Arch Linux

TheCoralRocker

Member

Registered: 2018-04-27

Posts: 6

Best graphics driver combo for NVIDIA OPTIMUS enabled laptop?

Hey all!
  I have an ACER Aspire E5-575G with an intel core i5 7200u with Intel HD graphics 620 and a Nvidia GTX 950M. Currently I am using xf86-video-intel drivers only as I cant find any drivers that seem to work as good as on Ubuntu on Arch. I have tried both Nouveau and Proprietary drivers on both PRIME and Bumblebee. However, Bumblebee was dismally weak and PRIME used a TON of power. I would have been fine with prime except that while testing it's installation I found that running DRI_PRIME=1 as the wiki says does not do anything. Applications used my GTX 950M no matter what. What I am looking for is something more like what nvidia-prime is on Ubuntu, however, even something like using DRI_PRIME=1 would be fine if it were not for the power-hungry nature of it.
   I read online that It may be possible to install the Ubuntu/Debian graphics drivers on Arch. Is this true or just rumor?

tcr-g@TheCoralRocker /home]lspci -k
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v6/7th Gen Core Processor Host Bridge/DRAM Registers (rev 02)
	Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Xeon E3-1200 v6/7th Gen Core Processor Host Bridge/DRAM Registers
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation HD Graphics 620 (rev 02)
	Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] HD Graphics 620
	Kernel driver in use: i915
	Kernel modules: i915
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP USB 3.0 xHCI Controller (rev 21)
	Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Sunrise Point-LP USB 3.0 xHCI Controller
	Kernel driver in use: xhci_hcd
	Kernel modules: xhci_pci
00:14.2 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP Thermal subsystem (rev 21)
	Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Sunrise Point-LP Thermal subsystem
	Kernel driver in use: intel_pch_thermal
	Kernel modules: intel_pch_thermal
00:15.0 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP Serial IO I2C Controller #0 (rev 21)
	Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Sunrise Point-LP Serial IO I2C Controller
	Kernel driver in use: intel-lpss
	Kernel modules: intel_lpss_pci
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP CSME HECI #1 (rev 21)
	Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Sunrise Point-LP CSME HECI
	Kernel driver in use: mei_me
	Kernel modules: mei_me
00:17.0 SATA controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (rev 21)
	Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Sunrise Point-LP SATA Controller [AHCI mode]
	Kernel driver in use: ahci
	Kernel modules: ahci
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP PCI Express Root Port #1 (rev f1)
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport
	Kernel modules: shpchp
00:1d.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP PCI Express Root Port #9 (rev f1)
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport
	Kernel modules: shpchp
00:1d.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Device 9d1a (rev f1)
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport
	Kernel modules: shpchp
00:1d.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Device 9d1b (rev f1)
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport
	Kernel modules: shpchp
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Device 9d4e (rev 21)
	Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device 115f
00:1f.2 Memory controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP PMC (rev 21)
	Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Sunrise Point-LP PMC
00:1f.3 Audio device: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP HD Audio (rev 21)
	Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Sunrise Point-LP HD Audio
	Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel
	Kernel modules: snd_hda_intel, snd_soc_skl
00:1f.4 SMBus: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP SMBus (rev 21)
	Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Sunrise Point-LP SMBus
	Kernel driver in use: i801_smbus
	Kernel modules: i2c_i801
01:00.0 3D controller: NVIDIA Corporation GM107M [GeForce GTX 950M] (rev a2)
	Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] GM107M [GeForce GTX 950M]
	Kernel driver in use: nouveau
	Kernel modules: nouveau
03:00.0 Network controller: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9377 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter (rev 31)
	Subsystem: Lite-On Communications Inc QCA9377 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter
	Kernel driver in use: ath10k_pci
	Kernel modules: ath10k_pci
04:00.0 Unassigned class [ff00]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8411B PCI Express Card Reader (rev 01)
	Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] RTL8411B PCI Express Card Reader
	Kernel driver in use: rtsx_pci
	Kernel modules: rtsx_pci
04:00.1 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 12)
	Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller
	Kernel driver in use: r8169
	Kernel modules: r8169

      I am using gdm-plymouth for a display manager and GNOME as a desktop environment.

TL;DR: What is the best configuration of graphics for an Nvidia-Intel hybrid graphics setup that doesn't sacrifice niether power nor battery life?

Thanks For Your Help,
         ---Gaultier

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 21,719

Re: Best graphics driver combo for NVIDIA OPTIMUS enabled laptop?

The Ubuntu "graphics stack" is just a script that does the same thing you do when setting up PRIME offload. If you don't want to manually move around config files you might want to look at https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/NV … vidia-xrun

That said, what did you test bumblebee with? Any form of the nouveau driver is guaranteed to be slow. If the perf of bumblebee and nvidia is sufficient that might be a more convenient alternative still.

TheCoralRocker

Member

Registered: 2018-04-27

Posts: 6

Re: Best graphics driver combo for NVIDIA OPTIMUS enabled laptop?

I tested bumblebee with unigine heaven using the nouveau driver. Let me install it with proprietary and get back to you in a sec

TheCoralRocker

Member

Registered: 2018-04-27

Posts: 6

Re: Best graphics driver combo for NVIDIA OPTIMUS enabled laptop?

I tested bumblebee again with nvidia-390 drivers vs Intel hd.
Unigine-Sanctuary basic preset
Nvidia:
    FPS: 30.8
    Min FPS: 25.7
    Max FPS: 34.6
    Score: 1305

Intel
    FPS: 24.3
    Min FPS: 15.4
    Max FPS: 31.7
    Score: 1031

The results are not nearly as good as on Ubuntu. Will now test PRIME

radiomike

Member

Registered: 2013-12-19

Posts: 73

Re: Best graphics driver combo for NVIDIA OPTIMUS enabled laptop?

TL;DR: What is the best configuration of graphics for an Nvidia-Intel hybrid graphics setup that doesn't sacrifice niether power nor battery life?

In answer to your original question, I've found mystelf using Proprietry Nvidia with Bumblebee, Primus and Bbswitch for quick things and better power management. Then using nvidia-xrun when I really need the power of the nvidia card and I'm expecting to use it plugged in for a longer time.

Performance under Bumblebee isn't straightforward, especially when you are using a compositing window manager like Gnome, which can also complicate things with Wayland and Xwayland. Using Primus probably helps with games, but what Bumblebee and Primus do adds overhead and compositing adds more. You may not notice it on simpler things, but when the Nvidia card is being stretched, you will. This is probably what you are seeing in your benchmarking.

Bbswitch, when it works with your hardware seems to be one of the better ways of managing power. Newer hardware can complicate things as compatability isn't guaranteed.

Nvidia-xrun, is best when you want to get the most out of you card. It also plays well with bbswitch for power management. Again to get the most out of it, either run your game directly or use a non compositing window manager, such as Openbox. I've found myself using Xfce and turned compositing off, just setting fullscreen apps to direct rendering didn't seem to give as good performance. This does mean that everything goes through the nvidia card as you found with prime.

There is an nvidia-prime package in AUR, which seems to install the bits to get ubuntus prime. But from the comments it's hard to know if it actually works.