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duke11235

Member

Registered: 2009-10-09

Posts: 221

Enduro with AMD 7970M vga_switcheroo

I just got a new laptop with a core i7 and an AMD HD 7970M graphics card. The 7970M supports Enduro, AMD's version of Optimus, but I'm not sure how to set it up. Can anyone point me to some documentation on linux support of the switching?  I think I remember reading that only manual switching is supported with the catalyst driver.  Do I need two graphics drivers? Thanks

Last edited by duke11235 (2012-07-13 18:18:55)

Lone_Wolf

Administrator

From: Netherlands, Europe

Registered: 2005-10-04

Posts: 15,165

Re: Enduro with AMD 7970M vga_switcheroo

https://launchpad.net/~hybrid-graphics-linux might help you to get a start.

---

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duke11235

Member

Registered: 2009-10-09

Posts: 221

Re: Enduro with AMD 7970M vga_switcheroo

Found a temporary solution here. Anyone know how to test to see if both are used and/or which is running?
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Hy … e_Graphics

C6M6

Member

Registered: 2012-07-13

Posts: 39

Re: Enduro with AMD 7970M vga_switcheroo

if you are using vgaswticheroo,try

cat /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch

the output should be similat to

0:IGD:+:Pwr:0000:00:02.0
1:DIS: :Off:0000:01:00.0

igd=integrated card, dis=discrete card, the '+' indicate which card is in use

Last edited by C6M6 (2012-07-13 17:32:32)

duke11235

Member

Registered: 2009-10-09

Posts: 221

Re: Enduro with AMD 7970M vga_switcheroo

Do you know how to toggle the discrete card?
That command gives:

0:IGD:+Pwr:0000:00:02.0
1:DIS: :Off:0000:01:00.0

Which seems to indicate that the discrete card is off.
Doing

echo ON > /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch

switches discrete from Off to Pwr, but does not move the +. I know this card uses the IGPU for the display, if that helps

Last edited by duke11235 (2012-07-13 18:18:36)

C6M6

Member

Registered: 2012-07-13

Posts: 39

Re: Enduro with AMD 7970M vga_switcheroo

if you want to switch to the discrete card use

echo DDIS > /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch

and to turn back to the integrated card

echo DIGD > /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch

for the complete switch you need to restart the xorg, unfortunantly in the nix environment the dual card is a real pain.... (using the propretary driver is nearly impossible... only the amd/ati combo seem to function)

maybe if your lucky enough, you can select the card to use from the bios

ps: if you use this method, before suspending or hybernating make sure that the intel card is the one in use, or when you recover the pc the display won't show anything (or at least that's how it work on my laptop)

Last edited by C6M6 (2012-07-13 18:48:54)

duke11235

Member

Registered: 2009-10-09

Posts: 221

Re: Enduro with AMD 7970M vga_switcheroo

Thanks! Unfortunately, I didn't see that in my bios. The Clevo P150EM is a great laptop, and I don't really mind switching on x restart.I'll probably write a script to do this easier though