Step 8
Now, in order to make all the rendering default to the discrete GPU, you need the follow the next steps very carefully. But first, you need to see if you really want to achieve this.
Why should you do that?
- Desktop environments as premium as GNOME, KDE and Deepin cannot afford to have the slightest of jitters. Your experience would be compromised if the animations are not smooth.
- You are likely to have greater memory consumption as a part of the RAM would be used to store the video buffer. CPU load will also increase to handle the video processing tasks.
Why should you not do that?
- With the discrete GPU turned on and used all the time, the battery life is likely to go haywire here. It should not be a concern for those who constantly use their devices while plugged.
- Increased generation of heat from the discrete GPU can be worrisome. You cannot quite play AAA-titles on Proton while keeping your laptop on your lap if you don’t want to get burnt.
Step 9
Execute the following command to copy the render details for the X11. cp -p /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/nvidia.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/nvidia.conf
Once done, open up the nvidia.conf from the copy destination and edit it to add Option "PrimaryGPU" "yes" to every section of it.
Open it using sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/nvidia.conf and make changes.
The file should look like this. Do not panic if it looks sightly different.
Look closely. I have added that line in both the sections.
Save it using [Ctrl]+[S] and exit out using [Ctrl]+[X].
Step 10
Reboot your system. We will run some tests in the next steps to see if it really worked or not.