Arch Linux

Gmanos

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2021-08-29

Posts: 7

[SOLVED] Steam doesn't detect Nvidia GPU

Hi.
I am runing hyprland window manager and have an issue with steam detecting my dedicated graphics card - Nvidia RTX 2070. When I start steam from command line, it only shows integrated amd gpu:

Running query: 1 - GpuTopology
Response: gpu_topology {
  gpus {
    id: 1
    name: "AMD Radeon Graphics"
    vram_size_bytes: 11278483456
    driver_id: k_EGpuDriverId_AmdOpenSource
    driver_version_major: 2
    driver_version_minor: 0
    driver_version_patch: 349
    luid: 0
  }
  default_gpu_id: 1
}

what also drew my attetion is that steam thinks nvidia-drm module is not loaded

failed to load driver: nvidia-drm

even though it is clearly loaded

[root@archPC ~]# lsmod | grep nvidia
nvidia_uvm           3850240  0
nvidia_drm            139264  94
nvidia_modeset       1851392  18 nvidia_drm
nvidia              111460352  389 nvidia_uvm,nvidia_drm,nvidia_modeset
i2c_nvidia_gpu         16384  0
drm_ttm_helper         16384  3 amdgpu,nvidia_drm
video                  81920  3 asus_wmi,amdgpu,nvidia_modeset

I tried runing steam and games (steam's game launch options) with different nvidia env variables, tried using prime-run, but it doesnt seem to work.
According to some articles that i tried adding amdgpu and nvidia modules to initramfs, but it also doesn't fix my issue

MODULES=(amdgpu nvidia nvidia_modeset nvidia_uvm nvidia_drm)

nvidia-smi's output:

Sun Sep 21 17:58:45 2025       
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NVIDIA-SMI 580.82.09              Driver Version: 580.82.09      CUDA Version: 13.0     |
+-----------------------------------------+------------------------+----------------------+
| GPU  Name                 Persistence-M | Bus-Id          Disp.A | Volatile Uncorr. ECC |
| Fan  Temp   Perf          Pwr:Usage/Cap |           Memory-Usage | GPU-Util  Compute M. |
|                                         |                        |               MIG M. |
|=========================================+========================+======================|
|   0  NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070        Off |   00000000:01:00.0  On |                  N/A |
|  0%   35C    P8             11W /  175W |     637MiB /   8192MiB |      4%      Default |
|                                         |                        |                  N/A |
+-----------------------------------------+------------------------+----------------------+

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Processes:                                                                              |
|  GPU   GI   CI              PID   Type   Process name                        GPU Memory |
|        ID   ID                                                               Usage      |
|=========================================================================================|
|    0   N/A  N/A            1008      G   /usr/lib/Xorg                            21MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A            1081      G   Hyprland                                252MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A            1187      G   Xwayland                                  2MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A            1337      G   kitty                                    18MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A            1665      G   ./steamwebhelper                         28MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A            1688      G   ...am/ubuntu12_64/steamwebhelper         47MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A            1840      G   /usr/lib/firefox/firefox                178MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A            2393      G   kitty                                    18MiB |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

I tried disabling integrated GPU in UEFI settings, but then steam didn't recognize any graphic cards

Last edited by Gmanos (2025-09-21 20:03:38)

Lone_Wolf

Administrator

From: Netherlands, Europe

Registered: 2005-10-04

Posts: 14,413

Re: [SOLVED] Steam doesn't detect Nvidia GPU

Please post the output of

$ vulkaninfo --summary   #comes with vulkan-tools
$ pacman -Qs vulkan

---

Disliking systemd intensely, but not satisfied with alternatives so focusing on taming systemd.

clean chroot building not flexible enough ?
Try clean chroot manager by graysky

Gmanos

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2021-08-29

Posts: 7

Re: [SOLVED] Steam doesn't detect Nvidia GPU

Output of these commands:

[gman@archPC ~]$ vulkaninfo --summary
==========
VULKANINFO
==========

Vulkan Instance Version: 1.4.321


Instance Extensions: count = 24
-------------------------------
VK_EXT_acquire_drm_display             : extension revision 1
VK_EXT_acquire_xlib_display            : extension revision 1
VK_EXT_debug_report                    : extension revision 10
VK_EXT_debug_utils                     : extension revision 2
VK_EXT_direct_mode_display             : extension revision 1
VK_EXT_display_surface_counter         : extension revision 1
VK_EXT_surface_maintenance1            : extension revision 1
VK_EXT_swapchain_colorspace            : extension revision 5
VK_KHR_device_group_creation           : extension revision 1
VK_KHR_display                         : extension revision 23
VK_KHR_external_fence_capabilities     : extension revision 1
VK_KHR_external_memory_capabilities    : extension revision 1
VK_KHR_external_semaphore_capabilities : extension revision 1
VK_KHR_get_display_properties2         : extension revision 1
VK_KHR_get_physical_device_properties2 : extension revision 2
VK_KHR_get_surface_capabilities2       : extension revision 1
VK_KHR_portability_enumeration         : extension revision 1
VK_KHR_surface                         : extension revision 25
VK_KHR_surface_protected_capabilities  : extension revision 1
VK_KHR_wayland_surface                 : extension revision 6
VK_KHR_xcb_surface                     : extension revision 6
VK_KHR_xlib_surface                    : extension revision 6
VK_LUNARG_direct_driver_loading        : extension revision 1
VK_NV_display_stereo                   : extension revision 1

Instance Layers: count = 11
---------------------------
VK_LAYER_AMD_switchable_graphics_32 AMD switchable graphics layer 1.4.313  version 1
VK_LAYER_INTEL_nullhw               INTEL NULL HW                 1.1.73   version 1
VK_LAYER_MESA_overlay               Mesa Overlay layer            1.4.303  version 1
VK_LAYER_MESA_screenshot            Mesa Screenshot layer         1.4.303  version 1
VK_LAYER_MESA_vram_report_limit     Limit reported VRAM           1.4.303  version 1
VK_LAYER_NV_optimus                 NVIDIA Optimus layer          1.4.312  version 1
VK_LAYER_NV_present                 NVIDIA GR2608 layer           1.4.312  version 1
VK_LAYER_VALVE_steam_fossilize_32   Steam Pipeline Caching Layer  1.3.207  version 1
VK_LAYER_VALVE_steam_fossilize_64   Steam Pipeline Caching Layer  1.3.207  version 1
VK_LAYER_VALVE_steam_overlay_32     Steam Overlay Layer           1.3.207  version 1
VK_LAYER_VALVE_steam_overlay_64     Steam Overlay Layer           1.3.207  version 1

Devices:
========
GPU0:
	apiVersion         = 1.4.312
	driverVersion      = 580.82.9.0
	vendorID           = 0x10de
	deviceID           = 0x1f02
	deviceType         = PHYSICAL_DEVICE_TYPE_DISCRETE_GPU
	deviceName         = NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070
	driverID           = DRIVER_ID_NVIDIA_PROPRIETARY
	driverName         = NVIDIA
	driverInfo         = 580.82.09
	conformanceVersion = 1.4.1.3
	deviceUUID         = 5d2053f2-9307-f242-935e-e7e22214265c
	driverUUID         = c642c5f0-0715-5db7-85d2-8c160b823f7d
[gman@archPC ~]$ pacman -Qs vulkan
local/lib32-amdvlk 2025.Q2.1-1
    AMD's standalone Vulkan driver
local/lib32-vulkan-icd-loader 1.4.321.0-1
    Vulkan Installable Client Driver (ICD) Loader (32-bit)
local/lib32-vulkan-mesa-layers 1:25.2.3-2
    Mesa's Vulkan layers - 32-bit
local/nvidia-utils 580.82.09-1
    NVIDIA drivers utilities
local/qt6-shadertools 6.9.2-1 (qt6)
    Provides functionality for the shader pipeline that allows Qt Quick to operate on Vulkan, Metal, and Direct3D, in addition to OpenGL
local/spirv-tools 1:1.4.321.0-1 (vulkan-devel)
    API and commands for processing SPIR-V modules
local/vulkan-icd-loader 1.4.321.0-1 (vulkan-devel)
    Vulkan Installable Client Driver (ICD) Loader
local/vulkan-mesa-layers 1:25.2.3-2
    Mesa's Vulkan layers
local/vulkan-tools 1.4.321.0-1 (vulkan-devel)
    Vulkan tools and utilities

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 13,194

Re: [SOLVED] Steam doesn't detect Nvidia GPU

You need lib32-nvidia-utils. You also do NOT want lib32-amdvlk https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/AMDGPU#Installation

Lone_Wolf

Administrator

From: Netherlands, Europe

Registered: 2005-10-04

Posts: 14,413

Re: [SOLVED] Steam doesn't detect Nvidia GPU

VK_LAYER_AMD_switchable_graphics_32 AMD switchable graphics layer 1.4.313  version 1

local/lib32-amdvlk 2025.Q2.1-1
    AMD's standalone Vulkan driver

That's the problem. amdvlk doesn't work well on systems with multiple cards and amd has switched to mesa vulkan-radeon for linux.

install lib32-vulkan-radeon & lib32-nvidia-utils , remove lib32-amdvlk .
rerun vulkaninfo --summary  after that and test steam.

---

Disliking systemd intensely, but not satisfied with alternatives so focusing on taming systemd.

clean chroot building not flexible enough ?
Try clean chroot manager by graysky

Gmanos

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2021-08-29

Posts: 7

Re: [SOLVED] Steam doesn't detect Nvidia GPU

Thank you, it works now!