Table of Contents
Ubuntu - GPU - Run a program on your dedicated AMD graphics card
Check that your dedicated AMD graphics card shows up
lspci
returns:
... 0b:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Navi 10 [Radeon RX 5600 OEM/5600 XT / 5700/5700 XT] (rev c1) ...
Check that the amdgpu kernel module is loaded
lsmod | grep -i amd
returns:
edac_mce_amd 32768 0 kvm_amd 102400 0 kvm 729088 1 kvm_amd amdgpu 5341184 17 iommu_v2 20480 1 amdgpu gpu_sched 36864 1 amdgpu ttm 102400 1 amdgpu drm_kms_helper 225280 1 amdgpu ccp 102400 1 kvm_amd drm 561152 10 gpu_sched,drm_kms_helper,amdgpu,ttm i2c_algo_bit 16384 2 igb,amdgpu
Test to see if we can run anything on it
glxinfo | grep "OpenGL renderer" DRI_PRIME=1 glxinfo | grep "OpenGL renderer"
NOTE: The above runs glxinfo twice.
The first one would pick up any integrated graphics cards.
The second one should pick up the dedicated graphics card. The key here is the DRI_PRIME=1 environment variable - this tells the amdgpu driver that this process should run on the dedicated graphics and not the integrated graphics card.
returns:
OpenGL renderer string: AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT (NAVI10, DRM 3.38.0, 5.8.2-050802-generic, LLVM 10.0.1) OpenGL renderer string: AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT (NAVI10, DRM 3.38.0, 5.8.2-050802-generic, LLVM 10.0.1)
The lines in this case are identical as there is no integrated GPU so it only returns the dedicated GPU.
Run a program against the dedicated card
DRI_PRIME=1 inkscape DRI_PRIME=1 python3 path/to/script.py
NOTE: If errors are received using the DRI_PRIME=1 statement:
Add radeon.runpm=0 to the file /etc/default/grub in the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT section, and then add DRI_PRIME=1 to the end of the file /etc/environment.
Then run sudo update-grub before rebooting.
To have DRI_PRIME=1 automatically added for all running processes
Edit the file at /etc/environment.
sudo vi /etc/environment
and add DRI_PRIME=1 on a new line and then reboot.
NOTE: This should add the environment variable to all running processes.
- You can check it has worked (after a reboot) with htop.
- Execute htop, and then navigate to a process you would like to check.
- Then press e on your keyboard, and it will show a list of environment variables for that process - which should include DRI_PRIME=1.