How to use dedicated graphics card instead of on-board GPU?

arnuld · 2020-04-27 04:07:28

I have ACER Nitro laptop (AN515-42-R6GV) and it has both Vega 8 series on-board graphics and one dedicated RX560X graphics card. As you can see from the output of lspci, it is picking up only the on-board graphics. I want to use RX560X instead. Can you give me some directions in doing that?

[root@nitro5 arnuld]# lspci | grep -i VGA
04:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Raven Ridge [Radeon Vega Series / Radeon Vega Mobile Series] (rev c4)


[root@nitro5 arnuld]# lshw -numeric -C display
  *-display                 
       description: Display controller
       product: Baffin [Radeon RX 460/560D / Pro 450/455/460/555/555X/560/560X] [1002:67EF]
       vendor: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] [1002]
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
       version: c0
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm pciexpress msi bus_master cap_list rom
       configuration: driver=amdgpu latency=0
       resources: irq:64 memory:b0000000-bfffffff memory:c0000000-c01fffff ioport:3000(size=256) memory:c0a00000-c0a3ffff memory:c0a40000-c0a5ffff
  *-display
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: Raven Ridge [Radeon Vega Series / Radeon Vega Mobile Series] [1002:15DD]
       vendor: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] [1002]
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:04:00.0
       version: c4
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm pciexpress msi msix vga_controller bus_master cap_list
       configuration: driver=amdgpu latency=0
       resources: irq:44 memory:90000000-9fffffff memory:a0000000-a01fffff ioport:1000(size=256) memory:c0800000-c087ffff

[root@nitro5 arnuld]# xrandr --listproviders
Providers: number : 0

[arnuld@nitro5 ~]$ xrandr --listproviders
Providers: number : 0

Last edited by arnuld (2020-04-27 04:15:48)

seth · 2020-04-27 06:24:08

description: Display controller

lspci | grep -i amd

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

In what context do you run "xrandr --listproviders"?
That doesn't look like an X11 session? Gnome on wayland?

arnuld · 2020-04-28 07:33:36

seth wrote:

lspci | grep -i amd

[arnuld@nitro5 ~]$ lspci | grep -i amd
00:00.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Raven/Raven2 Root Complex
00:00.2 IOMMU: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Raven/Raven2 IOMMU
00:01.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 17h (Models 00h-1fh) PCIe Dummy Host Bridge
00:01.1 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Raven/Raven2 PCIe GPP Bridge [6:0]
00:01.6 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Raven/Raven2 PCIe GPP Bridge [6:0]
00:01.7 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Raven/Raven2 PCIe GPP Bridge [6:0]
00:08.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 17h (Models 00h-1fh) PCIe Dummy Host Bridge
00:08.1 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Raven/Raven2 Internal PCIe GPP Bridge 0 to Bus A
00:08.2 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Raven/Raven2 Internal PCIe GPP Bridge 0 to Bus B
00:14.0 SMBus: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH SMBus Controller (rev 61)
00:14.3 ISA bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH LPC Bridge (rev 51)
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Raven/Raven2 Device 24: Function 0
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Raven/Raven2 Device 24: Function 1
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Raven/Raven2 Device 24: Function 2
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Raven/Raven2 Device 24: Function 3
00:18.4 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Raven/Raven2 Device 24: Function 4
00:18.5 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Raven/Raven2 Device 24: Function 5
00:18.6 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Raven/Raven2 Device 24: Function 6
00:18.7 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Raven/Raven2 Device 24: Function 7
01:00.0 Display controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Baffin [Radeon RX 460/560D / Pro 450/455/460/555/555X/560/560X] (rev c0)
04:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Raven Ridge [Radeon Vega Series / Radeon Vega Mobile Series] (rev c4)
04:00.1 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Raven/Raven2/Fenghuang HDMI/DP Audio Controller
04:00.2 Encryption controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 17h (Models 10h-1fh) Platform Security Processor
04:00.3 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Raven USB 3.1
04:00.4 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Raven USB 3.1
04:00.6 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 17h (Models 10h-1fh) HD Audio Controller
05:00.0 SATA controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (rev 61)

Yes, I am running GNOME on wayland. I did read the PRIME article you mentioned but I can't get ahead because ""xrandr --listproviders" does not provide any output. I did do this though but don't know how to verify what is being used, RX560 or on-board GPU. I read Gentoo guide for PRIME here: https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/AMDGPU#Tes … _is_in_use and got RX560 running but don't know how to make this permanent:

[arnuld@nitro5 ~]$ pacman -Q xf86-video-amdgpu
xf86-video-amdgpu 19.1.0-1

[arnuld@nitro5 ~]$ DRI_PRIME=1 glxinfo | grep "OpenGL renderer"
OpenGL renderer string: AMD Radeon (TM) RX Graphics (POLARIS11, DRM 3.36.0, 5.6.7-arch1-1, LLVM 10.0.0)

I ran this command as per the Gentoo guide and then in separate gnome-terminal tab I checked that status of RX560 changed from DynOff to DynPwr:

 

[root@nitro5 arnuld]# DRI_PRIME=1 glxgears

[root@nitro5 arnuld]# cat /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch 
0:IGD-Audio: :DynOff:0000:04:00.1
1:DIS: :DynOff:0000:01:00.0
2:IGD:+:Pwr:0000:04:00.0

[root@nitro5 arnuld]# cat /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch 
0:IGD-Audio: :DynOff:0000:04:00.1
1:DIS: :DynPwr:0000:01:00.0
2:IGD:+:Pwr:0000:04:00.0
[root@nitro5 arnuld]#

Last edited by arnuld (2020-04-28 07:57:57)

V1del · 2020-04-28 08:07:35

You can't really use discrete GPUs like that on wayland yet as far as I know. Most of the information from the PRIME article will only apply to xorg sessions.

(And if it is possible, it will be some functionality within GNOME/the wayland compositor (I do remember reading something about a right click -> run on dedicated card option being planned/implemented, not sure where that went))

Last edited by V1del (2020-04-28 08:09:35)

Ropid · 2020-04-28 08:33:48

That "DRI_PRIME=1" works as you found out. That's all you need. It should just work, there's nothing you have to set up.

Archlin · 2020-04-29 12:13:02

Did you set "DRI_PRIME=1" in the environment as told in the guide?
Then that should be all there is to it.

Last edited by Archlin (2020-04-29 12:13:25)

Arch Linux

#1 2020-04-27 04:07:28

How to use dedicated graphics card instead of on-board GPU?

#2 2020-04-27 06:24:08

Re: How to use dedicated graphics card instead of on-board GPU?

#3 2020-04-28 07:33:36

Re: How to use dedicated graphics card instead of on-board GPU?

#4 2020-04-28 08:07:35

Re: How to use dedicated graphics card instead of on-board GPU?

#5 2020-04-28 08:33:48

Re: How to use dedicated graphics card instead of on-board GPU?

#6 2020-04-29 12:13:02

Re: How to use dedicated graphics card instead of on-board GPU?

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