Synergy will be the final name of NVIDIA’s desktop graphics switching technology that is currently in development. NVIDIA Synergy will more or less be a desktop version of the mobile technology Optimus that allows our discrete GeForce cards talk to Intel’s integrated GPUs in Sandy Bridge, like LucidLogix Virtu.
There have been rumors of both AMD and NVIDIA working on their own graphics switching technologies for Intel’s Sandy Bridge platform and we can confirm that NVIDIA’s technology isn’t just in development but will be called Synergy. The name is quite fitting as the whole idea is to make the GPUs cooperate more to save more power and add more punch when needed.
NVIDIA Synergy will be supported by Intel H67 and the coming Intel Z68, where the latter is the biggest reason for the activity at AMD and NVIDIA. There are several reasons for why a technology for switching between an integrated GPU and discrete such makes a lot of sense even on a desktop, and with Intel Sandy there is another trump to consider; the video encoding technology Quick Sync.
The platform independent advantages of a switching technology is that a computer can decide when it needs more performance, where it switches to the discrete GPU, or save more power and turn it off. This results in maximal performance and minimal power consumption, which can’t be achieved with just an integrated GPU or only a discrete GPU.
Synergy is expected to work like NVIDIA Optimus in mobiles
Intel Quick Sync is just the topping on the ice cream here really. Dedicated circuits in Intels Sandy Bridge processors and Intel HD Graphics is responsible for decoding videos to various formats. Quick Sync makes this very efficiently and can often do the work in a fraction of the time it takes for a regular processor. Not even NVIDIA’s powerful Fermi architecture is as efficient when it comes to video handling. Without a technology for switching between the GPUs in the system a user with a discrete card from either AMD or NVIDIA would be unable to use Intel Quick Sync.
LudicLogix today allows users with both AMD and NVIDIA cards to switch to and from Intel HD Graphics, but if the companies decides to launch their own solutions and offer something more perhaps remains to be seen.
NVIDIA Synergy is getting close and the support for the technology requires no extra hardware, only an updated BIOS and new drivers. According to our sources Synergy may appear in May already.
