Arch Linux

titegtnodI

Member

Registered: 2011-07-19

Posts: 14

[SOLVED] AMD APU+Dedicated Graphics - Dual Graphics/Turn One Off?

Hello! I have an AMD 3420M APU with 7670M graphics. I use the Dual Graphics feature on Windows (it's available via CCC). I have a working Arch Linux install however it only uses my integrated chip (which isn't terrible but isn't ideal either). I'll try to outline what I've done and what I hope to accomplish .

My BIOS has no feature to turn off the graphics of the APU and the manufacturer (ASUS) doesn't show any signs of ever updating the BIOS for my series of laptops.

As it's an AMD APU so it has ATI/AMD graphics I'm working with ATI/ATI (instead of the usual Intel/ATI) so I can't just blacklist a module to specifically disable a card.

Reading the wiki I've found vga switcheroo however it seems to explicitly mention Intel/ATI so I'm not sure if it would work for me.

This part got me a little bit excited and I would really like a more experienced user to help me with maybe utilizing the following on Arch:

The Dynamic Switch needs Xorg support for the discrete videocard assigned to rendering [1].
So, the method listed here (and the AUR package related) will not work until Xorg team add support for the redering on a second card not attached to video. See here for more info.

Specifically what is exciting is the link here is actually listed as "complete" as well as the (newer) blueprint here. I interpret that as either it will be implemented in Xorg soon or it already has been implemented. Which is it, and if it's implemented, how do I utilize it?

I understand there isn't bucket loads of information about APUs on the Internet yet but it would be nice if this could ultimately lead to a clear and transparent way to utilize APU+GPU combos on Unix-like systems .

Last edited by titegtnodI (2012-11-10 17:42:47)

kvanberendonck

Member

Registered: 2012-08-17

Posts: 45

Re: [SOLVED] AMD APU+Dedicated Graphics - Dual Graphics/Turn One Off?

Hi, I have the A8 3500-M APU with a similar setup. I solved my problem by installing the fglrx driver for linux from AMD.

When in X, you can use the same control panel as on windows.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/AMD_Catalyst

Beware though! While it makes the GPU much, much, much more power efficient and greatly increases the battery life, for some reason it causes the GPU to run at max load for a few seconds during startup which burns a ridiculous amount of power (>25W) until X starts, so make sure you start X automatically somewhere early.

titegtnodI

Member

Registered: 2011-07-19

Posts: 14

Re: [SOLVED] AMD APU+Dedicated Graphics - Dual Graphics/Turn One Off?

Hi, I have the A8 3500-M APU with a similar setup. I solved my problem by installing the fglrx driver for linux from AMD.

When in X, you can use the same control panel as on windows.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/AMD_Catalyst

Beware though! While it makes the GPU much, much, much more power efficient and greatly increases the battery life, for some reason it causes the GPU to run at max load for a few seconds during startup which burns a ridiculous amount of power (>25W) until X starts, so make sure you start X automatically somewhere early.

Okay thanks! I was on Catalyst but I did not have the "Switchable Graphics" menu! It's also a much more stripped-down version of the menu (which I'm thinking I prefer).

All I've done is run "pacman -Syu" and disable DPMS and now I see the menu. Strange.

Thank you for the post! I'll mark this as solved .