ATI, graphics product group of Advanced Micro Devices, has quietly introduced technology that allows notebooks to seamlessly switch between discrete ATI Mobility Radeon graphics processing unit (GPU) and integrated Intel Graphics and Media Accelerator to boost graphics performance or save power. The tech is available for Intel Centrino 2 laptops that run Microsoft Windows Vista operating system.
ATI Switchable Graphics technology is a joint effort between ATI/AMD and Intel Corp. to provide users of Intel Centrino 2 notebooks the best features of various graphics adapters: performance and feature-set of discrete GPU and power-efficiency of integrated graphics processor (IGP). A similar technology was also developed by Intel and Nvidia so that to provide customers a choice of graphics processors.