Optimus support for Linux

[billkaos]

Dear Nvidia developers:

Is there any plan to support the Optimus GPU switching technology in Linux?

Links about optimus:

http://www.osnews.com/story/22850/NV..._GPU_Switching
http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=143380
http://www.nvidia.com/object/io_1265444450529.html

Regards!

[AaronP]

We have no plans to support Optimus on Linux at this time.

[mooninite]

Originally Posted by AaronP

We have no plans to support Optimus on Linux at this time.

Good! There's much bigger fish to fry.

Edit (2011-09-07)
After a year, I want to take back my statement. Graphic card switching does need to be supported now. All Intel CPUs now force Optimus.

[gqman69]

Yeah, lets start by "fixing" the perpetual performance problems like resizing a window in kde, for example.

[ledoc]

That's just marketing anyway, to flank the release of excessively powerhungry fermi chips.

[kwizart]

Dave airlied has done some work on the subject despite he's not specially targeting nvidia GPU:
http://airlied.livejournal.com/71012.html

[NvFuchs]

Originally Posted by gqman69

Yeah, lets start by "fixing" the perpetual performance problems like resizing a window in kde, for example.

This is

1) not a nvidia but a general issue (I have the same thing on my intel card)
2) partially solved in Qt 4.6
3) the same in other composite&window managers like compiz as well
4) solved by not displaying live content on a resize, which simply redraws the whole thing x times per second, which is slow anyway.

Fuchs

[undoIT]

Originally Posted by AaronP

We have no plans to support Optimus on Linux at this time.

If there are no plans to support Optimus on Linux, will there at least be a way to manually switch between integrated and discrete graphics?

[mooninite]

Originally Posted by undoIT

If there are no plans to support Optimus on Linux, will there at least be a way to manually switch between integrated and discrete graphics?

Yeah, using open source drivers.

http://airlied.livejournal.com/71012.html

[undoIT]

Originally Posted by mooninite

Yeah, using open source drivers.

http://airlied.livejournal.com/71012.html

Interesting. I'm wondering if it is also possible to manually switch in the bios or elsewhere, until the open source drivers are ready.

[billkaos]

Thanks for your answer, although I'm sad to hear that.

I've owned several Vaio laptops which have a dual Nvidia/Intel solution and having to reboot was really painful

[andrej7]

I am not sure whether "not supported" means "these chipsets won't work at all" or just "switching won't work". Could you please shed more light on this? Is it possible to use the NVidia adapter (or the Intel adapter) separately, without the switching capabilities? For example, would the 310M chipset in an Asus U30JC-QX022X work under Linux?

Anyway, full support for Optimus on Linux would be simply great. :-)