- Most decent Windows laptops cost upwards of £1000 these days, which is a serious lump of cash if you only want a system for web browsing and streaming video.
- The Optimus is protected by a three-year labour deal with a year of parts coverage – whereas the Dell and Acer offer only one year of coverage. Related: Best PC Games PC Specialist Optimus VIII.
Chapter 17. Using the NVIDIA Driver withOptimus Laptops
Some laptops with NVIDIA GPUs make use of Optimus technology toallow switching between an integrated GPU and a discrete NVIDIAGPU. The NVIDIA Linux driver can be used on these systems.
Installing the NVIDIA Driver on an Optimus Laptop
Nvidia Optimus laptop tech switches between discrete GPU, Intel integrated graphics. Remember Hybrid SLI? For those you don't, it was Nvidia's solution for an ever-vexing problem for laptop makers.
The driver may be installed normally on Optimus systems, but theNVIDIA X driver and the NVIDIA OpenGL driver may not be able todisplay to the laptop's internal display panel unless a means toconnect the panel to the NVIDIA GPU (for example, a hardwaremultiplexer, or 'mux', often controllable by a BIOS setting) isavailable. Ibracomp industria e comercio drivers license. On systems without a mux, the NVIDIA GPU can still beuseful for offscreen rendering, PRIME render offload, running CUDAapplications, and other uses that don't require driving adisplay.
On muxless Optimus laptops, or on laptops where a mux ispresent, but not set to drive the internal display from the NVIDIAGPU, the internal display is driven by the integrated GPU. On thesesystems, it's important that the X server not be configured to usethe NVIDIA X driver after the driver is installed. Instead, thecorrect driver for the integrated GPU should be used. Often, thiscan be determined automatically by the X server, and no explicitconfiguration is required, especially on newer X server versions.If your X server autoselects the NVIDIA X driver afterinstallation, you may need to explicitly select the driver for yourintegrated GPU.
As an alternative to using only the integrated graphics device,support for the display output source functionality provided by theX Resize and Rotate extension version 1.4 is available. Thisfunctionality allows for graphics to be rendered on the NVIDIA GPUand displayed on the integrated graphics device. For information onhow to use this functionality, see Chapter 33,Offloading Graphics Display with RandR 1.4.
A second alternative is to use PRIME render offload, such thatthe integrated graphics device is used to drive the X screen, butthe NVIDIA GPU is used on a per-application basis to acceleraterendering of specific applications. For details, see Chapter 34,PRIME Render Offload.
Loading the Kernel Module and Creating the Device Files withoutX
In order for programs that use the NVIDIA driver to workcorrectly (e.g.: X, OpenGL, and CUDA applications), the kernelmodule must be loaded, and the device files /dev/nvidiactl and /dev/nvidia[0-9]+ must exist with read and writepermissions for any users of such applications. If the setuid rootnvidia-modprobe(1) utility is installed (the default when thedriver is installed from .run file), this should be handledautomatically. Otherwise, the kernel module will need to be loaded,and the device files created, through your Linux distribution'smechanisms.
See “How and when are theNVIDIA device files created?” for more information.
Note that on some Optimus notebooks the driver may fail toinitialize the GPU due to system-specific ACPI interactionproblems: see “Why does the VBIOSfail to load on my Optimus system?” for moreinformation.
Chapter 17. Using the NVIDIA Driver withOptimus Laptops
Some laptops with NVIDIA GPUs make use of Optimus technology toallow switching between an integrated GPU and a discrete NVIDIAGPU. The NVIDIA Linux driver can be used on these systems.
Installing the NVIDIA Driver on an Optimus Laptop
The driver may be installed normally on Optimus systems, but theNVIDIA X driver and the NVIDIA OpenGL driver may not be able todisplay to the laptop's internal display panel unless a means toconnect the panel to the NVIDIA GPU (for example, a hardwaremultiplexer, or 'mux', often controllable by a BIOS setting) isavailable. Olitec driver download for windows. On systems without a mux, the NVIDIA GPU can still beuseful for offscreen rendering, PRIME render offload, running CUDAapplications, and other uses that don't require driving adisplay.
On muxless Optimus laptops, or on laptops where a mux ispresent, but not set to drive the internal display from the NVIDIAGPU, the internal display is driven by the integrated GPU. On thesesystems, it's important that the X server not be configured to usethe NVIDIA X driver after the driver is installed. Instead, thecorrect driver for the integrated GPU should be used. Often, thiscan be determined automatically by the X server, and no explicitconfiguration is required, especially on newer X server versions.If your X server autoselects the NVIDIA X driver afterinstallation, you may need to explicitly select the driver for yourintegrated GPU.
As an alternative to using only the integrated graphics device,support for the display output source functionality provided by theX Resize and Rotate extension version 1.4 is available. Thisfunctionality allows for graphics to be rendered on the NVIDIA GPUand displayed on the integrated graphics device. For information onhow to use this functionality, see Chapter 33,Offloading Graphics Display with RandR 1.4.
A second alternative is to use PRIME render offload, such thatthe integrated graphics device is used to drive the X screen, butthe NVIDIA GPU is used on a per-application basis to acceleraterendering of specific applications. Exfo electro-optical engineering driver download for windows 7. For details, see Chapter 34,PRIME Render Offload.
Loading the Kernel Module and Creating the Device Files withoutX
Optimus Laptops & Desktops Driver Downloads
In order for programs that use the NVIDIA driver to workcorrectly (e.g.: X, OpenGL, and CUDA applications), the kernelmodule must be loaded, and the device files /dev/nvidiactl and /dev/nvidia[0-9]+ must exist with read and writepermissions for any users of such applications. If the setuid rootnvidia-modprobe(1) utility is installed (the default when thedriver is installed from .run file), this should be handledautomatically. Otherwise, the kernel module will need to be loaded,and the device files created, through your Linux distribution'smechanisms.
See “How and when are theNVIDIA device files created?” for more information.
Optimus Laptops & Desktops Driver Download
Note that on some Optimus notebooks the driver may fail toinitialize the GPU due to system-specific ACPI interactionproblems: see “Why does the VBIOSfail to load on my Optimus system?” for moreinformation.