What's really funny is if you type in dv6 on google , the first result is a Cnet article for one dv6 model. which goes to show the amount of thinking you put into your statement.
Not even really realizing a dv6 has 28 different processor options alone. To obtain that kind of super hard to know information you'd have to click on the third result , being the manual... lol
28 different processor options doesn't mean it was any tier above budget. It also doesn't make it any less than 5-6+ years old. This: http://www.pcworld.com/article/235926/hp_pavilion_dv6.html pcworld article reviewed the I5 model, which was around $800 at the time. About 6 years ago.
It also doesn't make ATI any less dead as an independent entity. It also doesn't make the support period for a product of this class to have ended 3-4 years ago. That is utterly irrelevant to my argument in every way.
Yeah I didn't do a half hour of research for a forum post on what is irrelevant hardware.
I just don't understand the aggressiveness with which you insist that we throw away perfectly good hardware, just because it has reached some arbitrary age. I have an eleven year old machine based on an AMD Athlon CPU that I use daily. No, it isn't capable of running the latest 3D shooter, but that isn't what I'm using it for. With Solus/Mate the hardware is supported, the machine is responsive, it runs the programs that I need and I get regular security updates. There is no downside.
I also Still have an even older AMD K6 3/400 that runs Haiku perfectly well. I don't use this machine regularly, but I do like to download a nightly build from time to time to see how the Haiku project is progressing.
I just recently found my Gateway Anykey keyboard, so I wouldn't be at all surprised if there is an i486 lurking somewhere in my garage, too. Granted, there aren't many uses for an i486 today, outside of NASA, but after my i486 was no longer suitable for desktop duty, I loaded Red Hat onto it and converted it into a network gateway, file server and print server. It continued to serve in this role for many more years. Should I have instead thrown it away? I don't think so.
Tossing these machines in the trash, just because they are more than 3-4 years old is simply INSANE, since they run perfectly well and actually serve a purpose. Yes, I could run Haiku in a VM on my X99 machine, but that is not my choice/preference.
I'd also guess that there are still some companies out there, conducting their daily business on a minicomputer from the 1990's. Sure, a modern PC could run computational rings around an AS/400, for example, but if the company has a significant investment in custom software tools, then it is easy to understand their reluctance to upgrade, so long as their machine is still supported.
So, getting back to my original point, we know that we can't trust the manufacturer (IBM and mainframes being the possible exception) to support our hardware for any meaningful length of time, we have to be careful that we make informed buying choices. If we do that, there is obviously no guarantee, but the likelihood is that older hardware will continue to be supported by the open source community, long after the manufacturer has turned their collective backs on us. In this way, it is possible for this hardware to continue to perform useful service for extended periods, thereby offsetting the need to replace them prematurely.
My suggestion to the OP was to investigate the possibility that there may be an open source solution to his concern. The relatively new NVIDIA Optimus technology is already supported by Linux and I saw some comments that suggest that solutions may also be available for the DV6 dual GPU models. Why then are you so anxious to browbeat the OP into throwing his hardware away? Sadly, at the end of the day, that may turn out to be his only option, but I think that it is premature to assume that it is the only option.
By the way, I am typing this on a five year old ThinkPad that has an i5 CPU, 8GB of RAM and a SSD and it runs damn fast on Solus/Budgie. At this point, I don't foresee any reason why it should need to be replaced as my primary laptop, for at least another 2-3 years. If you have any complaints about my hardware, save your breath, I'm not interested.
I should better word my response because this was not what I meant to intimate. My point is that hardware of this price doesn't warrant a support cycle beyond a couple years. It doesn't make any financial sense for a company to support 2-3+ year old hardware when the cost was $900-800 at launch. There isn't margin in there to make that financially viable or smart for a company to do. A tesla or new car isn't a purchase that costs so little, and there is margin there to make it viable for them to support the product for many years. Its also widely accepted that you'll have to pay for regular maintenance and up keeping of a car, while a pc doesn't have that.
There are not many people who are going to insist on having a pc repaired or maintained for 5-6 years when a new one is so cheap and easy to get. You're in the minority in that you'll use an older machine, and if that works for you than great. But the mainstream consumer isn't going to do that, so the vendors have to cater to that majority consumer base that wants to buy cheap computers, get a couple years out of them, and then get another to repeat the cycle. People will pay money for MacBook Pro maintenance because that's a multi-thousand dollar machine, not a $800 HP.
ATI is a dead company. There is no open-source development going on for hardware that is 6 years old from a non-existent vendor. When ATI was around, there was no meaningful percentile of systems around that could switch between integrated gpu and add-in on a software level.
That's besides what I was trying to trying to convey earlier though. My point is more annoyance with the title and discouraging tone taken against all Switchable Graphics that was taken. Its really annoying to see what I view as broad and incorrect statements made about all the switchable graphics options out there. Yeah the switchable graphics on a 6 year old machine might be garbage, but why go out and telling people to never buy NEW switchable graphics equipped solutions based on that information? Many of the core problems that caused his experience to be bad are not even remotely applicable to the current state of affairs.
His "Biggest issue", was that the hardware is proprietary. That no longer exists as an issue. Optimus standardizes the switching between iGPU and add-in, and functions now under both Linux and Windows. It doesn't require the manufacture to support it in any way after launch, that's all handled by the Nvidia driver now. So to go out and headline "Never buy switchable graphics" based on that experience and information is terribly mis-informed and frankly doesn't make the OP anyone to speak about the current state of affairs as if he was representing someone who has current experience with new machines.
When you end with "Always buy a laptop with a generic single gpu that can have software updates outside the manufacturer , plain and simple." I can't help but not take you very seriously considering the viewpoint taken. To give out that advice on the basis of the OP's experience with 6 year old hardware is frankly ridiculous. That hardware is in zero ways representative of the current state of affairs. I mean its got a 5 generation old cpu, with add-in graphics from a company that no-longer exists. Come on now.
Perhaps we agree on more that I initially suspected. Thanks for the clarification.
Cheers!
Solus, which is my current favorite flavor of Linux, due to its speed and efficiency, as well as many other positive attributes, has just implemented preliminary support for AMD/AMD, Intel/AMD and Intel/Nvidia dual graphics hardware. Currently, the 3D GPU defaults to always on, so the battery drain is somewhat excessive, but in the next few weeks, we can expect to see Solus automatically switch from 2D to 3D and back, based on demand. While other Linux distributions already have Intel/Nvidia functionality, I don't know the status of AMD. Rumor has it that Intel/AMD works out of the box on Ubuntu and on Mint, but I can not confirm that.
The official Sokus announcement was made here and the principal developer of Solus also made a mention here.
This is just an F.Y.I. in case you had been considering sticking your toe into the Linux waters. If not, there is also the option of dual booting W10 & Linux, or even running W10 via KVM and experimenting with GPU passthrough. Whichever way you go, I think that it is premature to throw that HP away, just yet.
not on some laptops
Show me one that you can't manually switch and I'll mail you a cookie.
lenovo y70-70
ill be expecting a pm for shipping details
Hang on there now, you have to prove it.
I'll take pics when I get home
I find Optimus barely works on Windows with full GPU support, come Linux oh god does it fucking suck monkey cock.
Does it suck on new hardware from Dell and System 76, which ship with Ubuntu from the factory? I am told that all the bugs have been worked out, for these products.
Now, if you are complaining about problems with another distro, that's understandable, since each distro has it's own priorities and not all of them are concerned with prioritizing Optimus support.
The good news is that the primary dev at Solus purchased an Optimus laptop for himself, for the express purpose of making Optimus support available in Solus. Just as he did with the Brisk menu for Mate, he also made the commitment to make his solution available to any other distros, who may wish to adopt same. So, if you are still having Optimus headaches down the road, you may wish to consider a distro whose priorities are more in line with your own.
I bought an hp dv6-3300ee back in 2012 and hp stopped producing drivers for it the same year. I managed to make use of it until recently using leshcatlabs drivers on windows.
Making it work properly on linux however was another story. I was able to make the device usable but there are many features missing from the opensource driver and the proprietary driver doesn't work no matter what I do. All in all I would second the OP in saying that switchable graphics should be avoided whenever possible.
making it "work" and working correctly are two different things, theirs major issues in the Nvidia drivers that prevent it from working without massive tearing.
I have never had Switchable graphics from AMD/ATI but the Direct from Nvidia one works fine on my dell M11x-r2
Maybe this will help?
Could also try omega drivers if they are still around.
@SoulFallen i still need that pm for shipping details
Enter switchable graphics what are the options? :P
Look to the right. I can use switchable graphics or disable the dGPU all together. Only 2 options
