Testing Hardware

Quardah · 2014-09-25 13:51:19

Hello!

Using Bumblebee, in some cases, my discrete GPU is expected to be powered off, and in some other cases, it is expected to be powered on.

I would like to manually monitor my card status and see it's status "on or off" but i just can't seem to get my hands on a command telling me my hardware status.

Also, how can i know for sure a program graphical output is generated by my dedicated gpu? (Aka how do i know my games are rendered by the gpu?)

Thanks!
JP

Quardah · 2014-09-28 19:25:19

Hello!

I am "kinda" bumping the thread because i still haven't figured out how to check if my hardware is powered or not.

The thing is, i would like to monitor all of my installed hardware status (considering they are powered, they are reducing my ongoing battery life) and so i would be able to effectivly test many things.

Example : does bumbebee shuts down the nvidia card once i exit the game, or does bumblebee powers the card for shutdown or reboot operations ( see : https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/bu … g_shutdown ) or monitor my hard-drives if they are on or off.

I'm sorry for the shameless bumb.

Please help me out!

Have a nice day!!
J-P.

Pse · 2014-09-29 04:09:37

Does the optirun command give any information about the status of the cards? (I am not a Bumblebee user).
AFAIK, if you are not using libgl-switcheroo you need to manually select the nvidia card by using optirun. Once the application exits, the nvidia card is disabled.

Quardah · 2014-09-29 14:08:48

Dear friend, thanks for the response!

It doesn't seem like optirun/primusrun gives any information about the card status, it simply runs.

But the nvidia-smi can give me the card load. The weird thing is, i can start and monitor the nvidia card status anytime therefor that makes me believe its always powered on (how could a peripherial give informations if it's not initialised?). Once the game loads you see the total load going up (xxxxMB/1024MB) but once you exist the program there is still a minimal load (3~4MB/1024MB) making me think the card is not shutting down as expected.

It would be nice to have a system command telling me if the card is powered or not. Something very easy, like checking the current power draw of installed peripherials (a peripherial drawing 0 Watts should be powered off logically) or simply some application telling me if the nvidia card/hdd starts running.

Many thanks and hope a messiah with the sacred solution pass by soon!

Pse · 2014-09-30 03:34:05

Well, if it is an Intel laptop, you could try to run powertop (available in the official Arch repos). It does report power use per device and per process.

Quardah · 2014-10-01 17:06:50

Oh yes! I'll give this command a go!!

The laptop runs under an x64 Intel Chip so i guess it'll work. I'll try it out once i get home and if it works i'll be glad to come back and thank you.

Have a nice day!
J-P

Arch Linux

#1 2014-09-25 13:51:19

Testing Hardware

#2 2014-09-28 19:25:19

Re: Testing Hardware

#3 2014-09-29 04:09:37

Re: Testing Hardware

#4 2014-09-29 14:08:48

Re: Testing Hardware

#5 2014-09-30 03:34:05

Re: Testing Hardware

#6 2014-10-01 17:06:50

Re: Testing Hardware

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