Any experience with ThinkPad T420/T520
Kevin Oberman
T520. Does anyone have experience with this model? Anything that should
cause alarm? I plan on getting the nVidia 4200N graphics which should
work with the nVidia driver.
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R. Kevin Oberman, Network Engineer
Energy Sciences Network (ESnet)
Ernest O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab)
E-mail: obe...@es.net Phone: +1 510 486-8634
Key fingerprint:059B 2DDF 031C 9BA3 14A4 EADA 927D EBB3 987B 3751
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Bernhard Schmidt
> I'm about to order new laptop and I am looking at a Lenovo ThinkPad
> T520. Does anyone have experience with this model? Anything that should
> cause alarm? I plan on getting the nVidia 4200N graphics which should
> work with the nVidia driver.
What's the current state of "Optimus" support? Last time I've
checked the NVIDIA driver had no support for that so you might
be stuck with the Intel GPU.
--
Bernhard
Kevin Oberman
> From: Bernhard Schmidt <bsch...@freebsd.org>
> Date: Mon, 30 May 2011 09:15:53 +0200
>
> On Sunday, May 29, 2011 18:53:43 Kevin Oberman wrote:
> > I'm about to order new laptop and I am looking at a Lenovo ThinkPad
> > T520. Does anyone have experience with this model? Anything that should
> > cause alarm? I plan on getting the nVidia 4200N graphics which should
> > work with the nVidia driver.
>
> What's the current state of "Optimus" support? Last time I've
> checked the NVIDIA driver had no support for that so you might
> be stuck with the Intel GPU.
>
> --
> Bernhard
>
Ouch! That would be a bummer.
Thanks for the heads-up. I have been worried about the video issue, but
I have not followed it closely enough to realize the significance of
"Optimus".
--
R. Kevin Oberman, Network Engineer
Energy Sciences Network (ESnet)
Ernest O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab)
E-mail: obe...@es.net Phone: +1 510 486-8634
Key fingerprint:059B 2DDF 031C 9BA3 14A4 EADA 927D EBB3 987B 3751
Kevin Oberman
> From: Bernhard Schmidt <bsch...@freebsd.org>
> Date: Mon, 30 May 2011 09:15:53 +0200
>
> > I'm about to order new laptop and I am looking at a Lenovo ThinkPad
> > T520. Does anyone have experience with this model? Anything that should
> > cause alarm? I plan on getting the nVidia 4200N graphics which should
> > work with the nVidia driver.
>
> What's the current state of "Optimus" support? Last time I've
> checked the NVIDIA driver had no support for that so you might
> be stuck with the Intel GPU.
I just went to the nVidia web site and it shows the latest FreeBSD
driver supports this GPU "4200M" and the page on Optimus states tha it
is "completely automatic". The driver download page makes no reference
to "Optimus" for any platform.
It does state that the NVS 4200M is supported on both 32 and 64 bit
FreeBSD with the 270.41.19, the version in the current port.
--
R. Kevin Oberman, Network Engineer
Energy Sciences Network (ESnet)
Ernest O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab)
E-mail: obe...@es.net Phone: +1 510 486-8634
Key fingerprint:059B 2DDF 031C 9BA3 14A4 EADA 927D EBB3 987B 3751
Kevin Oberman
>
> On Monday, May 30, 2011 18:54:31 Kevin Oberman wrote:
> > > Sender: Bernhard Schmidt <bsch...@techwires.net>
> > > From: Bernhard Schmidt <bsch...@freebsd.org>
> > > Date: Mon, 30 May 2011 09:15:53 +0200
> > >
> > > On Sunday, May 29, 2011 18:53:43 Kevin Oberman wrote:
> > > > I'm about to order new laptop and I am looking at a Lenovo ThinkPad
> > > > T520. Does anyone have experience with this model? Anything that should
> > > > cause alarm? I plan on getting the nVidia 4200N graphics which should
> > > > work with the nVidia driver.
> > >
> > > What's the current state of "Optimus" support? Last time I've
> > > checked the NVIDIA driver had no support for that so you might
> > > be stuck with the Intel GPU.
> > >
> > I'm scanning it now.
>
> Honestly, I have no clue about the details. The only thing I know
> is that there are 2 ways to switch between GPUs, a real hardware
> switch (which should work on every system) and plain software, which
> didn't last time I've checked, on either Linux or FreeBSD. That
> bothered me quite a bit, decided to buy a "gamer notebook" which
> clearly stated that it has no Optimus therefore.
Bernhard,
I have spent some time researching this and it looks like it is partly
resolved under Linux. (They call it solved, but it's really a kludge
that I would hardly call a final resolution). The "fix" is mostly to
ACPI and very Linux specific, as far as I can tell. Not that doing the
same under FreeBSD would not be possible, but it will take some work by
someone with both more ACPI and graphics knowledge than I have.
I decided to save a few bucks and ordered the T520 without the nVidia...
Just straight Intel which will be pretty limited, too, until the KMS and
GEM work is available. Sigh.
Thanks again for the heads up!