Optimus is Nvidia’s next step in hybrid/switchable graphics that we’ve talked about before here. It’s also present in the latest revision of the tiny gaming laptop from Alienware – the m11x R2. The technology automatically switches between integrated Intel graphics and a dedicated graphics card to save some power and battery life. Safe to say it’s a pretty good idea and, come to think of it, it’s odd that no one thought of this before.
Now AVADirect is also moving to optimus. Or actually it’s the ODM (Original Design Manufacturer) Clevo that supplies the barebones, V54100M and B7100 gaming laptops. These gaming-capable laptops can be equipped with the usual range of Core i5 or Core i7 processors and up to 8GB of DDR3 memory.
To handle the heavy graphics, AVADirect supplies them with an Nvidia GeForce GT 330M–a mid-range, 40nm GPU with 48 unified shaders and DX 10.1 support. It is basically a beefed up GT 240M with slightly higher clocks.
