Can you turn off/on the dedicated GPU in a Laptop at will?

[EvilHamster]

Hi. I am fairly knowledgeble when it comes to desktops, but I have never had a gaming laptop. I was planning to buy one maybe, and I was trying to buy a more or less budget version.

Anyways, since the batterylife is important in a laptop, a dedicated GPU is of course a big dissadvantage in that regard.

So in a Laptop with the newer intel CPU's, (second gen i5 and better), since they have intergrated GPU's (afaik) can I switch between a dedicated GPU and the GPU of the CPU?

 

[COLGeek]

Yes, most systems that use a hybrid configuration (integrated and discrete GPU) you can swap back and forth between the devices. This can be done automatically and manually.

 

[EvilHamster]

thanks for the answer. I dont mean to be a stickler, but you said most. What does that mean?
I mean is it something that has to be specified, or something that I an jsut assume?

Cheers.

 

[COLGeek]

There are still some older systems around that can only use one GPU or the other and can't switch between them. Nearly any new system with both devices will support the desired capability.

Do you have any specific systems in mind at this point?

 

[EvilHamster]

Thank you. No but I just wanted to know that for browing the options

 

[TechyInAZ]

Pretty much ALL laptops today have switchable graphics. Either via NVidia Optimus (which I despise), or the old fashion manual GPU switching (which in my opinion is more beneficiary).

Reason why I don't like optimus is that NVidia GPUs loose a ton of their features when doing so. Like DSR, triple displays, 3d vision, SLI etc. This is because the Intel IGPU still displays the final image to the physical display...