T510 questions

[Hans Gruber]

I just got a T510. I updated the bios but there is no Nvidia Optimus switchable graphics in the bios. This one has the 3100m Nvidia NVS graphics. The T410 and T410s have the Optimus switchable graphics in the display tab in bios. Does the T510 have switchable graphics? I also do not see an Intel integrated graphics in the device manager, only NVS 3100m.

[ajkula66]

Optimus was more of an exception than the rule on this generation of machines. That's why you're possibly not seeing it in there.

With that said, which CPU are we discussing?

[Hans Gruber]

i5-540M(2.53GHz)

[ajkula66]

Oh yes you definitely have Intel graphics in there as well. No clue on how to switch from nVidia to Intel, though.

[Hans Gruber]

George, this T510 is in mint condition. It has the intel 6200 wifi card, came with a Western Digital Scorpio Blue that writes 121mb and reads 114mb, a 7200RPM drive. I ordered another 120GB SSD drive. I ordered the Mushkin SSD drive. With SATA II, it doesn't make much of a difference on what SSD I get because they can max out the SATA II bus quite easily. I will probably have to go out the intel website and manual download the intel integrated graphics drivers. Normally it picks it up in windows update or the Lenovo software update program. The battery only has 45 charging cycles on it.

In the display bios tab I have Boot Display Device (ThinkPad LCD) the other options are analog (VGA), Digital on Thinkpad and Digital 1 on dock and Digital 2 on dock. Normally Nvidia switchable graphics are an option usually called Optimus graphics in bios.

[Temetka]

Then it would seem your T510 is like my T410. It has BOTH GPU's, but Lenovo decided to NOT enable or let user enable switchable graphics. A "feature" I find very, very annoying.

[Hans Gruber]

Then it would seem your T510 is like my T410. It has BOTH GPU's, but Lenovo decided to NOT enable or let user enable switchable graphics. A "feature" I find very, very annoying.

I have a T410 and T420s that have switchable graphics enabled in the bios and they load the drivers in the OS via updates. The switchable graphics doesn't always work right. On this T510, the intel integrated graphics is not listed in my device manager. I will figure this one out. By the way this T520 is 1600x900 on resolution.

I have a T500 that I have to run with switchable ATI graphics turned off because of GPU throttling @ 100% without drivers. I am having a hard time installing the ATI drivers on the T500. The T500 I have is loaded with a 2.8ghz processor. I have put more hours into sorting that machine out than any thinkpad I have.

These T510 series thinkpads are built like an aircraft carrier. Sturdy and very large and heavy with a 9 cell battery.

I ordered a bunch of the red touchpoint rubber tips from China. The rubber touchpoint on this T510 is cracked. I needed extra touchpoints for other Thinkpads.

The T510 will probably be my daily driver with the T410s as my secondary thinkpad.

[Hans Gruber]

I did some research on my best friend, the internet. I found that the T510 series apparently defaults to the discrete graphics and omits integrated graphics entirely. It seems very early bios for the T510 once supported integrated and discrete graphics but not the switchable graphics.

Can anybody who has a T510 with discrete graphics check their device manager to see if there is only a NVS Nvidia 3100m in the display adapters tab. I have bios 1.49 (4/25/2012).

[topshot]

Can anybody who has a T510 with discrete graphics check their device manager to see if there is only a NVS Nvidia 3100m in the display adapters tab. I have bios 1.49 (4/25/2012).

I'm running 1.52 (9/26/12) and Device manager shows I'm running the 8.15.10.2401 Intel driver and the 9.18.13.1269 Nvidia driver (they are packaged in one file on the Lenovo site). I didn't look to see if anything shows up in the BIOS. AFAIK, I've never used the discrete though I also don't know for sure how to tell which one is truly active in real time. I get annoyed when browser plugin asks if I want to use Nvidia when viewing video content sometimes. I assume there must be some way to force it to use discrete but I've not looked into it.

[Hans Gruber]

I downloaded both Nvidia and Intel graphics drivers. My Device Manager only shows NVS 3100m graphics. My bios is 1.52 but it doesn't have optimus graphics/switchable as an option.

[topshot]

I downloaded both Nvidia and Intel graphics drivers. My Device Manager only shows NVS 3100m graphics. My bios is 1.52 but it doesn't have optimus graphics/switchable as an option.

I'm running Win 7 Pro 64-bit. I only downloaded the single package listed as Optimus drivers for this OS which has both the Nvidia and Intel together, shown as "NVIDIA Optimus Display Driver for Windows 7 (64-bit) - ThinkPad" on their site.

My machine is 4314-DEU.

[Hans Gruber]

I downloaded both Nvidia and Intel graphics drivers. My Device Manager only shows NVS 3100m graphics. My bios is 1.52 but it doesn't have optimus graphics/switchable as an option.

I'm running Win 7 Pro 64-bit. I only downloaded the single package listed as Optimus drivers for this OS which has both the Nvidia and Intel together, shown as "NVIDIA Optimus Display Driver for Windows 7 (64-bit) - ThinkPad" on their site.

My machine is 4314-DEU.

In your bios under display does it give you the Optimus switchable graphics? On my T510 it doesn't give that option. 4349-4WU is my model.

[topshot]

In your bios under display does it give you the Optimus switchable graphics? On my T510 it doesn't give that option. 4349-4WU is my model.

Indeed, it does. There are 3 items on the Display menu:
Boot Display Device (set to LCD)
Graphics Device (was set to Optimus but I just changed it to integrated. Discrete was the 3rd option)
OS Detection for Optimus (was set to Enabled and I just switched it to Disabled).

Odd the same BIOS version would give different options. Did they have any CPU/MB combos that had ONLY Nvidia graphics? I thought they were all either integrated or integrated with Nvidia.

[MikalE]

I did some research on my best friend, the internet. I found that the T510 series apparently defaults to the discrete graphics and omits integrated graphics entirely. It seems very early bios for the T510 once supported integrated and discrete graphics but not the switchable graphics.

Can anybody who has a T510 with discrete graphics check their device manager to see if there is only a NVS Nvidia 3100m in the display adapters tab. I have bios 1.49 (4/25/2012).

Mine has only the Nvidia 3100M showing as a display adapter.