Sounds like you answered your own question before you asked it, but maybe I misunderstand. If you plan to pair with discrete graphics (4060) why does it matter. And if there are no discrete graphics why would it be any different to a desktop without discrete graphics or on-board graphics (which would be the equivalent situation?), no graphics is no graphics? Be interesting to see if somehow that's not the case of course, but producing graphics output would seem to require some programming and/or chips to handle that.

ratfink wrote on 2024-12-07, 09:44:

If you plan to pair with discrete graphics (4060) why does it matter. And if there are no discrete graphics why would it be any different to a desktop without discrete graphics or on-board graphics (which would be the equivalent situation?), no graphics is no graphics? Be interesting to see if somehow that's not the case of course, but producing graphics output would seem to require some programming and/or chips to handle that.

On a generic laptop CPU that I have seen: there is always an inbuilt graphics (eg: Intel Iris) along with the discrete one (eg: Nvidia GTX). The Intel Iris description is on the spec sheet.

For the 7435HS, it just mentions the need of a discrete graphics card, while the other CPUs have a "M" graphics, which is the iGPU.

I am just seeing it as some kind of a desktop: the display unit connecting to the graphics card instead of the motherboard.

Laptops without an IGP might seem strange now days, but prior to Optimus you couldn't run both discrete and IGP. And prior to IGPs, laptops only had discrete. Now they have MUX chips to control which GPU has direct display access because IGPs just cause complications with gaming.

The only downside to not having the IGP is battery life will be worse. Powering a discrete chip and its RAM uses more power even at idle.

swaaye wrote on 2024-12-07, 19:36:

Laptops without an IGP might seem strange now days, but prior to Optimus you couldn't run both discrete and IGP. And prior to IGPs, laptops only had discrete. Now they have MUX chips to control which GPU has direct display access because IGPs just cause complications with gaming.

The only downside to not having the IGP is battery life will be worse. Powering a discrete chip and its RAM uses more power even at idle.

There were laptops with no IGPs? I didn't know, which era is that, the earliest I know was when they were soldiered on the mobo.

Some apps will do fine on the IGP, but afaik MUX just disables the IGP to save some power but never the GPU? That could've saved a lot of energy

BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2024-12-07, 22:52:

There were laptops with no IGPs? I didn't know, which era is that, the earliest I know was when they were soldiered on the mobo.

Some apps will do fine on the IGP, but afaik MUX just disables the IGP to save some power but never the GPU? That could've saved a lot of energy

An IGP is a graphics processor inside the motherboard chipset or the CPU. Discrete graphics refers to a dedicated graphics chip. Intel 810 or maybe SiS 530 were the first PC IGPs I remember. Any notebooks prior to Optimus (2010-ish?) that had a gaming GPU did not have the IGP enabled even if it had one in the CPU or chipset.

With the modern mux laptops, if the IGP is connected to the screen, you will be in regular Optimus mode and the discrete GPU is powered down unless a game runs on it.

swaaye wrote on 2024-12-08, 04:45:

BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2024-12-07, 22:52:

There were laptops with no IGPs? I didn't know, which era is that, the earliest I know was when they were soldiered on the mobo.

Some apps will do fine on the IGP, but afaik MUX just disables the IGP to save some power but never the GPU? That could've saved a lot of energy

Any notebooks prior to Optimus (2010-ish?) that had a gaming GPU did not have the IGP enabled even if it had one in the CPU or chipset.

Alright that makes sense, I was missing laptops with dGPUs of that era.

Thanks for the details