NVIDIA ADVANCED OPTMIMUS - broken on latest AMD driver from Asus

[Ajanni]

Hi Asus, Sorry to spam the forum but i've encountered an actual issue this time with Advanced optimus on the latest AMD drivers from Asus. 

Problem: When switching back from the RTX 4070 to the AMD IGPU using advanced optimus,  the screen freezes completely. I believe that the AMD driver times out, forcing me to hard restart the laptop by holding down the power button. 

One test i did try was installing the Adrenalin drivers directly from AMD while keeping the OEM NVIDIA drivers from ASUS installed as a test. So i installed AMD andrenalin  25.3.1 and this fixed the issue. So this is most certainly a problem with the latest AMD driver Asus have provided. Please can this be fixed as i'd rather have the ASUS provided graphics drivers on my laptop. 

Steps taken: I have ran DDU uninstaller twice and reinstalled the AMD and NVIDIA drivers directly from MYASUS. Problem still persists. For now i am just running my laptop in optimus mode  until Asus rolls out a fix. 

Driver versions  installed

• 32.0.12010.8007 - AMD (Asus provided driver)
• 32.0.15.6607 - NVIDIA (Asus provided driver)
• Bios version - 310
• Laptop model - Zephyrus G16 2024, AMD HX-370, RTX-4070

[nemiroN]

Optimus performs the same as dgpu mode (0-2% difference, sometime optimus gives more stable fps than dgpu), so advanced optimus nowadays does not worth it

[Ajanni]

Actually the DPGU mode's performance is a lot better than 0-2%, for example in apex legends in optimus mode i average around 120-135fps but in dgpu mode i get 150-170fps and in watch dogs legion i get an additional 6-8 fps in dgpu mode which puts me comfortably over 60fps, plus the latency if you're playing on a controller in some games like watch dogs legion and call of duty is noticeably lower in dgpu mode.

i think Asus should test their drivers more thoroughly before they release them because this is the 2nd time one of their GPU drivers have broken advanced optimus. I'm hoping the next drivers with a fix will be released soon. I'm also hoping their next Nvidia driver will have dlss 4 support. Besides this one issue, the laptop has been pretty flawless tbh and much more stable compared to when i first got it.

[nemiroN]

Its strange. My screen refresh rate is 144hz. I globally limited fps in nvidia control panel to 138fps. forced vsync in amd adrenalin, disabled vsync in games. and there is no different in latency and perfomance. On the other hand in Optimus mode my cpu running a lot cooler. Check this post, i shared video below
 CPU Usage in games - Republic of Gamers Forum - 1083139 

[Ajanni]

The latency difference is only noticeably in some games. But it's logical because having the igpu active means that there's an extra step in the process as all frames must now pass through the igpu before being rendered on screen. 

In regards to your laptop running cooler in optimus mode, that is logical because sometimes my CPU does not boost up as high too when in optimus mode, which can be good and bad depending  on if the game is CPU demanding. On my laptop i can't really notice the difference in CPU temps because i have my laptop running at the thermal limits. I flashed the 140watt vbios to it, but limited it to 120 watts, overclocked the vram + 1000mhz, modified the voltage curve and undervolted the CPU by -25 in Ghelper. 

[nemiroN]

Also you can read this
Valour549 Guide: GPU modes and Display Modes - Imgur

[nemiroN]

Well, i`d like to use Advanced Optimus feature too. But it is broken at all. In your case it freezes system completely, in my case it gives microfreezes every 5-10 seconds on desktop. There are so many complaints on web, unfortenately i don't believe at all they will ever fix it. i would recommend use only latest drivers from amd and nvidia (for me it gives the smoother frametimes in optimus mode). Don't use asus drivers, they are outdated

[Ajanni]

Ah i see. i'm happy i don't have that issue. Have you tried testing the drivers provided by ASUS (Both the AMD and NVIDIA) to see if that fixes the issue? If not have you tried Running Display Driver uninstaller for both the AMD and NVIDIA drivers and then installed the Asus provided ones. If non of that works i'd try reinstalling windows or running the following commands in order in CMD as adminstrator  (one at a time):

1. Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth

2. Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth

3. Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

4. sfc /SCANNOW  - after this command restart the device.

i found the above commands fixed the horrible cursor/scrolling stutter i was getting in MS EDGE and google chrome when running on battery.

I actually found the ASUS Nvidia driver is giving me better fps in some games with less stutter and slightly better/more consistent scores in  3dMark, compared to the latest Nvidia driver release. Also the driver from the AMD website is missing a feature called "freesync colour accuracy", so i like to stick with the ASUS drivers as who know what modifications they make to the drivers. I'm just waiting for them to release the new chipset drivers from AMD and also the supposed AGESA bios update that improves the inter core latency between the zen5 and zenC  cores. 

[nemiroN]

Thank you for advice, but issue with microfreezes is caused by gpu after switching from dgpu to optimus not completely turning off. 

I see on support page that your drivers are quite fresh from mid-to-late 2024. In my case all asus drivers are from 2023. I tested all this drivers, and tried from another laptops a much newer versions. I agree that asus drivers for nvidia could perform better, I've even seen some people said that on reddit.

In my case all Asus drivers for amd caused strange framepacing for games in optimus like it's not running in 138fps but in 90-110 but counter shows 138. After i installed 24.12.1 nowadays updated to 25.3.1 all isues are gone and image is smooth. i don't see difference in smoothness between optimus and dgpu modes. I agree with you that igpu gives 1-2ms latency, but i barely feel a difference and can even manage to play cs2 at a strong level