Please Add Nvidia Optimus Support

[samhodgkiss]

With a lot of new laptops, PC and Mac, Nvidia are adding their Optimus technology for graphics card switching. Please can you add support for this with a future update. Because if you load it now Resolume doesnt activate it. Seems a waste of the DXV codec and my new 1gb graphics card on some laptops. Cheers

[Joris]

Hey Sam

It looks like Optimus technology is primarily focused on increasing battery life. It does this by switching to lower end graphics drivers when there is no need for the GPU to deliver higher performance.

Even if Resolume is not working to its max, it still uses the GPU extensively, and so there would be no increase in battery life when using Optimus. Besides, increased battery life is not really an important factor, since a VJ would need to have access to a power outlet.

And then we're not taking into account any problems that may be caused when the computer starts to decide which driver to use in the middle of your performance. This was an issue for a while on a few MacBookPros that came with two graphics cards, until Apple brought out an update.

So all in all I don't think there is much to be gained from it, and may even impact negatively on the performance. I'd love to hear your thoughts if you think differently though!

Joris

[samhodgkiss]

Hey Joris,

Thanks for the quick response. Yeah, the battery life was not the issue. The thing about Optimus is that it triggers the Nvidia graphics card when you open a .exe. Nvidia updates a list of programs to trigger it or You can add certain .exe's to a list to automatically trigger it.

The problem i'm having is that because Resolume doesn't trigger Optimus,the DXV video files are using the integrated card and not the 1 GB Nvidia.

I would like to say, i am fully aware this could be all Nvidia's fault and there isn't anything you can do.

Any work arounds you know about?

Cheers

Sam

[Joris]

The problem i'm having is that because Resolume doesn't trigger Optimus,the DXV video files are using the integrated card and not the 1 GB Nvidia.

This is exactly the reason these clever optimization ideas are usually a bad idea. Why would you want your computer to decide what graphics card is best, when you're fully capable of making that decision yourself? That said, if it's causing performance problems, we'll see if we can get on the Optimus bandwagon, or figure out a work around.

Thanks for letting us know!