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Cool NVIDIA Optimus Demo - Removing The GPU When Running

NVIDIA recently sent us an e-mail tipping me off about a blog post that they did last night about an Optimus demo that is a must-see. With Optimus, when the discrete GPU is not in use, the power is off and it does not even use a trickle of battery. This video proves it by pulling the GPU out of a running system and it keeps running.

The benefit of electrically shutting off components in your notebook, including the GPU, is that it extends battery life. Compared to a standard notebook with a discrete GPU Optimus can extend battery life up to 2x*. The benefit of immediately turning it on again is, of course, that you get all the graphics and processing capabilities of the GPU at a moment’s notice. Few people ever get to see this demo because it requires a completely open notebook system – no chassis – just the motherboard, CPU, GPU, Hard drive, and monitor, so it is not exactly portable. This demo is really killer with engineering teams that design notebooks. They practically fall out of their chairs when they see it.

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Posted by | Wed, Mar 03, 2010 - 09:43 AM