Nvidia Optimus Technology

Balancing performance with power has long been a challenge in laptop computing. In a desktop, this isn't an issue because high-powered graphics cards remain connected to a constant supply of power. With laptops, the problem is more complicated. While it's possible to create graphics chipsets that consume very little battery life and create mobile graphics processors that rival desktop machines in capability, the difficulty is putting those two together. Nvidia's Optimus technology reconciles this, providing you with an improvement in both graphics performance and battery life.

IGP vs. GPU
Low-powered graphics chipsets are usually integrated into the main system board and for that reason are called integrated graphics processors, or IGPs. They're power misers and are perfectly adequate for word processing, accounting programs or basic Web browsing. However, more demanding uses such as games, graphics design and high-definition video require additional processing power. That can be provided by adding a graphics processing unit, or GPU, to the laptop's design. The GPU uses an optimized, high-speed microprocessor to render the graphic images. This provides better graphics but at a high cost in power consumption.

Graphics Switching
Some early notebooks addressed the balance of graphics performance vs. battery life by enabling you to choose which video chipset the computer would use and then rebooting to activate it. This was a pragmatic solution but inconvenient in the real world because of the time spent in closing programs and saving data, then rebooting, and finally reloading the open programs and data files. Nvidia introduced a more workable solution in 2007, called Switchable Graphics, which enabled you to switch between high-power and low-power graphics modes without needing to exit your programs or reboot. However, switching still required five to 10 seconds of inactivity while the screen flickered and changed.

Optimus
Optimus technology, introduced in 2010, advanced the concept of switching by making it automatic and seamless. As long as the laptop is using ordinary, undemanding programs, the IGP performs as it normally does. When the Nvidia driver detects that you've launched a more demanding application, the built-in GPU automatically takes over rendering duties from the IGP. However, the rendered images are still passed to system RAM by the IGP. That innovation means the system no longer has to stop accepting images from one source before receiving them from another. The result is a seamless, flicker-free and undetectable switching process.

Advantages
Optimus technology represents several advantages for both manufacturers and users. From the manufacturing perspective, Optimus is inexpensive to implement because it's less complex than older switching technologies and relies on intelligent use of existing technological standards. For users, it has significant advantages over earlier switching schemes. The most important is that it's automatic, requiring no thought or extra steps on your part. Nvidia's research showed that only 2 percent of users took advantage of their older Switchable Graphics technology, often for that simple reason. The company claims that Optimus technology can double battery life, compared to non-switching GPUs of equivalent power.

Here is the first laptop with Nvidia Optimus technology.
Alienware M17x R3 by Dell. (Click here to buy this laptop)