On 18/12/2014 3:12 AM, Karel Lang AFD wrote:
> :]
> Thanks Akemi - i know. Thanks to a community of a bright and
> knowledge-sharing ppl we have at least this.
> (Linus Torvalds said it nicely a while ago ..(cite) "Fuck you Nvidia!"
> :]] )
> 
> But let's be blunt - it is not perfect, heck, it's not working correctly
> even on M$ windows. I read tons of Win users complains about this.

I have to chime in here... Windows support for Optimus and ATI Hybrid
Graphics seem to work quiet well. I have a Dell Inspiron with onboard
Intel & an ATI card. I haven't been able to fault it.

Most of the time when I'm running desktop apps, the Intel on-cpu
graphics does everything needed - but when firing up OpenGL or DirectX
stuff, the ATI card takes over the panel seemlessly. This is running on
Windows 7 - I hear Windows 8 does this even better - but its Windows 8 :\

> I think that if i had to (was forced to) buy new laptop for linux
> nowadays, i'd buy most probably something with Kaveri APU from AMD (like
> eg. HP EliteBook 745 G2) .. Intel has good CPUs but bad VGAs and Optimus
> won't help you much, because it means you look at a bad pictures on
> screen most of the time (using Intel Vga).

I don't know where you get this 'bad pictures' part. It'll throw pixels
at the screen just as quick as the ATI card for general desktop use. The
only real difference is in OpenGL / DirectX where the discrete card
kicks in.

The problem is, Linux support for this is just awful. We can throw blame
games all you like, but yeah - it just doesn't work properly. I tried
everything from Fedora to Arch to EL6 and nothing was happy to do
switching as it should.

It isn't the fault of the technology - but the software implementation
to use it.

> AMD Kaveri APU has ofc worse CPU part compared to Intel APUs - but - do
> i need the CPU computing power here on laptop - no i dont, but do i need
> good sharp picture? Yes i need that one.
> Why should i buy Optimus with Nvidia 1GB Ram card, which is used only 5%
> of time then and 95% time is used ugly Intel VGA?
> Haha, i see it just as another clever plot to trick out us, poor users.

I'm still not sure why you think Intel graphics are ugly. As I said,
it'll throw 1920x1080 to a laptop screen all day and hardly be noticed.
The only bad part is the linux implementation of switching between cards.

-- 
Steven Haigh

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