MAY 2020 PCWorld 27wonderful—but it needs Nvidia’s hardware to
be active, and powered-on discrete graphics
draw vastly more energy than the integrated
graphics in your laptop’s CPU.
In laptops, Nvidia’s Optimus technology
routes the Nvidia GPU’s visuals through the
CPU’s integrated graphics to save power.
Because they’re mutually exclusive
technologies, gaming laptops with G-Sync
displays have offered significantly less battery
life than gaming laptops with a standard
display and Optimus. That might be why
we’ve been seeing more and more
notebooks with high-refresh-rate screens but
no G-Sync.
This new technology connects both
Nvidia’s GeForce GPU and your laptop
processor’s integrated CPU to a dynamic
display switch. When you’re gaming or
performing other GPU-intensive tasks, the
switch hands display output directly over to
Nvidia’s graphics chip, enabling higher frame
rates and yes, full G-Sync support. When
you’re not, however, the dynamic switch
hands full control over to your system’s
integrated graphics to save power. Advanced
Optimus no longer keeps the GeForce GPU
active when you aren’t gaming, letting you
have your cake and eat it too—or have G-Sync
and lower power usage when you aren’t
gaming, in other words. Again: Hallelujah.
Note that Advanced Optimus isn’t
mandated for the new breed of GeForce
Max-Q GPUs; it’s an optional feature that
laptop makers may choose to implement.
Nvidia says the Lenovo Legion 5i and 7i will
be the first to include Advanced Optimus,
though “many others” are coming.RTX STUDIO LAPTOPS
Finally, Nvidia announced 10 new RTX Studio
laptops are coming, with RTX Super GPUs
and Intel’s 10th-gen Core processors inside.
Nvidia’s RTX Studio initiative certifies that a
notebook gives
content creators
powerful
computer
hardware and
rock-solid,
creation-focused
“Nvidia Studio”
drivers to match,
all in a slimmer-
than-you’d-think
design enabled