MUX Switch in Gaming Laptops
The pace at which technology evolves is nothing short of astounding and this evolution is what brought us the new MUX switch, which is a hardware-based solution to improve performance on gaming laptops. MUX switch allows users to choose whether to use the integrated GPU (iGPU) or the discrete GPU (dGPU) for graphics rendering and for the processing of all graphics related tasks. Since there might be some new terms here, we will break everything down section wise to make this an easy explainer.
Integrated GPU (iGPU) Vs discrete GPU (dGPU)
Since the primary function of a MUX switch is to let us choose between an iGPU and dGPU, it’s important to understand what both are and the difference between them. Starting with the iGPU, it is a sub-part of the processor, and can be simply understood as a less powerful version of a dedicated graphics card. The integrated chip takes on basic graphics processing tasks like driving your laptop’s display or the animations in different applications, Windows animations and more. Since it is less powerful than a dedicated GPU, it needs notably less power but then again, you can’t really expect to play games on it. Examples of iGPU will be Iris Xe that ships with Intel CPUs and Radeon graphics for AMD chips.
Coming to the dedicated graphics cards or graphics chips, as the name suggests, these are standalone dedicated graphics processing chips. They are capable of handling highly demanding games and applications. But of course, they drain the battery much faster compared to an iGPU. With a good discrete GPU, you can play all the latest AAA games and perform creator centric tasks such as video and photo editing with ease. AMD, Nvidia and Intel are some of the most renowned companies that manufacture dGPUs.
The MUX Switch
The MUX switch enables us to choose between different modes of operation for the iGPU and dGPU. Simply put, it lets you turn off either the integrated GPU or the discrete GPU and depending on what you’ve chosen, you will either get better performance or better battery life from your home laptop. While the widely marketed function of the MUX switch is that it can help improve performance, there are also other use cases that can enable users to drive more efficiency and battery life out of your laptops.
Let’s see how a MUX switch works. As you can see below, the MUX switch enables two different modes of operation. First is the discrete GPU path and the other is MsHybrid path. The discrete GPU path switches off the iGPU and directly connects the laptop’s display with the dGPU. This pathway is available when one switches to ‘Ultimate’ mode in ASUS ROG laptopsvia the Armory Crate application, or when you have a laptop with Advanced Optimus, which does the same but without the need to restart your laptop.
Next up is the MsHybrid Path wherein switching to ‘Eco Mode’ completely turns off the discrete GPU. This in turn helps save battery life notably and is especially useful if one is travelling or on the go and not near to a plug point.
