Hybrid ATI/ATI - Intel/ATI solution: small switcheroo how to

[airlied]

I believe the current code is intended for hybrid graphics systems which use video switches to connect either the discrete or integrated GPU outputs to the display.

I don't think anyone has written code to redirect acceleration to the discrete GPU then blit the resulting frames back to the IGP's frame buffer, so in the meantime you would need to switch your display between the two outputs manually.

Oh I've written it, its just hella lot of work to make work properly ;-)

search for airlied PRIME.

Dave.

[bridgman]

I believe the current code is intended for hybrid graphics systems which use video switches to connect either the discrete or integrated GPU outputs to the display.

I don't think anyone has written code to redirect acceleration to the discrete GPU then blit the resulting frames back to the IGP's frame buffer, so in the meantime you would need to switch your display between the two outputs manually.

[Death Knight]

I have ATI 790GX (3300 onboard) and HD6850 ATI card on my "Desktop"
HD6850 open source drivers is not ready now but it will come in months, my question is for situation after open source driver comes to 6850...

I wonder that If I could use this hack to disable unused card for power saving purposes?

Will Current state of hack work on discrete GPUs on Desktop? Or I needed to connect another connector to Monitor? (My monitor has 2 input, could use one VGA for 3300 and DVI for 6850 and could switch between them)

Also wonder that If I could use 6850 for just accelerate 3300? I wanted to make 6850 disabled most of the time. Is this hack redirects rendering to 6850 and copy results to 3300's frame buffer? Or is it easy to implement such a thing?

Thanks.

[BlackStar]

How do I determine then that I have been switched over to the integrated or discrete (using the open source driver) GPU... is there a way to verify that the code is working?

For nvidia/intel combos, try "glxinfo | grep vendor".

[allbread]

I believe the switcheroo code is written and tested with the assumption that you will be running open source drivers on both GPUs. Not saying it won't work with a proprietary driver but I don't know if anyone has ever tested that configuration...

... so suggest you get it working with open drivers first before you experiment with proprietary drivers.

How do I determine then that I have been switched over to the integrated or discrete (using the open source driver) GPU... is there a way to verify that the code is working?

[bridgman]

I believe the switcheroo code is written and tested with the assumption that you will be running open source drivers on both GPUs. Not saying it won't work with a proprietary driver but I don't know if anyone has ever tested that configuration...

... so suggest you get it working with open drivers first before you experiment with proprietary drivers.

[allbread]

I am going to attempt this on my W500 (running Linux Mint 10/Julia), my primary references aside from this thread are:

http://asusm51ta-with-linux.blogspot.com/

although hopefully it will be as simple as:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HybridGraphics

Is there anything more up to date that I should be looking at - or a reference more specific to my hardware?

Should I post my results here... or is there a better place where I should be detailing issues I may encounter?

Okay so I've run through the procedure on: http://asusm51ta-with-linux.blogspot.com/ ...

Is there an easy way to determine if my discrete card has been activated... checking the proprietary drivers via the "Additional Drivers" would seem to indicate that "No proprietary drivers are in use on this system"... is that accurate?

Do I need to activate the hardware drivers prior to running the switcheroo script?

How do I determine if the script is actually working?

[agd5f]

Will ever be possible to switch on the fly without having to log out?

It's doable, there's just a lot of work to be done. The xserver needs a lot of infrastructural changes to migrate content to between drivers when the switch takes place, and then the apps have to deal with that fact the GL support may have changed between drivers (e.g., one supports GL2, one supports GL3), etc.

[allbread]

Thinkpad W500 (Intel GMA 4500MHD + ATI FireGL v5700)

I am going to attempt this on my W500 (running Linux Mint 10/Julia), my primary references aside from this thread are:

http://asusm51ta-with-linux.blogspot.com/

although hopefully it will be as simple as:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HybridGraphics

Is there anything more up to date that I should be looking at - or a reference more specific to my hardware?

Should I post my results here... or is there a better place where I should be detailing issues I may encounter?

[darkbasic]

Will ever be possible to switch on the fly without having to log out?