laptops

[LuMiWa]

On Tue, 16 Feb 2021 11:00:47 -0800
Pete Wright <pete at nomadlogic.org> wrote:

> 
> 
> On 2/16/21 10:42 AM, LuMiWa via freebsd-questions wrote:
> > Hi!
> >
> > I did search FreeBSD Wiki/laptops but I didn't find the answer. I
> > like to buy Thinkpad W541 or W550s (prefer W541) but I am not sure
> > if will work on FreeBSD. I want it to connect external monitor
> > which going through Nvidia graphics card which Optimus driver
> > supposed it works on FreeBSD 13. I found that installation works on
> > W520 and 530.
> I have a different Thinkpad with Optimus graphics - a P43s.  It
> mostly works, but have been pretty underwhelmed by the hybrid
> graphics of Optimus systems.  Not just with FreeBSD, but from what I
> gather its suboptimal on Linux as well.
> 
> To get it working on FreeBSD there is an open PR* that gets things 
> working, and I can drive specific apps with the Nvidia GPU (via the 
> "optirun" binary).  But there is a bit of level of effort getting it
> to work until we can get this PR over the finish line since I
> maintain a branch of the ports tree to just support the diffs in this
> PR.
> 
> One other issue I have is with the overall design of the Optimus
> design, the GPU is used to offload processing but the display is
> still driven by the Intel i915 GPU.  Depending on your use-case this
> may lead to reduced performance.  All in all I am very happy with
> this thinkpad, but if I had a choice I would have chosen a system
> with dedicated Nvidia or i915 GPU's rather than this hybrid approach.
> 
> 
> Cheers,
> -pete
> 
> *https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=192617
> 

Thank you very much.

-- 
“Two things awe me most, the starry sky above me and the moral law
within me.”

Immanuel Kant