I want to buy used laptop with rx6600m and r7 5800h
Does switch between discrete gpu and apu work on linux for amd gpus?
Maybe there are some pitfalls?
AMD gpus used to be very bad, but improved a lot in the last 2-3 years. I doubt you’ll have any issues these days.
I’ve had 3 laptops with AMD GPUs in the past - including the last one I still own that use in my shop - and my personal experience so far with Linux is that I’m about ready to kill someone: the machines are unstable, the displays get corrupted, they don’t wake up from sleep…
This last AMD GPU laptop I have (Vega 6 chipset) needs rebooting on a regular basis, and only kind of works okay with an older 5-series kernel.
Having said that, all the bad experiences I’ve had with AMDGPU were with machines older than 3 years. If you say the hardware has improved, I’m glad to hear that. But one thing is for sure: the latest driver is just as buggy and unreliable as it ever was on older hardware.
Maybe newer chipsets with newer drivers now work well. But you know what? I swore I’d never EVER get another machine that requires amdgpu.ko. I’ll go Intel graphics, it’s just safer.
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Linux Mint - any version.
I had huuge problems with AMD gpus in 2019. By 2023 the problems were gone.
They have reached and perhaps even surpassed Intel’s quality in terms of drivers. Everything just works.
Linux does not do GPU switching the same way Windows does, if that’s what you’re asking. You won’t be able to just dynamically switch between video adapters.
As far as the quality of the AMD APU chips, totally fine. They are the best on the market, obviously. I have a Ryzen 7000 series with a 680M, and it “just works”, as well as playing every title I’ve ever thrown at it totally smoothly.
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On Linux (Mesa), this feature is known as PRIME.
OH THAT’S WHY IT’S CALLED OPTIMUS
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Ah. Still, neat pun.
Yeah, hybrid graphics is a blessing. I have an Intel iGPU for Wayland/VA-API and Nvidia offload for Steam and it’s great.
You won’t be able to just dynamically switch between video adapters.
You will if you use GNOME, at least. It uses
switcherooto provide an easy way to open apps with your discrete GPU through a right click menu.deleted by creator
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This is render offloading, not GPU switching. GPU switching implies switching the primary rendering device (the one power the displays) entirely rather than rendering on a separate GPU and copying the output to the primary.
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I have an ancient HP laptop with an AMD CPU and vega graphics. It is legit one of my favorite systems to use Linux on. I have desktop towers with gpus that would run circles around it. But they’re Nvidia so that means I can’t use Wayland or the experience gets very unstable. This little laptop. It just cruises light fast and efficient. And though not up for modern gaming, still does respectable.
