But it does work! Has anybody here heard of negativo17’s fedora repository for the Nvidia driver and all related cuda tools? He’s doing great work, and has had Nvidia Optimus working seamlessly on fedora since 2016.
Not kidding guys, I have an Acer predator 17 gaming laptop with Nvidia Optimus working on fedora since 2016. The only downside is you can’t turn off the Intel gpu. Otherwise you simply add the repository, type in a few commands and you’re done.
then thats not working.
No. It is working, just without power saving function. For you to say it is not working at all is nonsense.
Optimus does not work the way it does on windows. Period. I dont understand whats so hard about that for you to grasp. Even the negativo repo says this.
You are not switching automatically.
No need to be rude.
I grasp things just fine thank you very much, and have done thorough research on this subject.
You’re right on one point, that the switching is not done “automatically” but it’s very close to automatic.
If you leave Optimus enabled in the bios, you retain the power saving features by running the DE on the Intel GPU and launching games or 3d accelerated applications with the Nvidia GPU. No commands needed. The Nvidia GPU turns off when no application is hooked to it. Even a GUI is added. Again, how can you say that it’s broken? Nonsense.
No, its all manual. Prime offloading is not a solution to the problem that optimus solves. PRIME offloading != Optimus.
Because instead of running 1 gpu you end up running both. This is not the intended function of optimus.
but sure, whatever you want bro, optimus works great on laptops running linux.
Did you look at negativo17’s page? The power saving features work fine. The Nvidia GPU turns off when no application is hooking to it, saving power. The only difference between windows and Linux is you cannot seamlessly run the display engine on either the Intel or Nvidia GPU without rebooting. It is a workaround to their proprietary solution, but achieves the same results.
This could arguably be the solution for the OP which is why I am voicing it. All the features work. Just not the automatic GPU selector that windows has, that reads every program you use and decides which application to set it to appropriately based off of a preference list that Nvidia controls.
Not to start bashing Optimus, but even the automatic windows GPU selector for Optimus doesn’t work all the time. I had to set it to launch Minecraft on the Nvidia GPU because I was using the GLSL shaders mod and it ran like poop on the Intel GPU.
Lets not drag this topic down into endless discussion guys,
because it does not really get better from that i guess.
The way i see it is that Negativo sorta kinda works,
it’s not the most ideal solution, but at least it’s something.
Switchable graphics simply does not work the way it works on windows,
at least it doesn’t goes fully automatic.
And it likely never will be.
But that there are tools like Negativo at least gives you sorta an easy way to still,
use the double gpu functionality, without having to reboot every time etc.
Still it might be an interesting discussion about the Negativo thing.
However it’s not really needed to turn it into a negative debate.
I don’t point a finger to anyone specifically , but i guess you both understand what i mean. 
Fair enough.
The problem I have is you get no power savings at all when you run anything on the Nvidia GPU. It’s not something special the negativo repo is doing either, it’s just an up to date driver. It’s functionally what bumblebee already did.
If you have to run both gpus then what’s the point? You could just switch manually and get the power saving as intended.
Most laptops have a problem dealing with the thermals of a single GPU and CPU alone. Add in the heat of an iGPU to that.
Switchable graphics is a pain on linux really.
I know because i also have a laptop currently that has switchable graphics,
intel igpu and AMD gpu.
And yeah it’s truly a pain, i currently only use the igpu part,
and disabled the amd gpu in the bios.
The Negativo might actually be some sort of a solution,
for the lack of better.
It especially sucks when the tunability of Linux is there to make it on par or better than windows imo. Hopefully Nvidia does something to possibly open source the Linux driver or does something to make nouveau driver good.
The power savings are there. It’s just implemented differently on negativo17’s repo. The Nvidia gpu does turn off when it’s not being used.
I seem to be the only one here trying to come up with a solution rather than complain. Not pointing fingers at anyone specifically here, just kinda surprised how easily dismissive you guys are of the subject
I definitelly agree that Negativo is an interesting to solution to look at.
Sure it’s definitelly not as ideal like on windows,
But i think that it can´t be expected either in that regards.
but at least it’s something for the lack of better.
I personally just gave up on switchable graphics on Linux,
for the time being.
But for topic starter it might actualy be an interesting item to look at.
You came in here arguing semantics about what I said. No one is being dismissive. Switching manually is well documented and usable. It’s not as simple as windows. Prime offloading is neat, but it’s still not like windows. If the op is ok with that then cool. All we’ve done is set the expectation of how it will probably work for them.
No complaints. No dismissing.
I tried it earlier today. It’s workable but I can’t recommend fedora 31 currently. Just my personal opinion.
Coming from the one posting sarcastic memes and trying to argue with every one of my suggestions…? Need not go off topic here.
I am glad you tried it out, because it does achieve nearly the same results (power and performance) as windows. It is a solution.
You’re arguing semantics of what I said and I’m done with it. Stop now.
Is it even possible to do the manual GPU disablement if all of the video outputs of a laptop, mine for example, are connected through the integrated graphics alone, never touching the dedicated graphics?
It looks to me like the inconvenience of having to turn the laptop off and on whenever you need some extra horsepower is not worth the power savings one gets by doing so, which makes PRIME offloading more appealing under most circumstances, not to mention that there may be times when turning the laptop off is out of the question for whatever reason.
@Adubs it seems to me you want to have the last word here and won’t give up on your attitude. Why are you so bitter?
Yes @elsandosgrande that’s the point I’ve been trying to make this entire time with Adubs. Using negativo17’s implementation, it is configured so that if you don’t have anything hooked to your Nvidia GPU it’ll shut off, saving huge amounts of energy. No need to restart the laptop
Is this new? I haven’t really explored this part of negativo’s repo. Might have to give it a go one of these days.
