Is bbswitch required for bumblebee to work properly?

Question

I have an NVIDIA Optimus video card. I disabled it using bbswitch, and I'm using bumblebee to run programs using the discrete graphic card.

I want to know what's going to happen if I remove bbswitch (because it, sometimes, prevents Ubuntu from shutting down) ? Is the discrete GPU going to be always on (and consequently making the laptop too hot) of is bumblebee going to handle this?

I'm running Ubuntu 13.04

Thank you.

Answer 1

bbswitch is essentially the service that monitors the use of the graphics card, and switches it off as and when possible to conserve energy, and reduce heat. So yes, removing bbswitch is bad idea.