Bluefin prefers integrated GPU for all processes, ignores nvidia GPU

Bluefin
1
  • Bluefin-dx-nvidia 39
  • XPS 15 9520
  • RTX 3050 Mobile
  • Intel Iris Xe integrated graphics

nvidia-smi does recognize GPU but only ever lists gnome-shell as the only process.

2

Do you see your graphics card in Mission Center ? If yes then just right click on any app and select ‘Launch using Discrete Graphics Card’ option.

If you want to use your RTX 3050 as default try steps which are mentioned here. I would not recommend to use it as default since it will overheat the laptop so I always use ‘Launch using Discrete Graphics Card’ option.

Hope it helps :slightly_smiling_face:.

PS: You can check Mission Center to verify if your dedicated GPU is being used or not when you use ‘Launch using Discrete Graphics Card’ option.

3

That seems to have been the issue. I was unaware I had to do that.

I launched Steam with Discrete Graphics Card and started a game (Noita) and I can now see them show up with nvidia-smi.

The game is running much worse than it did under Win11 on the same laptop and on my desktop which is running an AMD GPU + Bluefin.

Do you have any resources for gaming on Bluefin? If not, I can mark this as solved.

4

Yay! Happy that it worked for you :smiley:.

I am not so sure why that’s the case but try switching to x11 and see if it makes any difference. Nvidia has better support for x11 since it was around for a long time. Also you might want to check this.

I don’t do any gaming except CS 1.6 using Bottles and i didn’t face any issues except heating but I think it was normal even before.

I think you can try Bazzite or read more ideas here