Arch Linux

sammmstr

Member

Registered: 2020-04-27

Posts: 8

I'm having some issue with my new eGPU setup, please advise.

Hello,

I just got an eGPU for my few years old laptop. 

My setup:
- Thinkpad X1 Carbon 6th gen
- Razer Core X enclosure
- MSI Nvidia GTX 1660 Super
- Thinkpad USB-C universal hub
- Lenovo 27 inch monitor

The card works, show up in lspci, Nvidia prime-run works out of the box.  Geekbench sees the card and I ran the compute benchmarks on it and the scores are good compared to the same card by other users.

The main problem is that the card is not outputting any video signal if I connect my monitor directly to the card which limits me to only the switchable prime graphics mode (with the monitor connected to the usb-c dock).  I've tried all 4 ports on the back of the card and different cables, re-seating the card, changing bios settings but with no results.  Maybe the card is faulty but it's brand new so it just seems unlikely.  Maybe I'm just missing something else completely?

The prime switchable graphics seem OK.  I installed switcheroo-control for Gnome support.  I've tried it with Blender and Steam (flatpak) both of which use the descrete gpu by default with switcheroo.  In Steam, linux native games work great but proton games aren't working at all so that is another issue to sort out.  I can't really identify the issue by the proton logs.  Maybe a known issue?  Here is one log from today https://pastebin.com/hTswC5AW

If I continue with the prime graphics route am I missing out on some performance gains for other apps because X isn't using the GPU as the primary?  For example I use Inkscape a lot, I don't think it has any direct support for graphics cards but might benefit from Xorg using the Nvidia.  Or maybe it's not relevant?

Another option is to return the card and try another one.

What do you think?

Lone_Wolf

Forum Moderator

From: Netherlands, Europe

Registered: 2005-10-04

Posts: 11,922

Re: I'm having some issue with my new eGPU setup, please advise.

Are you using X or wayland and what WM / compositor ?

Have you checked https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/External_GPU ?

---

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

(A works at time B)  && (time C > time B ) ≠  (A works at time C)

sammmstr

Member

Registered: 2020-04-27

Posts: 8

Re: I'm having some issue with my new eGPU setup, please advise.

Thanks Wolf.

I use Xorg with Gnome (mutter)

Yes I've read that page and the related section here https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/PRIME  The default "Reverse PRIME" or also described as "Xorg rendered on iGPU, PRIME render offload to eGPU" is the method that is working for me and basically doesn't require any configuration.
If I try and set the eGPU as the primary Xorg will not start complaining there is no Screen found. 

The video ports on card don't appear to output at all, not just in X but during boot or any time.  Which seems like a hardware issue to me.

❯ xrandr --listproviders
Providers: number : 2
Provider 0: id: 0x4b cap: 0xb, Source Output, Sink Output, Sink Offload crtcs: 4 outputs: 9 associated providers: 1 name:Intel
Provider 1: id: 0x225 cap: 0x2, Sink Output crtcs: 4 outputs: 7 associated providers: 1 name:NVIDIA-G0

It seems that Nvidia only has the Sink Output option.  Although it does show it having 4 outputs, it just seems I can't get them to work.

sammmstr

Member

Registered: 2020-04-27

Posts: 8

Re: I'm having some issue with my new eGPU setup, please advise.

It seems I've resolved the issue with proton games not running in Steam.  I didn't do anything but add an Xorg config file for the nvidia device like so:

60-egpu.conf

Section "Device"
    Identifier "Nvidia"
    Driver     "nvidia"
    BusID      "PCI:62:0:0"              
    Option     "AllowExternalGpus" "True"
EndSection

I'm not sure if that was really the cause but now I am feeling pretty happy with the reverse prime style setup since I don't have to do any configuration change except reboot when I dock and un-dock the laptop.