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Turn OFF graphics card in the BIOS?

post #1 of 9
3/27/07 at 3:21am
Thread Starter 
On notebook computers that come with nVidia or ATI graphics with dedicated memory is it possible to turn off the extra graphics power that they use and step down to the lower powered standard intel graphics in order to save some percentage of power when doing simple non-gaming stuff? I'd like a notebook that has the power to play games well but also would like to extend the battery life a bit when I am using it for work on the road.

Is this something that can be done? and if so is it a BIOS type thing, like I've heard shared memory assignment is (although I'm not tallking here about shared memory stuff because I think the stuff I'm looking at is 256M or 512M dedicated graphics memory).
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post #2 of 9
3/27/07 at 3:30am
In the Sony SZ series notebooks with both an Intel GMA and a dedicated GPU, there is a switch under the screen that controls which card the notebook uses. Not sure about other brands such as Asus.
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post #3 of 9
3/27/07 at 1:46pm
They usually only have one of them, not both. Or, if they have both, there is no way to activate the integrated one. That must be true for about 99% of the notebooks out there except maybe select few.
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post #4 of 9
3/27/07 at 4:54pm
i am shooting in the dark here, but correct if i am wrong, that 95% of all laptops dont have dual video cards.
i have never seen dedicated + gma950
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post #5 of 9
3/27/07 at 6:59pm
Quote:
Or, if they have both,
Like nyako said, besides the sony sz series, I don't think there are others with both. Your right about the either or, but not both. So for the OP, unless the specs say both dedicated and integrated, then ur only getting one, and unfortunately u cannot turn it off otherwise u wouldn't see anything on ur screen.
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post #6 of 9
3/28/07 at 3:42am
Thread Starter 
I was thinking that notebooks are sort of like desktop computers where the motherboard has onboard graphics but you can plug in a graphics card. But I guess I'm wrong. The notebook motherboard either has a basic graphics processor like an intel or a more powerful one like an nvidia, but not both. Makes sense.
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post #7 of 9
3/28/07 at 3:48am
There are very few that do, but some DO have both.
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post #8 of 9
3/30/07 at 5:13pm
as others have said, the Vaio SZ series is the only laptop to currently have this feature. All other Laptops have the 945PM chipset with Dedicated graphics and the 945GM chipset for Intel GMA. One chipset has the IGP and the other one doesn't. Odds are the PM's are just 945GM's whose GPUs didn't work on the die and thus are disabled. Same reason that Core Solo CPUs are Core Duos with one bad core.
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post #9 of 9
3/30/07 at 11:36pm
Well you can't swithc off from one to the other, but many have power saving features. Both ATI and Nvidia chips scale their power down when on batteries. That option is available in the driver. You can get to your driver by right clicking on the desktop, go to properties, then settings. Now click on advanced. Look for power save or something like that.
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