[osg-users] Nvidia Optimus / AMD switchable
Hi, I am looking at getting a couple of laptops with Nvidias 'Optimus' switchable graphics and AMDs equivalent. My hope is to be able to manually switch between the two so I can test our application using both discrete and Intel graphics. There was a thread back in September of last year which didn't sound too encouraging. Can anyone provide any feedback on the current state of these technologies when running OSG based applications? Cheers, Brad - DISCLAIMER: This e-mail transmission and any documents, files and previous e-mail messages attached to it are private and confidential. They may contain proprietary or copyright material or information that is subject to legal professional privilege. They are for the use of the intended recipient only. Any unauthorised viewing, use, disclosure, copying, alteration, storage or distribution of, or reliance on, this message is strictly prohibited. No part may be reproduced, adapted or transmitted without the written permission of the owner. If you have received this transmission in error, or are not an authorised recipient, please immediately notify the sender by return email, delete this message and all copies from your e-mail system, and destroy any printed copies. Receipt by anyone other than the intended recipient should not be deemed a waiver of any privilege or protection. Thales Australia does not warrant or represent that this e-mail or any documents, files and previous e-mail messages attached are error or virus free. - ___ osg-users mailing list osg-users@lists.openscenegraph.org http://lists.openscenegraph.org/listinfo.cgi/osg-users-openscenegraph.org
Re: [osg-users] Nvidia Optimus / AMD switchable
On Thu, May 10, 2012 at 7:32 AM, Christiansen, Brad brad.christian...@thalesgroup.com.au wrote: Hi, ** I am looking at getting a couple of laptops with Nvidias 'Optimus' switchable graphics and AMDs equivalent. My hope is to be able to manually switch between the two so I can test our application using both discrete and Intel graphics. There was a thread back in September of last year which didn’t sound too encouraging. You can do this on a global, or per-application basis using the Nvidia 3D controls tool. -- ** Chris 'Xenon' Hanson, omo sanza lettere. xe...@alphapixel.com http://www.alphapixel.com/ Training • Consulting • Contracting 3D • Scene Graphs (Open Scene Graph/OSG) • OpenGL 2 • OpenGL 3 • OpenGL 4 • GLSL • OpenGL ES 1 • OpenGL ES 2 • OpenCL Digital Imaging • GIS • GPS • Telemetry • Cryptography • Digital Audio • LIDAR • Kinect • Embedded • Mobile • iPhone/iPad/iOS • Android ___ osg-users mailing list osg-users@lists.openscenegraph.org http://lists.openscenegraph.org/listinfo.cgi/osg-users-openscenegraph.org
Re: [osg-users] Nvidia Optimus / AMD switchable
Hi Brad, I am looking at getting a couple of laptops with Nvidias 'Optimus' switchable graphics and AMDs equivalent. My hope is to be able to manually switch between the two so I can test our application using both discrete and Intel graphics. There was a thread back in September of last year which didn’t sound too encouraging. Can anyone provide any feedback on the current state of these technologies when running OSG based applications? The last time I tested this, the latest NVidia Verde driver behaved pretty well. Essentially, the driver lets you select between auto-switch or manual switch but these are misnomers. They should be called behavior-guided and profile-guided switching. When on auto-switch, the driver tries to detect usage of a 3D API and switch to discrete graphics. This seems to work well for Direct3D programs, and for some OpenGL programs, but our own applications would create an offscreen context to detect hardware features and then create another context for the actual application, and this auto-switching seemed to switch just a bit too late, which meant that the detection would detect the integrated graphics, turn off a bunch of features, possibly even create some OpenGL objects on the integrated graphics and then switch to the discrete graphics, with dire consequences. The manual switch means that you need to create a profile for your application. In the profile (which just matches you app's exe filename), you tell it whether it should run on the discrete graphics or the integrated graphics. Note that adding a profile works in auto-switch mode too, meaning the profile will override the behavior detection. But making a profile (or telling all your users to make a profile) might be a hurdle you don't want for your app. If the auto-switch mode works well enough, just use that. There's a third mode, which is to force using the discrete graphics, the integrated graphics, or Optimus in the BIOS. We ended up using only discrete graphics in the BIOS, because we didn't want to deal with the other modes. It's been a while since I tested this. Hopefully newer drivers improve this situation. Let us know in any case. Hope this helps, J-S -- __ Jean-Sebastien Guay jean_...@videotron.ca http://whitestar02.dyndns-web.com/ ___ osg-users mailing list osg-users@lists.openscenegraph.org http://lists.openscenegraph.org/listinfo.cgi/osg-users-openscenegraph.org
