When it comes to notebooks you have to make a choice between battery time and performance. There are solutions for combining integrated graphics circuits with discrete GPUs, where the former is used during light work and the discrete chip is activated when needed.
The problem is that we haven’t had any function for conveniently switching between the two GPUs when needed. Instead the user have to change between the two graphics circuits depending on what you want to do, which is pretty unbearable in the long run.
According to NVIDIA’s own surveys this has led to that 99% of all users with laptops with dedicated graphics circuits simple doesn’t use this function, since you have to change energy profile manually. NVIDIA says it has now found a cure and it is named Optimus. A technology that automatically tracks your use of applications and when needed it activates the discrete graphics circuits for an additional boost in power without any user interaction.
