No, they are. They decided, for no goddamn good reason, to switch on the discrete graphics chip when certain APIs were called, after doing a whole lot of work for years and years to encourage the use of said APIs.

AMD is doing this the right way- turn it on when you plug in, and let users toggle the thing manually. Optimus seems like an interesting compromise. But API sniffing is ridiculous, because 3D != Intensive 3D That Must Be Fast.