NVIDIA’s Advanced Optimus is the next evolution of Optimus that every gaming laptop needs!
Now NVIDIA has sponsored this video for me to show you how Advanced Optimus greatly improves
your gaming experience, but these are all my own thoughts and opinions based on testing it out.
Ok, so what is Advanced Optimus? Well, it’s like Optimus, but more advanced…
Alright but seriously we need to start out with a quick recap on regular Optimus in order for you
to understand why Advanced Optimus has been such a game changer ever since it came out two years ago.
Most gaming laptops actually have two GPUs, the integrated graphics and discrete graphics.
The discrete graphics in this case are NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 3080 Ti,
while the integrated graphics are part of the CPU, whether that be from Intel or AMD.
If we’re not actively running a graphical workload, like right now, the integrated
graphics are in use. The integrated graphics aren’t as powerful as the discrete graphics,
but they use less power. This means we’re able to get much better battery life running on the
integrated graphics, which is kind of important when it comes to portable devices like laptops.
If we open a game though, it’s instead run on the more powerful discrete graphics.
This is essentially what Optimus is - the ability for a laptop to run a workload
on the correct GPU at the correct time. Now for Optimus to work, the integrated
graphics are physically connected to the laptop’s screen. When we’ve got a game
running on the discrete graphics with Optimus enabled, the rendered frames need to first get
sent through the integrated graphics on their way to the screen. This additional step can
act as a bottleneck, especially in games that can hit high frame rates like eSports titles.
This is where what I’ve been referring to as the MUX switch comes in,
a hardware feature that’s increased in popularity in the last couple of years.
Basically, the MUX switch is used to change which GPU is connected to the screen.
It allows us to swap between Optimus for better battery life, or to disable the integrated
graphics entirely and only use the discrete graphics for better performance in games.
Here’s a real-world game example with Fortnite to show the difference it can make. I’ve tested all
setting presets with NVIDIA’s DLSS enabled, and the purple bars are from with Optimus enabled,
while the red bars were tested without Optimus. At low settings this simple change can give us a 42%
higher average frame rate. There’s still a nice 22% improvement to average FPS at the highest
epic setting preset. Generally lower settings see the greatest increase in performance.
Cyberpunk 2077 was still able to reach higher frame rates when running directly on the discrete
graphics, as per the red bars. However, the differences were smaller compared to Fortnite
as we’re not reaching quite as high frame rates. Again, lower setting presets saw the biggest
performance improvements, while the higher levels, particularly those with ray tracing,
only had smaller differences. It’s not just frame rates that
see an improvement by running only on the discrete graphics. I’ve also measured less
total system latency. This is the total amount of time between a mouse click and when an action
actually happens on screen. In all three of the games tested, Standard Optimus was the slowest
result. We’re able to get a reduction in latency by having the discrete graphics drive the display,
but if we also set NVIDIA Reflex to On + Boost we’re able to get the lowest latency results yet.
Great, so we’ve already got a way of swapping the GPU to optimize performance
as just shown. The problem with the manual MUX switch is that you need to reboot to swap between
Optimus enabled and Optimus disabled. On top of that, while most laptops have a software option to
swap between these modes, I’ve tested some laptops that only have a BIOS option to make the change.
It’s not exactly efficient if you have to go into the BIOS every time you want to change.
This is the main problem that NVIDIA’s Advanced Optimus solves.
Basically, the principle behind Advanced Optimus is the same as regular Optimus,
except that the GPU switching is all handled automatically without the need to reboot the
laptop. Let’s see how it works. The NVIDIA control panel gives
us these three options, Automatic Select, Optimus or NVIDIA GPU Only.
With Automatic Select enabled, well, it does exactly what it says,
the laptop will automatically select the best GPU based on what you’re doing. In most cases
by default this would be to use the lower powered integrated graphics until you open
a game. At which point the integrated graphics will be disabled and the game will run entirely
on the discrete graphics. You get a little pop-up message down the bottom left corner when loading a
game to let you know that the change has happened. We’ve also got the option of using Optimus mode,
which is basically standard optimus as we’ve always had with the integrated graphics active.
If we open a game with Optimus enabled then it’s going to run on the discrete graphics,
however the frames will need to first pass through the integrated graphics
before appearing on the screen - the bottleneck scenario I mentioned earlier.
The NVIDIA GPU Only option is the equivalent to using the MUX switch and rebooting to disable
the integrated graphics, except that you don’t have to reboot if you select this.
You can use this option if you want to always force the discrete graphics to be used, so
not ideal if you’re running on battery power, but you’ll always have the best performance in games.
It only takes a second or two to swap between the settings, there’s no doubt at all that
this is way faster and more efficient compared to rebooting the entire machine.
I think Automatic Select makes sense for most people, as the laptop will automatically select
the best option based on the workload. This is the whole point of Advanced Optimus after all, but
it’s nice to have options for different scenarios. Like I always say, having user choice is best.
As great as Advanced Optimus is, the automatic mode isn’t available for
older games. For example I noticed when opening CS:GO that Advanced Optimus didn’t kick in and
make the discrete graphics directly drive the display, because it’s an older DirectX 9 title.
Modern games were fine, but this is an example of where you might want to use
the NVIDIA GPU Only mode before opening the game. You still get the benefits of a frame
rate boost and less latency in older games and don’t have to reboot, so it’s definitely still
better than what was available before. Another benefit of Advanced Optimus is
that laptops that offer G-Sync require a direct connection between the GeForce graphics and the
screen. This means that Advanced Optimus will make that smoother tear-free gaming with G-Sync
available when you load up a game, again, without needing to first reboot.
Honestly, I think Advanced Optimus is a much better solution. Although I’ve always praised
laptops that have given us the option of enabling or disabling Optimus, in reality if I was using my
laptop to work and then I wanted to play a game, I’d just open up the game. I personally can’t be
bothered closing everything that I’ve got open, making the change and rebooting, and then opening
everything back up again to get where I was. Just to get the extra FPS if my laptop is already
running the game fine. It just doesn’t seem worth it. I guess it sounds lazy, but for me it’s just
been a hassle that isn’t worth the time tradeoff. Not having to think about it and avoiding
rebooting is clearly the next evolution in this technology. Simply being able to use your
laptop however you want and have it automatically perform optimally is definitely the future, and
that’s exactly what Advanced Optimus offers us. There are over 50 GeForce RTX 30 Series laptop
designs with NVIDIA Advanced Optimus available right now,
and you can learn more about Advanced Optimus with the sponsored links in the video description.