Thinkpad W520

[Alexey Dokuchaev]

On Sun, Sep 27, 2020 at 06:19:05PM -0400, LuMiWa via freebsd-x11 wrote:
> Hi!
> 
> I am looking to buy a used laptop and I decided for Thinkpad W520. And
> here is (maybe) a problem. Laptop has PCI Express x16 - NVIDIA Quadro
> 2000M / Intel HD Graphics 3000 which is old. Is it still supported and
> if it is how is the future. I do not want to use vesa driver as I am
> using now on my not supported Radeon.

NVidia chip is supported by 390.xx driver version (which makes it not
so old I guess), Intel is Gen 6 (Sandy Bridge) which is fairly recent
as well.  That said, "on the paper" you should be okay with the driver
support.  In reality, run-time gfx card switching, e.g. depending on
the particular load, is not fully supported on FreeBSD and is generally
fragile and may not work very well.

What worries me more, however, is that laptops with dGPU, especially
old/used ones, have the higher risks of dGPU malfunction which often
requires complicated repair with chip reballing, or disabling the faulty
chip if video signal routing (you'd need to look at the schematics of
the mainboard to find out) supports this.

iGPU-only laptops should be less troublesome, and that's what I typically
recommend getting one's hands on.

./danfe