G Helper & Advanced Optimus Question

[rjs0905]

I'm a big fan of g Helper. I installed it on a 2024 Scar 16, after uninstalling Armory Crate & My Asus. Stopped all the Asus services. I generally keep the gpu option on "Optimized" in g Helper and leave the nVidia control panel on "Automatic Select". I noticed that the dgpu wasn't always switching properly when booting into certain games. It was driver-sensitive, such that older nVidia drivers seemed to help the problem, but not 100%. I know Advanced Optimus is notoriously wonky, and I know that you can switch the dgpu manually every time, but it bugged me (I'm that way) and I was curious, so I stopped g Helper and reinstalled Armory Crate & My Asus. The issue went away entirely. But I don't want to use Armory Crate.

Question: (1) Was I doing something wrong on g Helper? I recollect a post from Serge a while ago saying that "Automatic Select" was the right choice in nVidia control panel when using "Optimized" on g Helper, but Armory Crate has you select "Optimus" instead; and (2) If not, is there something in the 6,000,000 services that Armory Crate installs that somehow makes Advanced Optimus run smoother? TIA

[seerge]

@rjs0905 hello,

G-Helper doesn't interact with Nvidia Optimus anyhow. As far as dGPU is enabled (i.e. you are in Standard mode or in Optimized and plugged in) - it's all up to Nvidia drivers.

What could be the reason - is that Nvidia driver may misbehave when you boot device with dGPU being off (i.e. you have shut down device in Eco or Optimized on battery before). There is a whole topic dedicated to this. It's not about Optimus, but I can imagine that can be also affected.

Did you recall your Optimus problems happening when you booted with dGPU being off ? (can happen a lot in Optimized mode if you use it on battery). Then you can check Enable GPU on shutdown under Extra settings. It should prevent this.

So feel free to try

[rjs0905]

Thanks for responding, Serge. I don’t think it was the specific reason you mentioned. I had the “Enable GPU on shutdown” box checked and it would occur regardless of repeated reboots on A/C power, set to Optimized. But I agree that it’s all about the drivers. I’ve seen some online posts from other Asus ROG owners with a similar issue over the last couple years, but it does not seem to be widespread. It’s not a big problem, I just found it odd.

[seerge]

@rjs0905 ok,

I have couple of other thoughts. May be it's something in default windows "Balanced" power plan that you use in G-Helper that was somehow affecting Nvidia's drivers? (even tho I never had issues with Optimus by myself, and if that would be widespread it will be a non-stop complains here in comments too)

There this old-school setting in power plan, called Switchable Dynamic Graphics in power plan details (under Control Panel)

It defines what GPU should windows use. Try to set to maximise performance (i.e. use Nvidia dGPU as much as possible) ? Does it make any difference ?

Alternatively you can try to select High Performance power plan (under Fans+Power in G-Helper), and see if that makes a difference

[rjs0905]

Thanks again - I haven't tried the power plan tweaks yet, but I'm no longer experiencing the issue under g Helper. Two things changed since yesterday: (1) I installed the first 2025 update to Windows 11 24H2; and (2) I changed the selection in nVidia control panel from "Automatic Select" to "Optimus", which is what Armory Crate had me do to utilize the "Optimized" gpu mode. I've only had about an hour to test, but everything seems to be working as desired in terms of gpu switching, games, and start-up / shut-down. It's odd, because I thought that "Optimus" meant there had to be a reboot of the PC every time you switched from dgpu to igpu? But I just tried unplugging while on Optimized, with the dgpu enabled, and it switched to igpu only, silent mode, just fine.

[seerge]

@rjs0905

NVidia Display setting (Advanced Optimus) has 3 options:

• Optimus - is when internal display is driven by iGPU. You can still use dGPU in games, but it introduces an extra latency. This is pretty much "standard" situation, as your laptop wouldn't have any MUX switch or Advanced Optimus from Nvidia at all.
• Nvidia GPU only - is when internal display is driven by dGPU
• Auto - switches between Optimus and Nvidia GPU only on the fly when you run games or use desktop

[rjs0905]

OK - thanks for clearing that up. I think I’ve gotten some incorrect info online. Let me see if I understand this correctly: If my preferred G Helper gpu mode is “Optimized”, it should work correctly on either “Optimus” or “Auto” on nVidia control panel, with the only difference being that under “Optimus”, you will always run the dgpu through the igpu, which introduces a little latency, but under “Auto”, you would be able to run the dgpu directly to the display?