Ubuntu – Does the graphics card share RAM with the CPU? How to find this information in Ubuntu

graphicsintegratedram

Does integrated graphics card on my motherboard use the same RAM that CPU uses? Or does it have its own RAM? How to know this information on my laptop running Ubuntu 14.04?

I tried lspci -vnn but couldn't find any information about RAM. It only shows how much memory is used for display.

Best Answer

Both AMD and Intel have introduced CPUs and motherboard chipsets which support the integration of a GPU into the same die as the CPU. AMD markets CPUs with integrated graphics under the trademark Accelerated Processing Unit (APU), while Intel markets similar technology under the Intel HD Graphics and Iris brands.^Wikipedia

Modern Intel processors can have either Intel HD Graphics, Intel Iris integrated GPUs, or hybrid AMD Radeon Vega M graphics.

Intel HD Graphics are the more common version of Intel integrated graphics. According to Graphics Cards: Integrated vs. Dedicated website:

An integrated graphics processing unit (GPU) doesn't use its own RAM; it utilizes the system's memory instead. For modern Intel processors having integrated graphics, at any given time the GPU can access between 1 and 5 percent of the available memory. This percentage varies depending on the size of task, especially if you're multitasking or playing a game.
Unlike Intel HD Graphics GPUs, Iris integrated GPUs have a small amount of onboard memory to help speed them up.
Hybrid AMD Radeon Vega M graphics is connected to 4GB of second-generation High Bandwidth Memory (HBM2).
Some AMD Ryzen CPUs do not have integrated graphics. You need a discrete GPU for Ryzen CPUs that don't have a G suffix.

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – What exactly does “Launch using dedicated graphics card” do

I had the exact same question, none of the valiables like __GLX_VENDOR_LIBRARY_NAME=nvidia, __NV_PRIME_RENDER_OFFLOAD=1, __VK_LAYER_NV_optimus=NVIDIA_only, DRI_PRIME=1 produced the same result.

I even tried to search in gnome-shell source code but the functions aren't in gnome-shell repo.

I finally ACCIDENTALLY stumbled upon switechroo-controls package,

I tried switcherooctl launch <command> which replicates the gnome shell behaviour. Then I had an epiphany to search for switcheroo in gnome-shell repo.

❯ grep -ri 'switcheroo' 
Binary file .git/index matches
data/dbus-interfaces/net.hadess.SwitcherooControl.xml:      net.hadess.SwitcherooControl:
data/dbus-interfaces/net.hadess.SwitcherooControl.xml:      check the value of net.hadess.SwitcherooControl.HasDualGpu to see
data/dbus-interfaces/net.hadess.SwitcherooControl.xml:      The object path will be "/net/hadess/SwitcherooControl".
data/dbus-interfaces/net.hadess.SwitcherooControl.xml:  <interface name="net.hadess.SwitcherooControl">
js/ui/appDisplay.js:        this._switcherooNotifyId = global.connect('notify::switcheroo-control',
js/ui/appDisplay.js:        this._switcherooProxy = global.get_switcheroo_control();
js/ui/appDisplay.js:        if (this._switcherooProxy) {
js/ui/appDisplay.js:            let prop = this._switcherooProxy.get_cached_property('HasDualGpu');
src/meson.build:dbus_generated += gnome.gdbus_codegen('switcheroo-control',
src/meson.build:  '../data/dbus-interfaces/net.hadess.SwitcherooControl.xml',
src/shell-app.c:#include "switcheroo-control.h"
src/shell-app.c:  proxy = shell_global_get_switcheroo_control (global);
src/shell-app.c:      g_warning ("Could not apply discrete GPU environment, switcheroo-control not available");
src/shell-app.c:  variant = shell_net_hadess_switcheroo_control_get_gpus (SHELL_NET_HADESS_SWITCHEROO_CONTROL (proxy));
src/shell-app.c:  g_debug ("Could not find discrete GPU in switcheroo-control, not applying environment");
src/shell-global.c:#include "switcheroo-control.h"
src/shell-global.c:  GDBusProxy *switcheroo_control;
src/shell-global.c:  GCancellable *switcheroo_cancellable;
src/shell-global.c:  PROP_SWITCHEROO_CONTROL,
src/shell-global.c:got_switcheroo_control_gpus_property_cb (GObject      *source_object,
src/shell-global.c:        g_debug ("Could not get GPUs property from switcheroo-control: %s", error->message);
src/shell-global.c:  g_dbus_proxy_set_cached_property (global->switcheroo_control, "GPUs", gpus);
src/shell-global.c:  g_object_notify (G_OBJECT (global), "switcheroo-control");
src/shell-global.c:switcheroo_control_ready_cb (GObject      *source_object,
src/shell-global.c:  ShellNetHadessSwitcherooControl *control;
src/shell-global.c:  control = shell_net_hadess_switcheroo_control_proxy_new_for_bus_finish (res, &error);
src/shell-global.c:        g_debug ("Could not get switcheroo-control GDBusProxy: %s", error->message);
src/shell-global.c:  global->switcheroo_control = G_DBUS_PROXY (control);
src/shell-global.c:  g_debug ("Got switcheroo-control proxy successfully");
src/shell-global.c:  cached_props = g_dbus_proxy_get_cached_property_names (global->switcheroo_control);
src/shell-global.c:      g_object_notify (G_OBJECT (global), "switcheroo-control");
src/shell-global.c:  g_dbus_connection_call (g_dbus_proxy_get_connection (global->switcheroo_control),
src/shell-global.c:                          g_dbus_proxy_get_name (global->switcheroo_control),
src/shell-global.c:                          g_dbus_proxy_get_object_path (global->switcheroo_control),
src/shell-global.c:                                         g_dbus_proxy_get_interface_name (global->switcheroo_control),
src/shell-global.c:                          global->switcheroo_cancellable,
src/shell-global.c:                          got_switcheroo_control_gpus_property_cb,
src/shell-global.c:    case PROP_SWITCHEROO_CONTROL:
src/shell-global.c:      g_value_set_object (value, global->switcheroo_control);
src/shell-global.c:switcheroo_appeared_cb (GDBusConnection *connection,
src/shell-global.c:  g_debug ("switcheroo-control appeared");
src/shell-global.c:  shell_net_hadess_switcheroo_control_proxy_new_for_bus (G_BUS_TYPE_SYSTEM,
src/shell-global.c:                                                         "net.hadess.SwitcherooControl",
src/shell-global.c:                                                         "/net/hadess/SwitcherooControl",
src/shell-global.c:                                                         global->switcheroo_cancellable,
src/shell-global.c:                                                         switcheroo_control_ready_cb,
src/shell-global.c:switcheroo_vanished_cb (GDBusConnection *connection,
src/shell-global.c:  g_debug ("switcheroo-control vanished");
src/shell-global.c:  g_clear_object (&global->switcheroo_control);
src/shell-global.c:  g_object_notify (G_OBJECT (global), "switcheroo-control");
src/shell-global.c:  global->switcheroo_cancellable = g_cancellable_new ();
src/shell-global.c:                    "net.hadess.SwitcherooControl",
src/shell-global.c:                    switcheroo_appeared_cb,
src/shell-global.c:                    switcheroo_vanished_cb,
src/shell-global.c:  g_cancellable_cancel (global->switcheroo_cancellable);
src/shell-global.c:  g_clear_object (&global->switcheroo_cancellable);
src/shell-global.c:                                   PROP_SWITCHEROO_CONTROL,
src/shell-global.c:                                   g_param_spec_object ("switcheroo-control",
src/shell-global.c:                                                        "switcheroo-control",
src/shell-global.c:                                                        "D-Bus Proxy for switcheroo-control daemon",
src/shell-global.c: * shell_global_get_switcheroo_control:
src/shell-global.c: * Get the global #GDBusProxy instance for the switcheroo-control
src/shell-global.c:shell_global_get_switcheroo_control (ShellGlobal  *global)
src/shell-global.c:  return global->switcheroo_control;
src/shell-global.h:         shell_global_get_switcheroo_control    (ShellGlobal  *global);

Which confirms it, more intuitive proof (I am a fedora user):

TLDR

In answer to your exact question: Gnome does it by using a library switcheroo-control.

Practical answer: you can do the same thing with switcherooctl launch <command>

EDIT: I am not sure if the command works on ubuntu, but debian and ubuntu repositories have the package switcheroo-control.

This is the tree of extracted switcheroo-control package (deb).

.
├── etc
│   └── dbus-1
│       └── system.d
│           └── net.hadess.SwitcherooControl.conf
├── lib
│   ├── systemd
│   │   └── system
│   │       └── switcheroo-control.service
│   └── udev
│       └── hwdb.d
│           └── 30-pci-intel-gpu.hwdb
└── usr
    ├── libexec
    │   └── switcheroo-control
    └── share
        └── doc
            └── switcheroo-control
                ├── changelog.Debian.gz
                ├── copyright
                ├── NEWS.gz
                └── README.md

Edit: Ok I found the problem, when setting the variable if you set like VAR=value, this is a regular variable, while export VAR=value makes it accessible to subprocesses (REF)

after this,any one of the variables work for me,export __GLX_VENDOR_LIBRARY_NAME=nvidia,export __NV_PRIME_RENDER_OFFLOAD=1,export __VK_LAYER_NV_optimus=NVIDIA_only,export DRI_PRIME=1 (they have their own different functions)

so use switchrootctl launch <command> or, export above variables and launch the process. you can even create a alias

Ex:

alias dgpu="export __GLX_VENDOR_LIBRARY_NAME=nvidia && export __NV_PRIME_RENDER_OFFLOAD=1 &&"

and then dgpu <command>

this is the environment variables set by switchroot-control (in my case).

Best Answer

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Ubuntu – What *exactly* does “Launch using dedicated graphics card” do

TLDR

Related Question

Ubuntu – What exactly does “Launch using dedicated graphics card” do