diff --git a/py-polars/polars/internals/lazyframe/frame.py b/py-polars/polars/internals/lazyframe/frame.py
index 0c99493f4a87..45d10f296901 100644
--- a/py-polars/polars/internals/lazyframe/frame.py
+++ b/py-polars/polars/internals/lazyframe/frame.py
@@ -1,9 +1,6 @@
 from __future__ import annotations
 
-import os
-import shutil
 import subprocess
-import tempfile
 import typing
 from io import BytesIO, IOBase, StringIO
 from pathlib import Path
@@ -609,7 +606,7 @@ def show_graph(
         output_path
             Write the figure to disk.
         raw_output
-            Return dot syntax. This cannot be combined with `show`
+            Return dot syntax. This cannot be combined with `show` and/or `output_path`.
         figsize
             Passed to matplotlib if `show` == True.
         type_coercion
@@ -626,9 +623,6 @@ def show_graph(
             Will try to cache branching subplans that occur on self-joins or unions.
 
         """
-        if raw_output:
-            show = False
-
         _ldf = self._ldf.optimization_toggle(
             type_coercion,
             predicate_pushdown,
@@ -638,48 +632,45 @@ def show_graph(
             common_subplan_elimination,
         )
 
-        if show and _in_notebook():
-            try:
-                from IPython.display import SVG, display
-
-                dot = _ldf.to_dot(optimized)
-                svg = subprocess.check_output(
-                    ["dot", "-Nshape=box", "-Tsvg"], input=f"{dot}".encode()
-                )
-                return display(SVG(svg))
-            except Exception as exc:
-                raise ImportError(
-                    "Graphviz dot binary should be on your PATH and matplotlib should"
-                    " be installed to show graph."
-                ) from exc
-        try:
-            import matplotlib.image as mpimg
-            import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
-        except ImportError:
-            raise ImportError(
-                "Graphviz dot binary should be on your PATH and matplotlib should be"
-                " installed to show graph."
-            ) from None
         dot = _ldf.to_dot(optimized)
+
         if raw_output:
+            # we do not show a graph, nor save a graph to disk
             return dot
-        with tempfile.TemporaryDirectory() as tmpdir_name:
-            dot_path = os.path.join(tmpdir_name, "dot")
-            with open(dot_path, "w", encoding="utf8") as f:
-                f.write(dot)
-
-            subprocess.run(["dot", "-Nshape=box", "-Tpng", "-O", dot_path])
-            out_path = os.path.join(tmpdir_name, "dot.png")
-
-            if output_path is not None:
-                shutil.copy(out_path, output_path)
-
-            if show:
-                plt.figure(figsize=figsize)
-                img = mpimg.imread(out_path)
-                plt.imshow(img)
-                plt.show()
-        return None
+
+        output_type = "svg" if _in_notebook() else "png"
+
+        try:
+            graph = subprocess.check_output(
+                ["dot", "-Nshape=box", "-T" + output_type], input=f"{dot}".encode()
+            )
+        except ImportError:
+            raise ImportError("Graphviz dot binary should be on your PATH") from None
+
+        if output_path:
+            with Path(output_path).open(mode="wb") as file:
+                file.write(graph)
+
+        if not show:
+            return None
+
+        if _in_notebook():
+            from IPython.display import SVG, display
+
+            return display(SVG(graph))
+        else:
+            try:
+                import matplotlib.image as mpimg
+                import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
+            except ImportError:
+                raise ImportError(
+                    "matplotlib should be installed to show graph."
+                ) from None
+            plt.figure(figsize=figsize)
+            img = mpimg.imread(BytesIO(graph))
+            plt.imshow(img)
+            plt.show()
+            return None
 
     def inspect(self: LDF, fmt: str = "{}") -> LDF:
         """
diff --git a/py-polars/polars/show_versions.py b/py-polars/polars/show_versions.py
index e32992365942..1f13a94d865c 100644
--- a/py-polars/polars/show_versions.py
+++ b/py-polars/polars/show_versions.py
@@ -55,6 +55,7 @@ def _get_dependency_info() -> dict[str, str]:
         "fsspec",
         "connectorx",
         "xlsx2csv",
+        "matplotlib",
     ]
     return {name: _get_dep_version(name) for name in opt_deps}
 
diff --git a/py-polars/pyproject.toml b/py-polars/pyproject.toml
index accc9b41a783..f375afb1f3da 100644
--- a/py-polars/pyproject.toml
+++ b/py-polars/pyproject.toml
@@ -20,8 +20,9 @@ fsspec = ["fsspec"]
 connectorx = ["connectorx"]
 xlsx2csv = ["xlsx2csv >= 0.8.0"]
 timezone = ["backports.zoneinfo; python_version < '3.9'", "tzdata; platform_system == 'Windows'"]
+matplotlib = ["matplotlib"]
 all = [
-  "polars[pyarrow,pandas,numpy,fsspec,connectorx,xlsx2csv,timezone]",
+  "polars[pyarrow,pandas,numpy,fsspec,connectorx,xlsx2csv,timezone,matplotlib]",
 ]
 
 [tool.isort]