The Green Goblin Nvidia plans to launch the desktop version of its Optimus graphics switching technology at Computex in June. The technology will be called Synergy which is one of these meaningless words that marketing people use too often.
Synergy will run on Sandy Bridge boards carrying Intel H61, H67 or Z68 chipsets. Unlike SLI, motherboard vendors won't need to pay a licensing fee or sign an agreement to implement Synergy graphics switching. Of course it will only work with Nvidia GPUs in much the same way as Optimus does in notebooks. It will allow dynamic swapping between the integrated GPU in Sandy Bridge processors and an installed GeForce graphics card depending on the task being executed.
When you are doing light work like browsing or writing, Synergy will use the lower powered Intel HD graphics core. But your Nvidia card will kick in when gaming or doing something a little more graphics intensive. Video playback and encoding will be handled by Intel's Quick Sync technology that's built onto Sandy Bridge-based processors.
The big idea is that your machine will use less power and be a bit quieter. You can also anually switch between integrated and discrete graphics or set up profiles to switch when a particular application or game is launched.
Tuesday, 26 April 2011 11:56
Nvidia Optimus going to be dubbed Synergy on the desktop
Written by Nick Farell
Meaningless words for desktops
Published in
Graphics
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