fewer crashes and unlock from dock failures. We have no video editors that will be doing their work from Surface Books.
Maybe it can be disabled in the UEFI hardware configuration settings?
I have no idea how to disable it, but today I had it on pretty much all day at work. I was on it messing with photoshop and playing around with RadialMenu from 12:30pm until 5pm. I was on it constantly so battery seemed to have lasted pretty long for me. I had my brightness on at 75.
Also, I know how to turn off the GPU in softwares because there are options for it, but as far as the entirety of it, I have no clue.
Also, I know how to turn off the GPU in softwares because there are options for it, but as far as the entirety of it, I have no clue.
