Why does my Thinkpad W541 use Integrated graphics in WoW instead of the nVidia Quadro K1100m?

Question

I have seen reviews by many people on the W540/541 and they all said they were getting around 100 fps in WoW and even the guy in this video was able to play it on high-setitngs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0j045vg3W8 Don't get me wrong I use this device for mainly professional work, but every now and then I would like to be able to play a game on it or two. thanks!

Answer 1

According to a number of contributors on a number of threads regarding the same subject, THIS IS BY DESIGN.
If you want to force use the K1100m on the W541, it will need to be (a) on an external monitor and (b) controlled through a dock, rather than via the video connectors on the laptop itself.  According to "the specs", the laptop screen is always handled by the Intel Graphics... no matter whether the W540/W541 BIOS is set to "basic" or "advanced" graphics mode.
According to the following description of how graphics works in W540/W541 and newer machines (which is that Optimus Mode is always active, although you can select "basic mode" or "advanced mode"), you simply MUST use Optimus Mode and cannot disable Intel Graphics as you could with the W530.
Now I'd always thought that in theory for the laptop screen you can use nVidia Control Panel (3D settings) to specify which programs you want to get nVidia graphics for when those programs' windows have focus).  But my experience (granted, with the W530 and not with W540/W541) is that nVidia graphics kick in (and take over for Intel graphics) reliably only when the firmware determines that graphics performance requirements justify it.
Strangely, the description of Optimus Driver behavior (below) makes no mention of the NVidia graphics ever kicking in for the laptop screen, but I thought that was how it worked.  Confusing and contradictory descriptions, seemingly.  You'd think that gaming applications would be just such an example of "graphics performance demands nVidia graphics", but your thread subject suggests that nVidia is NOT kicking in (I assume you're running on your laptop screen, and have probably tried to go to nVidia Control Panel to request nVidia graphics when you run WoW), which would be consistent with the written descriptions but very definitely annoying.  On the W530, Optimus behavior had the K1000m definitely kicking in on the laptop screen when needed.
So apparently by design Optimus is always active on W540/W541 and newer machines. You can´t actually disable the integrated GPU at all and force the use of the discrete graphics, as you can on the W530 for the K1000m nVidia graphics via its BIOS. Here is the description of Optimus Drivers for W541, which describes Standard vs. Advanced mode, and by implication how the new W540/W541 BIOS design works:
STANDARD and ADVANCED MODE
In Standard mode, all dock displays uses Integrated Graphics as display output
and is limited to a maximum of 3 displays including Computer's LCD.
While in Advanced mode, all dock displays uses Discrete Graphics as display
output and it increases the maximum number of displays to 6 including Computer's LCD.
ThinkPad W540, W541 (Standard Mode)
Intel HD Graphics
- (Computer's LCD)
- Computer's analog VGA connector
- Computer's DisplayPort connector
- Docking Station's analog VGA connector
- Docking Station's DVI connector(s)
- Docking Station's DisplayPort connector(s)
- Docking Station's HDMI connector
NVIDIA Quadro K2100M or NVIDIA Quadro K1100M
- No display is connected to this display adapter.
ThinkPad W540, W541 (Advanced Mode)
Intel HD Graphics Family
- (Computer's LCD)
- Computer's analog VGA connector
- Computer's DisplayPort connector
NVIDIA Quadro K2100M or NVIDIA Quadro K1100M
- Docking Station's analog VGA connector
- Docking Station's DVI connector(s)
- Docking Station's DisplayPort connector(s)
- Docking Station's HDMI connector