Now, I’m pretty sure both Sony and Asus have already created this (both called “hybrid graphics”), but apparently nVidia wants a piece of the pie with their somewhat-misleading “Hybrid SLI” moniker. Nevertheless, its a step in the right direction for laptop GPUs.
GeForce Boost does what its name suggests. By coupling the motherboard’s integrated GPU with a discreet graphics card, the 3D rendering workload is shared between the two GPUs for a boost in performance. Currently, GeForce Boost is only supported by GeForce 8400 GS and 8500 GT discreet cards, as for the IGP, only the next-gen nForce 700a series of chipsets due to arrive this quarter will be supported initially. New IGPs for the Intel platform that support Hybrid SLI are slated to arrive in Q2.
Hybrid Power mode is also fairly self explanatory. With a monitor connected to the mGPU, the discreet graphics card can be completely shut down to reduce power consumption when no in use. A side effect of the reduced power consumption will also be reduced heat and potentially less noise output from the system. The discreet card is shutdown (or renabled) using the SMBUS connection inherent to the PCI Express graphics slots. We should also note, that Hybrid SLI is supporteb by both PCI Express Gen 1 and Gen2.
Shout out to HotHardware for the news.
if it works as intended its a great idea. maybe use the integrated graphics card as a sort of physics chip while playing games, or offload other specific tasks. If the integrated chip was designed specifically for this task instead of taking an already in place integrated chip then the performance increase could be good. If the integrated graphics chip is never intended to function on its own in 3d (only in windows) and most of its power and architecture was designed for specific tasks i think it could be done well.
The main problem is making it so directx or any game can easily make use of both GPU’s, and not have to support it like the PhysX chip.
ALthough can you imagine if this spilled over to the desktop market? Integrated GPU’s in motherboards that handled certain tasks like a built in PhysX chip. We’d have different offerings from each mobo company like Asus, BFG, Abit, all with their integrated chip that would handle certain tasks. Hmmm… nVidia just bought Ageia… i wonder if they plan on integrated PhysX into their mobos?
I found your site on faves.com bookmarking site.. I like it ..gave it a fave for you..ill be checking back later