How do you test if NVIDIA Optimus switching? [SOLVED]

[hfk22]

Hi,
Following the wiki:

http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/NVIDIA_Driver_with_Optimus_Laptops

and the forum post:

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-959568-postdays-0-postorder-asc-start-0.html

I now have graphics on my laptop. As a note, I need to add "intel nvidia modesetting" to VIDEO_CARDS in make.conf. At the same time, how do you test if the graphics cards switching between the NVIDIA and Intel card is working? When I run glxgears, I see about 17000-19000 FPS, so I figure the NVIDIA piece is working. But, again, how can I tell if the Intel piece turns on?

[Roman_Gruber]

i would not trust glxgears at all, afaik it runs at 60 fps if possible.

glxinfo ...

have you checked what nvidia-settings shows you?

if you really want to verfiy it you need to measure the power consumption of your hardware. you should see a difference but that needs external testing setup.

[krinn]

In theory : with 2D the intel is at work, and with 3D the nvidia is at work.
I don't know howto see the intel at work, but i know how to see the nvidia at work, so you can guess per default when the nvidia isn't working the intel is doing it.
You can see gpu utilization, memory and bus utilization of an nvidia card in nvidia settings GUI (something i suppose the command line can output too if you wish). Look at the GPU section to check them.
On desktop with composite enable, the nvidia should always be at work.
And you can also do glxgears -info that will output at first line the card name in use.

ps: glxgears doesn't run if possible at 60fps, but at your screen refresh rate and only if Sync to VBlank is enable.

[hfk22]

Good call. Under nvidia-settings, there's a section titled: