Optimus question

[qyjdream]

Hi all,
I understand that hackintosh doesn't work with dual gpus in Optimus mode.
If I disable Optimus in bios and specify to use the nvidia gpu, e.g. for thinkpad w530, could hackintosh pick up the nvidia gpu? Thanks in advance!

 

[p1plup]

Yes, disabling Optimus will give you the discrete (nVidia GPU) only. On my OS X Latitude E6530, using the dGPU all the time comes at the cost of battery (and some seriously hot air blows out the side!). So just keep that in mind! ^_^

EDIT: Just wanted to add some clarification regarding Optimus itself. Where I work, 100% of the laptops we order are Dell Latitudes. Back in the day (6420, 6530, etc.), Optimus had to be disabled to "mirror" out VGA, which is what the majority of end users wanted to do (i.e. no HDMI projectors).

With Optimus on, you could only mirror out HDMI and use VGA as an additional screen via the integrated GPU. The reason you see "VGA doesn't work on hackintosh laptops" is due to the inability to switch between the GPUs and/or to utilize both. Further (again, "back in the day"), having Optimus ON was the only way to triple-head laptops of that era:

Built in LCD (dGPU) + HDMI (dGPU) + VGA (iGPU).

 

[qyjdream]

Thanks a lot for the detailed info!

Yes, disabling Optimus will give you the discrete (nVidia GPU) only. On my OS X Latitude E6530, using the dGPU all the time comes at the cost of battery (and some seriously hot air blows out the side!). So just keep that in mind! ^_^

EDIT: Just wanted to add some clarification regarding Optimus itself. Where I work, 100% of the laptops we order are Dell Latitudes. Back in the day (6420, 6530, etc.), Optimus had to be disabled to "mirror" out VGA, which is what the majority of end users wanted to do (i.e. no HDMI projectors).

With Optimus on, you could only mirror out HDMI and use VGA as an additional screen via the integrated GPU. The reason you see "VGA doesn't work on hackintosh laptops" is due to the inability to switch between the GPUs and/or to utilize both. Further (again, "back in the day"), having Optimus ON was the only way to triple-head laptops of that era:

Built in LCD (dGPU) + HDMI (dGPU) + VGA (iGPU).