[Solved] Can't Set NVidia GPU Power Limit Manually on Alienware m18

ArcKatsu · 2024-08-20 02:46:06

I'm on kernel 6.10.5 trying to set up my Alienware m18 to be able to do gaming. My specific model uses an RTX 4070, and I've checked both with the specifications Dell lists as well as manually by monitoring the GPU's TDP while on Windows, and this laptop's GPU is fully capable of running at 140W, but drops to 90W max when on battery. However, in all my attempts on Arch, it seems to only want to run at 90W, massively nerfing my performance.

I've tried following the Arch wiki's instructions on enabling overvolting (https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/NVIDIA … erclocking) but the xorg config that is generated by running nvidia-smi --enable-all-gpus does not take the AMD iGPU into account and does not allow me to get into Plasma when booting with Optimus enabled. If I boot after disabling Optimus in the BIOS, I can get into Plasma but even after running nvidia-xconfig --cool-bits=24, I am unable to modify the power limit using nvidia-smi -i 0 -pl 140, which informs me that "Changing power management limit is not supported for GPU".

I don't understand why it's listed as unsupported despite clearly being able to dynamically change power limit on Windows, beyond the fact that it's a gaming laptop and they're often very strange when it comes to these things.

In any case, basically I'm wondering if there's a way to circumvent this issue and force a higher power limit for the GPU.

Last edited by ArcKatsu (2024-10-07 02:57:46)

seth · 2024-08-20 08:52:01

the xorg config that is generated by running

Don't. Ever write static server configs and even less so use automatic tools for this.

Section "Device"
        Identifier "APU" # we wanna make the server pick  this one first
        Driver "modesetting"
        BusID "PCI:0:2:0" # make sure this is correct
EndSection

Section "Device"
        Identifier "nvidia"
        Driver "nvidia"
        Option "Coolbits" "31"
EndSection

But that's not gonna work for your GPU anyway.

Changing power management limit is not supported for GPU

https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s … ion/816018 is all over the internet, https://aur.archlinux.org/packages?O=0&K=525xx

Edit: https://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Lin … boost.html doesn'tr work for you?

Last edited by seth (2024-08-20 08:57:41)

ArcKatsu · 2024-08-20 17:02:18

I guess I didn't know what I needed to be searching for specifically, as I assumed it was something specific to the laptop, rather than the NVidia drivers themselves.

Enabling Dynamic Boost while on the latest nvidia-open allowed the power limit to increase to 115W. However, when I do as you suggest and switch to nvidia-525xx, it seems to want to stay at 90W again and occasionally go a bit higher (highest I've seen it this way is 104W), even after doing nvidia-smi -pl 140.

Is there anything else I'm missing?

Last edited by ArcKatsu (2024-08-20 17:40:06)

seth · 2024-08-20 19:20:39

Do you actually challenge the GPU enough to power up this much?
I mean, you're not trying to heat your home, right? So make sure you're not limited by CPU, vsync, etc et pp.

I'd focus on
1. nvidia-powerd (did you try that and what are the results?)
2. the resulting performance "am I limited by the GPU"

ArcKatsu · 2024-08-20 19:29:04

I tested with some games of varying performance needs, the most taxing of which was BG3 and was generally seeing about half the performance on much lower settings than Windows.

I tried powerd and mentioned it above, but I've also now noticed that the limit drops down as I open games, with them asking for more CPU power.

The GPU doesn't seem to be getting near it's max TDP or bandwidth even during the more stressful processes, so it's probably not the bottleneck.

seth · 2024-08-20 21:24:10

Try some native benchmark like vkmark or unigine, https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Benchmarking#Graphics
Steam/proton/wine performance hinges on too many variables for this.

ArcKatsu · 2024-08-21 00:25:15

I've got Unigine installed now but it's only using the APU on Arch. Trying to run it with DRI_PRIME=1 or prime-run doesn't make a difference. Trying vkmark produces the error "Surface not supported".

Last edited by ArcKatsu (2024-08-21 00:36:22)

seth · 2024-08-21 06:58:40

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Vulkan … initialize ?

export VK_DRIVER_FILES=/usr/share/vulkan/icd.d/nvidia_icd.json

ArcKatsu · 2024-08-21 14:46:10

Neither worked even after setting that environment variable, and after removing vulkan-radeon, Unigine forces OpenGL on the APU. Vkmark produced the same error as before.

ArcKatsu · 2024-10-07 02:57:59

I was being stupid forgot to include the relevant NVidia kernel modules.

Solved the issue by opening /etc/mkinitcpio.conf and including the following kernel modules:

nvidia nvidia_modeset nvidia_uvm nvidia_drm

As well as making an /etc/modprobe.d/nvidia.conf file with this line:

options nvidia_drm modeset=1 fbdev=1

This is after also enabling dynamic boost as Seth recommended above, but on latest NVidia open kernel drivers (at the time of writing, 560.35.03).

Last edited by ArcKatsu (2024-10-07 03:02:27)

Arch Linux

#1 2024-08-20 02:46:06

[Solved] Can't Set NVidia GPU Power Limit Manually on Alienware m18

#2 2024-08-20 08:52:01

Re: [Solved] Can't Set NVidia GPU Power Limit Manually on Alienware m18

#3 2024-08-20 17:02:18

Re: [Solved] Can't Set NVidia GPU Power Limit Manually on Alienware m18

#4 2024-08-20 19:20:39

Re: [Solved] Can't Set NVidia GPU Power Limit Manually on Alienware m18

#5 2024-08-20 19:29:04

Re: [Solved] Can't Set NVidia GPU Power Limit Manually on Alienware m18

#6 2024-08-20 21:24:10

Re: [Solved] Can't Set NVidia GPU Power Limit Manually on Alienware m18

#7 2024-08-21 00:25:15

Re: [Solved] Can't Set NVidia GPU Power Limit Manually on Alienware m18

#8 2024-08-21 06:58:40

Re: [Solved] Can't Set NVidia GPU Power Limit Manually on Alienware m18

#9 2024-08-21 14:46:10

Re: [Solved] Can't Set NVidia GPU Power Limit Manually on Alienware m18

#10 2024-10-07 02:57:59

Re: [Solved] Can't Set NVidia GPU Power Limit Manually on Alienware m18

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