How to enable Nvidia Optimus in Asus Notebook(Gt520m)?

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I have recently purchased Asus K43sj. It has NVIDIA GeForce GT 520M 1GB DDR3.Problem is that it does not have optimus. Battery life is 4+ hours while surfing. But if I could enable Optimus I could squeeze more battery life. The graphics card itself has Optimus because it is mentioned on Nvidia site and other notebooks having gt520m also have it. Even Asus k53sc(15" model of my laptop) has Optimus.

So Asus has disabled Optimus on this model for some reason. I have searched BIOS settings but there is no option to enable Optimus. Please tell me how to enable Optimus ?

Serious

Posted 2011-11-16T20:55:05.823

Reputation: 1 465

1You need an integrated gpu for optimus (which you probably have) and specialized drivers for that model. If asus doesn't have them and you can't write them yourself you are screwed. The standard Nvidia drivers do not work with optimus without some hacking... – Supercereal – 2011-11-16T20:59:48.717

@Kyle The sandybridge processor(i3 2nd gen) has integratd graphics. But I'm not able to install Intel Hd drivers. Also the nvidia drivers I install has Optimus but it is not being installed with the driver. Has Asus disabled something on hardware level ? – Serious – 2011-11-16T21:08:27.420

1Maybe, It's possible they disabled the integrated card... However when I download and install nvidia drivers for my 335gt with optimus it tells me the driver supports optimus, but in reality it doesn't. The only way to get it to work is with the dell driver or by hacking the Nvidia driver. So don't trust what the nvidia driver is telling you. Also I would work on getting the Intel driver installed first, without this there is no way optimus is going to work. – Supercereal – 2011-11-16T21:43:32.623

The notebook is not accepting the Intel drivers. The installation stops saying that compatible hardware not found. – Serious – 2011-11-17T07:29:39.683

Answers

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The Asus K43SJ does not use the integrated Intel HD graphics (whether it's on the CPU or not), so you're not going to be able to use Optimus.

I came to this conclusion by the fact that the Intel Graphics are mentioned nowhere on the support page for that model, and the fact that they ONLY offer the nVidia driver (where as the K53SC does provide both the Intel and nVidia drivers).

The technology is there in the nVidia card, the CPU and such, but since this was produced right in the time-frame that Optimus was starting to be implemented, I think you just got a model series (the K43) that Asus put out before they had Optimus ready (I don't believe it was introduced until the K53 series).

Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007

Posted 2011-11-16T20:55:05.823

Reputation: 103 763

The manufacturing date of my notebook is August,2011. K53 is not newer model of K43. They are of different series.5 stands for 15" and 4 for 14". – Serious – 2011-11-17T07:19:20.933

Your deductions appear to be correct. I checked the support of K53sv(model having GT540). Even this model does not have Intel drivers on support page. I don't know why Asus has done this only on 14" models. And thanks for giving a very useful answer. – Serious – 2011-11-17T07:27:06.800

1@Serious It possible they found ALOT of problems with optimus on that laptop. My m11x with optimus is a disaster half the new games don't work and I need to constantly change drivers to find one that works with particular games. If it was up to me I would disable optimus and be fine with 2-3 hours of battery life... so many problems stem from optimus that it is just a headache. – Supercereal – 2011-11-17T13:08:16.163

@Kyle I think you are right. While searching for solution I have found lots of people trying to disable optimus. Hardly anyone wanted to enable it. Since it is an entry level card it's idle power consumption is not that high. I can easily get a decent 4-4.5 hrs doing normal tasks. What I want to to know whether it is possible to enable optimus or is it disabled on hardware level ? If it is the latter case then I suppose I can't do anything. – Serious – 2011-11-17T13:56:59.237

1@Serious The hardware to support it isn't there. Also, one of the big reason people seem to want to disable Optimus is because their software detects the Intel HD at start, and then once the software starts running heavily the nVidia kicks in. This causes conflicts in settings. Some games will just tell you it won't run on the Intel adapter and quit, so you have to force it over to the nVidia card before starting the game, which is annoying. ;) – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 – 2011-11-17T14:06:43.123

@techie007 I guess then I can't enable Optimus. In that case your answer is most appropriate. – Serious – 2011-11-19T12:17:14.397

Asked: 2011-11-16T20:55:05.823

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Active: 2016-03-18T09:16:56.623