How can I disable the NVIDIA Optimus chip?

To this question, it may sound like there are a lot of confliction with this question already, well... let me explain first:

Ubuntu 11.04 - disable NVIDIA graphics card -- To this, I am using Arch and it does not seem like arch has the /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf file and i would never want to install the driver (novaeu or something).
How to disable NVIDIA Optimus on a Dell XPS 15? -- That's for Windows.
Disabling NVidia Optimus -- Doesn't tell you how.
Disable my nVidia video card driver in Linux -- I don't have a domU and that's for a virtual machine.

Well, I guess that's it for the explaination, time for the question: You see, I've bought a Samsung NP300E4Z and installed Arch Linux on it, I can't adjust the display and there has been a lot of problems.

I have 2 GPUs here.

The Intel Integrated GPU (Core i5).
The Optimus GPU.

My goal is to disable the Optimus GPU just as it does not exist at all in the computer system. Once the Optimus GPU is disabled, I will use the Integrated GPU.

Now, I've checked the BIOS. Unfortunately, the BIOS is does not like me to "own" (configurate) the machine! I bought it, I should have the right to hack it :/

I've got the goal, but I have no idea. How do I disable the Optimus chip as if it does not exist in the computer system?

milo64

Posted 2013-01-11T15:36:06.087

Reputation: 43

maybe this helps you https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Hybrid_graphics

– Lorenzo Von Matterhorn – 2013-01-11T15:43:19.720

What laptop make do you have? You should absolutely have the option of disabling graphics in the bios. Regardless, I recommend bumblebee for Arch, I posted a link in @DragoonPL1's comment section since they are dead on, imo. – nerdwaller – 2013-01-11T16:30:53.610

@nerdwaller a Samsung. It is shipped with the "Pheonix BIOS". – milo64 – 2013-01-12T03:30:00.193

Answers

I don't know a way to completely hide and disable NVIDIA GPU, but Bumblebee offers a way to use the dedicated GPU in graphics-demanding apps with optirun command. It also uses a bbswitch kernel module to handle switching the dedicated GPU on and off, so you can turn it off for good (read: never use optirun) to save power. You cannot completely disable Optimus. There's Bumblebee site: http://bumblebee-project.org/ - and bbswitch GitHub page: https://github.com/Bumblebee-Project/bbswitch - the second one is what you should read. It says you should add bbswitch load_state=0 to /etc/modules or /etc/modules.conf (I'm not using Arch, sorry) to disable it on boot.

Dragoon Aethis

Posted 2013-01-11T15:36:06.087

Reputation: 45

Also, uninstall the NVIDIA and Nouveau driver. It breaks most stuff if you install it on Optimus system. Tested in battle. – Dragoon Aethis – 2013-01-11T16:27:19.567

It helpful to refer to the ArchLinux Bumblebee page instead, since it's specific to your system as well.

– nerdwaller – 2013-01-11T16:29:47.600

-1

Easy answer get a external monitor then connect it to laptop after that it will disable Optimus and you will get full performance of your gpu

WildFN

Posted 2013-01-11T15:36:06.087

Reputation: 1

-1

The answer is you cannot.

"OPTIMUS" is not an actual chip embedded in the hardware. It's just a fancy name NVIDIA came up with for a background function of the driver (software) that can automatically specify which GPU is used for rendering for specific applications on motherboards that have integrated GPU units.

If you just want to use the i7 Graphics Processor Unit, then you can go into "NVIDIA control panel / Manage 3D Settings"

From there, set your global settings "Preferred Graphics Processor:" to Integrated Graphics. By doing this, Windows and all applications that run within it will only utilize the integrated i7 GPU for any rendering that's needed, overriding OPTIMUS.

mxrclxst

Posted 2013-01-11T15:36:06.087

Reputation: 89