Recommended way to have integrated Intel as primary GPU and Nvidia for offloading?

Aurora
1

I’m thinking of installing Aurora-dx on my Dell XPS-15 9530 laptop, which has an Intel integrated GPU as well as a Nvidia 4060 dedicated GPU.

My question is: what is the recommended way to set it up to use the Intel integrated GPU as the primary, with the Nvidia dGPU for offloading (for particular applications and CUDA)?

Should I download the Aurora-dx-nvidia image, even though I plan to use the Intel as the primary? Or get the non-Nvidia image and add the Nvidia drivers? Do I need to install any other software, like switcheroo or supergfxctl?

Any help is appreciated.

2

Sounds like the Nvidia image is recommended in this case from this thread:

I’m still interested in what else is needed to set the Intel as the primary and Nvidia for offloading.

3

I can’t answer for aurora ,but I installed bazzite-nvidia on my laptop with intel integrated + nvidia dedicated gpu directly,when installed I enabled supergfxctl that is already preinstalled with the ujust command

ujust enable-supergfxctl

Rebooted and now the nvidia gpu should be prepared for offloading apps.

I would think you need to install aurora-dx-nvidia-stable since it should come preinstalled with supergfxctl as bazzite-nvidia.

4

To my knowledge the nvidia image (dx or non dx both should work?) is the one you want. To setup nvidia dynamic power management theres ujust configure-nvidia-optimus iirc. i don’t think aurora has the bazzite ujust but switcheroo control is preinstalled. So you can do “systemctl enable supergfxd” and “systemctl start supergfxd” which provides easy gpu switching (integrated / hybrid / vfio) from the system tray (if it doesnt pop up u can add the widget manually).
I also like to edit /etc/supergfxd.conf to make rebootless and loginless switching (seamless). This is my currenct config. You might need to reboot the first time after editing it tho, or restart the service with systemctl restart supergfxd.
{
“mode”: “Integrated”,
“vfio_enable”: true,
“vfio_save”: false,
“always_reboot”: false,
“no_logind”: true,
“logout_timeout_s”: 60,
“hotplug_type”: “None”
}

5

If the switching doesn’t work you can change the hotplug type to “Asus” even on non Asus computers but I didn’t need to personally. You need a reboot if you change that however before it can work.

6

If you have an Nvidia GPU and want to use it, you’ll want one of the -nvivida images.
My Intel A380 drives my displays, and my Nvidia RTX A-4500 is for machine learning, but I still need the Nvidia drivers so I can use CUDA on the GPU.