From owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Tue Feb 16 19:01:01 2021 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@mailman.nyi.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2610:1c1:1:606c::19:1]) by mailman.nyi.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 96020544317 for ; Tue, 16 Feb 2021 19:01:01 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from pete@nomadlogic.org) Received: from mail.nomadlogic.org (mail.nomadlogic.org [174.136.98.114]) (using TLSv1.3 with cipher TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 (256/256 bits) key-exchange X25519 server-signature RSA-PSS (4096 bits) server-digest SHA256 client-signature RSA-PSS (2048 bits) client-digest SHA256) (Client CN "mail.nomadlogic.org", Issuer "Let's Encrypt Authority X3" (verified OK)) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 4Dg9Km4XPYz4txF for ; Tue, 16 Feb 2021 19:01:00 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from pete@nomadlogic.org) Received: from [192.168.1.160] (cpe-24-24-163-126.socal.res.rr.com [24.24.163.126]) by mail.nomadlogic.org (OpenSMTPD) with ESMTPSA id 60a743d0 (TLSv1.3:TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256:NO); Tue, 16 Feb 2021 19:00:53 +0000 (UTC) Subject: Re: laptops To: LuMiWa , FreeBSD Questions References: <20210216134229.773fde3d@dismail.de> From: Pete Wright Message-ID: Date: Tue, 16 Feb 2021 11:00:47 -0800 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; FreeBSD amd64; rv:78.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/78.7.1 MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: <20210216134229.773fde3d@dismail.de> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Language: en-US X-Rspamd-Queue-Id: 4Dg9Km4XPYz4txF X-Spamd-Bar: --- Authentication-Results: mx1.freebsd.org; dkim=none; dmarc=none; spf=pass (mx1.freebsd.org: domain of pete@nomadlogic.org designates 174.136.98.114 as permitted sender) smtp.mailfrom=pete@nomadlogic.org X-Spamd-Result: default: False [-3.30 / 15.00]; RCVD_VIA_SMTP_AUTH(0.00)[]; ARC_NA(0.00)[]; MID_RHS_MATCH_FROM(0.00)[]; FROM_HAS_DN(0.00)[]; RBL_DBL_DONT_QUERY_IPS(0.00)[174.136.98.114:from]; R_SPF_ALLOW(-0.20)[+mx]; NEURAL_HAM_LONG(-1.00)[-1.000]; MIME_GOOD(-0.10)[text/plain]; DMARC_NA(0.00)[nomadlogic.org]; NEURAL_HAM_MEDIUM(-1.00)[-1.000]; SPAMHAUS_ZRD(0.00)[174.136.98.114:from:127.0.2.255]; TO_MATCH_ENVRCPT_SOME(0.00)[]; TO_DN_ALL(0.00)[]; NEURAL_HAM_SHORT(-1.00)[-1.000]; RCPT_COUNT_TWO(0.00)[2]; FROM_EQ_ENVFROM(0.00)[]; R_DKIM_NA(0.00)[]; MIME_TRACE(0.00)[0:+]; ASN(0.00)[asn:25795, ipnet:174.136.96.0/20, country:US]; RCVD_TLS_ALL(0.00)[]; MAILMAN_DEST(0.00)[freebsd-questions]; RCVD_COUNT_TWO(0.00)[2] X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.34 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 16 Feb 2021 19:01:01 -0000 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 -- Pete Wright pete@nomadlogic.org @nomadlogicLA