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I'm working on an Acer Nitro 5 515-43 with a dedicated NVIDIA GTX 1650 and an integrated AMD GPU. I want to use the dedicated GPU all the time. However the system uses the integrated one instead. What can I do to change this? Since the integrated GPU is an AMD one, the optimus/prime solution shouldn't work.

Here is some additional information about the GPUs:

$ lspci -nn | grep -E 'VGA|Display'
05:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Picasso [1002:15d8] (rev c2)

$ glxinfo -B
name of display: :1  
display: :1  screen: 0  
direct rendering: Yes  
Extended renderer info (GLX_MESA_query_renderer):  
    Vendor: X.Org (0x1002)  
    Device: AMD RAVEN (DRM 3.35.0, 5.4.0-39-generic, LLVM 9.0.1) (0x15d8)  
    Version: 20.0.4  
    Accelerated: yes  
    Video memory: 2048MB  
    Unified memory: no  
    Preferred profile: core (0x1)  
    Max core profile version: 4.6  
    Max compat profile version: 4.6  
    Max GLES1 profile version: 1.1  
    Max GLES[23] profile version: 3.2  
Memory info (GL_ATI_meminfo):  
    VBO free memory - total: 1756 MB, largest block: 1756 MB  
    VBO free aux. memory - total: 3016 MB, largest block: 3016 MB  
    Texture free memory - total: 1756 MB, largest block: 1756 MB  
    Texture free aux. memory - total: 3016 MB, largest block: 3016 MB  
    Renderbuffer free memory - total: 1756 MB, largest block: 1756 MB  
    Renderbuffer free aux. memory - total: 3016 MB, largest block: 3016 MB  
Memory info (GL_NVX_gpu_memory_info):  
    Dedicated video memory: 2048 MB  
    Total available memory: 5120 MB  
    Currently available dedicated video memory: 1756 MB  
OpenGL vendor string: X.Org  
OpenGL renderer string: AMD RAVEN (DRM 3.35.0, 5.4.0-39-generic, LLVM 9.0.1)  
OpenGL core profile version string: 4.6 (Core Profile) Mesa 20.0.4  
OpenGL core profile shading language version string: 4.60  
OpenGL core profile context flags: (none)  
OpenGL core profile profile mask: core profile

OpenGL version string: 4.6 (Compatibility Profile) Mesa 20.0.4

OpenGL shading language version string: 4.60

OpenGL context flags: (none)

OpenGL profile mask: compatibility profile


OpenGL ES profile version string: OpenGL ES 3.2 Mesa 20.0.4

OpenGL ES profile shading language version string: OpenGL ES GLSL ES 3.20


$ lshw -short | grep -i  display
/0/100/1.1/0            display     TU117M [GeForce GTX 1650 Mobile / Max-Q]   
/0/100/8.1/0            display     Picasso

The driver of the NVIDIA GPU is:

$ nvidia-detector
nvidia-driver-440

The OS:

$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.  
Distributor ID: Ubuntu  
Description:    Ubuntu 20.04 LTS  
Release:    20.04  
Codename:   focal

The kernel:

$ uname -rm
5.4.0-39-generic x86_64

When i run nvidia-xconfig with root privileges and reboot afterwards, I can't get past the initial logo. Only rebooting in recovery mode and deleting /etc/X11/xorg.conf with a subsequent reboot allows me to use the PC again.

BeastOfCaerbannog
  • 16,703
Kevin
  • 61

2 Answers2

5

After installing the graphics drivers from Nvidia, there will be an app installed called NVIDIA X server Settings. There is a section called as Prime-Profiles. Under that you can select performance mode (NVIDIA Graphics card only), On-Demand mode (like Windows, for basic task only integrated gpu, heavy task dedicated gpu), or powersaving mode(integrated gpu only).

Alternately you can run sudo prime-select nvidia which will select the dedicated NVIDIA card only.

Note: You will need a reboot to apply the changes.

Abhay Patil
  • 2,793
0

I recommend installing NVIDIA drivers through the "Additional Drivers" GUI.

Note: NVIDIA driver 390 does not work with kernel versions above 5.15.

If your GPU's latest driver version is 390 you must install 22.04 LTS and install the GA kernel and remove the HWE kernel before attempting to install NVIDIA drivers.

One day, other NVIDIA drivers will probably become unsupported too.

Langdon
  • 81