NVIDIA have a little present available for Linux fans today, with the release of the 435.17 beta driver now being available.
This is a beta driver and it includes quite the highlight with the addition of PRIME render offload support for Vulkan and OpenGL. This is where you might have your Intel GPU running most normal applications, with an NVIDIA chip then powering your games. It's usually found in Notebooks and it's been a source of annoyance for NVIDIA Notebook owners for a long time, so it's really pleasing to see proper progress like this.
It comes with some caveats though, as it needs a very up to date X.Org Server with git commits not available in a normal release yet. However, if you're on Ubuntu 19.04 or 18.04 NVIDIA have provided a PPA. There's a little additional work needed for now too, you can read more about the PRIME render offload support here.
For the rest of what's in this new driver, it has the usual assortment of bug fixes and "experimental support for runtime D3 (RTD3) power management on Turing notebook GPUs". The full changelog can be found here.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
But that means bumblebee will be able to handle vulkan now? or is bumblebee not even necessary now?
Quoting: Exidanwhat a timing... I just bought a new notebook, and it has nvidia. I was already studying every possible way to handle multiple GPUs.I think if you take the PRIME render offload approach, you don't need bumblebee. However currently bumblebee can already handle vulkan with primus_vk.
But that means bumblebee will be able to handle vulkan now? or is bumblebee not even necessary now?
Quoting: dpanterNo more Bumblebee crap, you can use __NV_PRIME_RENDER_OFFLOAD=1 and other things now, details in the links. :)NOICE
Quoting: hagabakaI saw primus_vk, but people say its not a good solution right now (not stable).Quoting: Exidanwhat a timing... I just bought a new notebook, and it has nvidia. I was already studying every possible way to handle multiple GPUs.I think if you take the PRIME render offload approach, you don't need bumblebee. However currently bumblebee can already handle vulkan with primus_vk.
But that means bumblebee will be able to handle vulkan now? or is bumblebee not even necessary now?
Quoting: Exidanwhat a timing... I just bought a new notebook, and it has nvidia. I was already studying every possible way to handle multiple GPUs.
But that means bumblebee will be able to handle vulkan now? or is bumblebee not even necessary now?
Bumblebee is thrash and not necessary.
It has significant overhead. From now on , that solution should be used.
Without needing to logout to change active gpu ( Prime ) , Intel will be working on desktop but when you go gaming NV will kick in. Just like NV driver does on Windows for a very long time.
(And yes, I know it's an architectural limitation and there isn't really any way of using it and a PCIe card at the same time. But it's annoying all the same.)
Still great news... I hope it comes to Solus soon.
Luke_Nukem Aug 13, 2019
I'm not 100% sure the Nvidia chip is powered off for other older chips if it is unused after reading that. Sort of makes me think bbswitch might still be required for the older gen, though I'm not sure how that will interact (it usually requires the drivers to be unloaded?). Or maybe the older gen will go in to the lowest power state they can.
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