Dual nvidia and amd radeon gpus question

Hello all,

I have the following setup:

$ lspci | grep -i vga
03:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GK104 [GeForce GTX 760] (rev a1)
08:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Ellesmere [Radeon RX 470/480/570/570X/580/580X/590] (rev e7)

and I am using the nvidia gpu as the main gpu for manjaro and the radeon one I use it for a virtual machine with qemu/kvm in a windows 10 client. For this I am isolating the radeon gpu right from the start to use vfio drivers.

08:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Ellesmere [Radeon RX 470/480/570/570X/580/580X/590] (rev e7) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
        Subsystem: Sapphire Technology Limited Nitro+ Radeon RX 570/580/590
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 255, IOMMU group 21
        Memory at 7fd0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
        Memory at 7fe0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=2M]
        I/O ports at f000 [disabled] [size=256]
        Memory at fcb00000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256K]
        Expansion ROM at fcb40000 [disabled] [size=128K]
        Capabilities: <access denied>
        Kernel driver in use: vfio-pci
        Kernel modules: amdgpu

08:00.1 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Ellesmere HDMI Audio [Radeon RX 470/480 / 570/580/590]
        Subsystem: Sapphire Technology Limited Device aaf0
        Flags: fast devsel, IRQ 255, IOMMU group 21
        Memory at fcb60000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [disabled] [size=16K]
        Capabilities: <access denied>
        Kernel driver in use: vfio-pci
        Kernel modules: snd_hda_intel

while for nvidia I have:

03:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GK104 [GeForce GTX 760] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
        Subsystem: ZOTAC International (MCO) Ltd. Device 3265
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 100, IOMMU group 19
        Memory at fb000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
        Memory at 7fe8000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
        Memory at 7ff0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=32M]
        I/O ports at e000 [size=128]
        Expansion ROM at fc000000 [virtual] [disabled] [size=512K]
        Capabilities: <access denied>
        Kernel driver in use: nvidia
        Kernel modules: nouveau, nvidia_drm, nvidia

Can anyone help me figure out if the nvidia video drivers are installed correctly in manjaro?

My confusion comes from this:

$ sudo mhwd -l
> 0000:03:00.0 (0300:10de:1187) Display controller nVidia Corporation:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                  NAME               VERSION          FREEDRIVER           TYPE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
video-hybrid-amd-nvidia-450xx-prime            2019.10.25               false            PCI
video-hybrid-amd-nvidia-440xx-prime            2019.10.25               false            PCI
video-hybrid-amd-nvidia-435xx-prime            2019.10.25               false            PCI
    video-nvidia-450xx            2019.10.25               false            PCI
    video-nvidia-440xx            2019.10.25               false            PCI
    video-nvidia-435xx            2019.10.25               false            PCI
    video-nvidia-430xx            2019.10.25               false            PCI
    video-nvidia-418xx            2019.10.25               false            PCI
    video-nvidia-390xx            2019.10.25               false            PCI
    video-nvidia-340xx            2019.10.25               false            PCI
           video-linux            2018.05.04                true            PCI
     video-modesetting            2020.01.13                true            PCI
            video-vesa            2017.03.12                true            PCI


> 0000:08:00.0 (0300:1002:67df) Display controller ATI Technologies Inc:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                  NAME               VERSION          FREEDRIVER           TYPE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
video-hybrid-amd-nvidia-450xx-prime            2019.10.25               false            PCI
video-hybrid-amd-nvidia-440xx-prime            2019.10.25               false            PCI
video-hybrid-amd-nvidia-435xx-prime            2019.10.25               false            PCI
           video-linux            2018.05.04                true            PCI
     video-modesetting            2020.01.13                true            PCI
            video-vesa            2017.03.12                true            PCI

and this:

$ sudo mhwd -li
> Installed PCI configs:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                  NAME               VERSION          FREEDRIVER           TYPE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
           video-linux            2018.05.04                true            PCI
video-hybrid-amd-nvidia-450xx-prime            2019.10.25               false            PCI


Warning: No installed USB configs!

Shouldn’t the nvidia gpu run video-nvidia-450xx ? why did it installl the hybrid amd-nvidia driver? Is this correct?

Hi!
Using the hybrid drivers give you some options of gpu’s cards. You can use de amd to render the desktop and only use the nvidia to run some specific apps, like you do with quemu, or change between gpu’s, etc.
You can use de individual drivers but you’re gonna need to use some software to change between gpu’s and usually reboot for the changes apply, this way you can’t use both gpu’s at the same time, so if you’re using the nvidia card to run the system and you want to use quemu with amd, you’re gonna need to change to the amd, reboot, and then use quemu with amd.

In my case, I usually use the amd card and disable de nvidia with optimus-switch-amd, it help me to save battery time. And change to nvidia only when I need to use the HDMI output.
I used individual drivers and the hybrids one, but for me it doesn’t matter, because I only use one gpu at a time.
You need to think what’s the best option for you workflow and use the drivers you need.

video-hybrid-amd-nvidia-450xx-prime is a “superset” of video-nvidia-450xx.

Because you have both an nvidia and an amd gpu.

I’d say, yes. You most probably won’t encounter any serious problems because of the hybrid configuration, especially that you use the amd gpu solely for virtual machines.

thank you for the clarification. I only asked because at times I notice that when i drag windows around, there are some artefacts, i.e. the windows sort of remain behind for a bit (does it make sense?)

That’s why I thought maybe I don’t have the right drivers installed. Should I reinstall them? How do I go about doing that?

Thank you