Optimus Customization Options
One of the keys to Optimus is that is completely seamless to the consumer and effortless on their part.  We can see that if the user has to do ANYTHING on their own, as is the case with the current switchable graphics implementations, they aren’t likely to bother.  The first iteration of Optimus definitely addresses that but what about the consumer that does want to adjust things and be able to control their system to a higher degree?  NVIDIA has provided some driver options that should appease this crowd as well.

One of the coolest new features to go along with Optimus is the context-sensitive menu that is optional in the new control panel.

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By selecting both the Context Menu and the “Run with graphics processor” option the user is then able to decide on the fly what graphics solution they want to use for each program they run.  For example, if you would rather run a particular game using the Intel IGP rather than the NVIDIA discrete graphics for some odd reason, you can do that.

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Above you can see that the context menu will allow the user to select either the NVIDIA or integrated graphics for running World in Conflict and also gives us a quick link to edit the default graphics processor for that application if you find yourself using this menu too often. 

This ability to change what the default process is points us to the other customization option that enthusiast users will have with Optimus: manually editing and adding new profiles.  Much like SLI profiles for multi-GPU gaming, the Optimus profiles give the driver instructions on how to handle applications on a case-by-case basis.  In this instance, the profiles are telling the system whether or not it should expect to be using the discrete graphics from NVIDIA during its run so that the GPU knows to be powered on and ready to respond to commands.

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After setting the global default (which should be the IGP for best battery life, of course) the user can make adjustments for either installed applications that the NVIDIA driver recognizes or to the global driver database.

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The ability to add a new profile will help users that are on the cutting edge of new games, GPU compute applications and even developers that want force the use of a specific GPU for their needs.  If you would rather not have the GPU enabled during your use of Adobe Photoshop you can manually change that in the control panel.  Also, if you are beta testing a new version of Adobe CS5 then you can manually add a profile for that application as you see fit.  Just like power users have grown accustomed to the SLI profile system, the Optimus system will provide the same flexibility.

Here is a video demonstrating these customization features:




There is another new feature I would consider even more important than this regarding Optimus profiles though…

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