Today, Delayed GPU Switching Comes To Linux

[RealNC]

(b) sounds promising. I wonder if this can be implemented in some part of X for every system.

[not.sure]

Maybe Gallium could help here. Wasn't there talk of implementing an X state tracker to run X directly on top of Gallium? Then one could probably just swap the GPU driver underneath without X even knowing it?!

[Adarion]

I use a dual input for 2 computers on 1 monitor (1xVGA for the old box and DVI for the new box).
Iirc the old Voodoo cards had a cable supply that would take in the signal from the standard 2d-VGA card and output it besides the input through VGA out. When they were active they'd switch and put their own signal from 3d gaming to the VGA out. Or course that needs some input on one of the cards.
But if it is possible to send the signal from the big card to the onboard unit as bridgman said... I'm not sure if I even had this when I put in my 3870 and had the DVI still on the onbaord 3300.
Would be a ready to use soulution then.

[bridgman]

The switching hardware is built into specific laptops; it doesn't come automatically with every combination of hardware.

[Adarion]

The switching hardware is built into specific laptops; it doesn't come automatically with every combination of hardware.

Do they offer it then under a special brand name? Is "hybrid graphics" already enough to be sure you have the HW capabilities in there?