NVIDIA Optimus

Related articles
PRIME
Bumblebee
Nouveau
NVIDIA
nvidia-xrun
External GPU
This article or section needs expansion.
Reason:
Make clear what's specific to X and what is usable on Wayland.
Remove the leftover mentions of "Intel" instead of "integrated": Optimus also works with AMD iGPUs.
(Discuss in
Talk:NVIDIA Optimus
)
NVIDIA Optimus
is a technology that allows an integrated GPU and discrete NVIDIA GPU to be built into and accessed by a laptop. As a prerequisite, install the relevant
GPU driver
for both cards.
Available methods
There are several methods available:
#Use integrated graphics only
- saves power, because NVIDIA GPU will be completely powered off.
#Use NVIDIA graphics only
- gives more performance than integrated graphics, but drains more battery (which is not welcome for mobile devices). This utilizes the same underlying process as the
optimus-manager
and
nvidia-xrun
options, it should be utilized for troubleshooting and verifying general functionality, before opting for one of the more automated approaches.
Using both (use NVIDIA GPU when needed and keep it powered off to save power):
#Using PRIME render offload
- official method supported by NVIDIA.
#Using switcheroo-control
- Similar to PRIME render offload, but has desktop environment integration, and also works with AMD and Intel GPUs. Allows applications to specify if they prefer the dedicated GPU in their
desktop entry
file, and lets you manually run any application on the dedicated GPU from the right-click menu.
#Using optimus-manager
- switches graphics with a single command (logout and login required to take effect). Also supports hybrid mode with PRIME render offload. It achieves maximum performance out of NVIDIA GPU and switches it off if not in use. Since the 1.4 release AMD+NVIDIA combination is also supported.
#Using nvidia-xrun
- run separate X session on different TTY with NVIDIA graphics. It achieves maximum performance out of NVIDIA GPU and switches it off if not in use.
#Using Bumblebee
- provides Windows-like functionality by allowing to run selected applications with NVIDIA graphics while using Intel graphics for everything else. Has significant performance issues.
#Using nouveau
- offers poorer performance (compared to the proprietary NVIDIA driver) and may cause issues with sleep and hibernate. Does not work with latest NVIDIA GPUs.
#Using EnvyControl
- Similar to optimus-manager but does not require extensive configuration or having a daemon running in the background as well as having to install a patched version of GDM if you are a GNOME user.
#Using NVidia-eXec
- Similar to Bumblebee, but without the performance impact. It works on both Xorg and Wayland. This package is experimental, and is currently being tested only under GNOME/GDM.
#Using nvidia-switch
- Similar to nvidia-xrun, but not needing to change TTY, the switches will be done by login and logouts in your display manager. This package is being tested on Debian based system, but, like nvidia-xrun, it must work in all Linux systems.
Note
All of these options are mutually exclusive, if you test one approach and decide for another, you must ensure to revert any configuration changes done by following one approach before attempting another method, otherwise file conflicts and undefined behaviours may arise.
Use integrated graphics only
If you only care to use a certain GPU without switching, check the options in your system's BIOS. There should be an option to disable one of the cards. Some laptops only allow disabling of the discrete card, or vice-versa, but it is worth checking if you only plan to use just one of the cards.
If your BIOS does not allow to disable Nvidia graphics, you can disable it from the Linux kernel itself. See
Hybrid graphics#Fully power down discrete GPU
.
Use CUDA without switching the rendering provider
You can use CUDA without switching rendering to the Nvidia graphics. All you need to do is ensure that the Nvidia card is powered on before starting a CUDA application, see
Hybrid graphics#Fully power down discrete GPU
for details.
Now when you start a CUDA application, it will automatically load all necessary kernel modules. Before turning off the Nvidia card after using CUDA, the
nvidia
kernel modules have to be unloaded first:
# rmmod nvidia_uvm
# rmmod nvidia
Use NVIDIA graphics only
The proprietary NVIDIA driver can be configured to be the primary rendering provider. It also has notable screen-tearing issues unless you enable prime sync by enabling
NVIDIA#DRM kernel mode setting
, see
[1]
for further information. It does allow use of the discrete GPU and has (as of
January 2017
) a marked edge in performance over the nouveau driver.
First,
install
the
NVIDIA
driver and
xorg-xrandr
. Then, configure
/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-nvidia-drm-outputclass.conf
the options of which will be combined with the package provided
/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-nvidia-drm-outputclass.conf
to provide compatibility with this setup.
Note
On some setups this setup breaks automatic detection of the values of the display by the nvidia driver through the EDID file. As a work-around see
#Resolution, screen scan wrong. EDID errors in Xorg.log
.
/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-nvidia-drm-outputclass.conf
Section "OutputClass"
    Identifier "intel"
    MatchDriver "i915"
    Driver "modesetting"
EndSection

Section "OutputClass"
    Identifier "nvidia"
    MatchDriver "nvidia-drm"
    Driver "nvidia"
    Option "AllowEmptyInitialConfiguration"
    Option "PrimaryGPU" "yes"
    ModulePath "/usr/lib/nvidia/xorg"
    ModulePath "/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
EndSection
Next, add the following two lines to the beginning of your
~/.xinitrc
:
~/.xinitrc
xrandr --setprovideroutputsource modesetting NVIDIA-0
xrandr --auto
Now reboot to load the drivers, and X should start.
If your display dpi is not correct add the following line:
xrandr --dpi 96
If you get a black screen when starting X, make sure that there are no ampersands after the two
xrandr
commands in
~/.xinitrc
. If there are ampersands, it seems that the window manager can run before the
xrandr
commands finish executing, leading to a black screen.
Display managers
If you are using a
display manager
then you will need to create or edit a display setup script for your display manager instead of using
~/.xinitrc
.
LightDM
For the
LightDM
display manager:
/etc/lightdm/display_setup.sh
#!/bin/sh
xrandr --setprovideroutputsource modesetting NVIDIA-0
xrandr --auto
Make the script
executable
.
Now configure lightdm to run the script by editing the
[Seat:*]
section in
/etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf
:
/etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf
[Seat:*]
display-setup-script=/etc/lightdm/display_setup.sh
Now reboot and your display manager should start.
SDDM
For the
SDDM
display manager (SDDM is the default DM for
KDE
):
/usr/share/sddm/scripts/Xsetup
xrandr --setprovideroutputsource modesetting NVIDIA-0
xrandr --auto
GDM
For the
GDM
display manager create two new .desktop files:
/usr/share/gdm/greeter/autostart/optimus.desktop
/etc/xdg/autostart/optimus.desktop
[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name=Optimus
Exec=sh -c "xrandr --setprovideroutputsource modesetting NVIDIA-0; xrandr --auto"
NoDisplay=true
X-GNOME-Autostart-Phase=DisplayServer
Make sure that GDM use
X as default backend
.
Checking 3D
You can check if the NVIDIA graphics are being used by installing
mesa-utils
and running
$ glxinfo | grep NVIDIA
Further information
For more information, look at NVIDIA's official page on the topic
[2]
.
Use switchable graphics
Using PRIME render offload
This is the official NVIDIA method to support switchable graphics.
See
PRIME#PRIME render offload
for details.
Using switcheroo-control
See
PRIME#Desktop environment integration
.
Using optimus-manager
See
Optimus-manager
upstream documentation. It covers both installation and configuration in Arch Linux systems.
Using nvidia-xrun
See
nvidia-xrun
.
Using Bumblebee
See
Bumblebee
.
Using nouveau
See
PRIME
for graphics switching and
nouveau
for open-source NVIDIA driver.
Using EnvyControl
See
EnvyControl
upstream documentation. It covers both installation and usage instructions.
Using NVidia-eXec
See
NVidia-eXec
upstream documentation. It covers both installation and usage instructions.
Using nvidia-switch
See
nvidia-switch
upstream documentation. It covers both installation and usage instructions.
Troubleshooting
This article or section needs language, wiki syntax or style improvements. See
Help:Style
for reference.
Reason:
This section is meaningless without specifying which solution is used in each subsection: integrated-only, NVIDIA-only, or switchable. In case of
#Use switchable graphics
, the troubleshooting belongs to one of the linked pages. (Discuss in
Talk:NVIDIA Optimus
)
Tearing/Broken VSync
Enable
DRM kernel mode setting
, which will in turn enable the PRIME synchronization and fix the tearing.
You can read the official
forum thread
for details.
Failed to initialize the NVIDIA GPU at PCI:1:0:0 (GPU fallen off the bus / RmInitAdapter failed!)
Add
rcutree.gp_init_delay=1
to the kernel parameters. Original topic can be found in
[3]
and
[4]
.
Resolution, screen scan wrong. EDID errors in Xorg.log
This is due to the NVIDIA driver not detecting the EDID for the display. You need to manually specify the path to an EDID file or provide the same information in a similar way.
To provide the path to the EDID file edit the Device Section for the NVIDIA card in Xorg.conf, adding these lines and changing parts to reflect your own system:
/etc/X11/xorg.conf
Section "Device"
       	Option		"ConnectedMonitor" "CRT-0"
       	Option		"CustomEDID" "CRT-0:/sys/class/drm/card0-LVDS-1/edid"
	Option		"IgnoreEDID" "false"
	Option		"UseEDID" "true"
EndSection
If Xorg will not start try swapping out all references of CRT to DFB.
card0
is the identifier for the Intel card to which the display is connected via LVDS. The edid binary is in this directory. If the hardware arrangement is different, the value for CustomEDID might vary but yet this has to be confirmed. The path will start in any case with
/sys/class/drm
.
Alternatively you can generate your edid with tools like
read-edid
and point the driver to this file. Even modelines can be used, but then be sure to change
UseEDID
and
IgnoreEDID
.
Wrong resolution without EDID errors
Using
nvidia-xconfig
, incorrect information might be generated in
xorg.conf
and in particular wrong monitor refresh rates that restrict the possible resolutions. Try commenting out the
HorizSync
/
VertRefresh
lines. If this helps, you can probably also remove everything else not mentioned in this article.
Lockup issue (lspci hangs)
Symptoms: lspci hangs, system suspend fails, shutdown hangs, optirun hangs.
Applies to: newer laptops with GTX 965M or alike when bbswitch (e.g. via Bumblebee) or nouveau is in use.
When the dGPU power resource is turned on, it may fail to do so and hang in ACPI code (
kernel bug 156341
).
When using nouveau, disabling runtime power-management stops it from changing the power state, thus avoiding this issue.
To disable runtime power-management, add
nouveau.runpm=0
to the kernel parameters.
For known model-specific workarounds, see
this issue
.
In other cases you can try to boot with
acpi_osi="!Windows 2015"
or
acpi_osi=! acpi_osi="Windows 2009"
added to your
Kernel parameters
. (Consider reporting your laptop to that issue.)
No screens found on a laptop/NVIDIA Optimus
Check if the output is something similar to:
$ lspci -nnd ::03xx
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:0042] 
(rev 18)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: nVidia Corporation Device 0df4 [10de:0df4] (rev a1)
NVIDIA drivers now offer Optimus support since 319.12 Beta
[5]
with kernels above and including 3.9.
Another solution is to install the
Intel
driver to handle the screens, then if you want 3D software you should run them through
Bumblebee
to tell them to use the NVIDIA card.
Random freezes "(EE) NVIDIA(GPU-0): WAIT"
Using the proprietary drivers on a setup with an integrated AMD card and with the dedicated NVIDIA card set as the only one in use, users report freezes for up to 10 seconds, with the following errors in the Xorg logs:
[   219.796] (EE) NVIDIA(GPU-0): WAIT (2, 8, 0x8000, 0x0002e1c4, 0x0002e1cc)
[   226.796] (EE) NVIDIA(GPU-0): WAIT (1, 8, 0x8000, 0x0002e1c4, 0x0002e1cc)
While this is not root-caused yet, it seems linked to a conflict in how the integrated and dedicated cards interact with Xorg.
The workaround is to use switchable graphics, see
PRIME#PRIME render offload
for details.
"No Devices detected" with optimus-manager
There are cases where
lspci
will show the PCI domain as first output column, making
optimus-manager
generated files break while trying to map
BusID
on multiple laptop models.
If you face a black screen that never ends to load your GUI, GUI partially loading with console artifacts or Xorg crashing with
(EE) - No Devices detected
, the workaround and bug reports are available at the
upstream GitHub
.
Xorg: external monitor updates only when the mouse is moving
A workaround for the issue is to uninstall the Xorg driver of the iGPU (e.g.
xf86-video-amdgpu
or
xf86-video-intel
)
[6]
. This should work as long as the external monitor port (HDMI/DP/USB-C) is connected directly to the Nvidia dGPU.
Tip
The desktop behavior may become quirky (e.g. switching virtual desktops or Alt-Tab'ing freezes the image on the external monitor), which can be also worked around by disabling the laptop's monitor.
Low power usage (TDP)
Since the 530.41 driver version, cases of cards locked at low power consumption limits appeared (see
GitHub issue 483
). The NVIDIA driver has disabled the ability to manually set the power limit using
nvidia-smi
command, so many laptops are stuck with low power usage and bad performance.
To workaround this problem (for the Ampere generation or newer), see
NVIDIA/Tips and tricks#Dynamic Boost
.
NVIDIA GPU will not turn off or stay deactivated
Some processes may keep your NVIDIA GPU on due to their way of interacting with the GPU. This causes significantly increased power usage, lower battery life, and higher temperatures.
You can check if your GPU is in an active state or suspended by running the following command:
$ cat /sys/bus/pci/devices/0000\:01\:00.0/power/runtime_status
If the state is
active
, you are probably running a process that keeps your GPU alive.
If you use a thermal monitor that is probing your GPU temperature, it typically calls
nvidia-smi
to get this temperature, which will wake up your GPU and keep it in an active state.
You can use
nvtop
to check if a process (such as Xorg) is using the NVIDIA GPU, but this method does not work in all cases. For example, if you have a
Ollama
server running, it will always keep your GPU on but will not show in
nvtop
or invoke
nvidia-smi
.
Remember to check the articles related to your specific chosen method for troubleshooting as well.