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waynema02/activate_intel_gpu_on_macbookpro.md

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Created July 17, 2021 23:56
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Activate integrated Intel GPU of a MacBook Pro Mid 2014 (MacBookPro11,3) on Ubuntu 18.04
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activate_intel_gpu_on_macbookpro.md

This may work with other Macbook Pro models that have an Intel GPU and a NVidia one, but I only have proof that this works on a MacBook Pro Mid 2014 (MacBookPro11,3) with Ubuntu 18.04. If you want to be sure about which model you have, run sudo dmidecode -t system in the Terminal and you will see the information about the system including the serial number and product name (MacBookPro11,3 in my case). I'm assuming you have installed the NVidia propietary drivers, which can be installed from the application "Software & Updates" in the tab "Additional Drivers".

Steps to use the Intel GPU:

  1. Run lspci |grep VGA and check that only one line mentioning "NVIDIA" is printed. This is to be sure that you are required to do the following steps. If two lines appear, and one of those mentions "Intel", then you probably do not need to activate the GPU but only select it as the main GPU (jump to the step where you have to "Open nvidia-settings").
  2. Download apple_set_os.efi from https://github.com/0xbb/apple_set_os.efi/releases
  3. Run sudo mkdir /boot/efi/EFI/custom
  4. Run sudo cp apple_set_os.efi /boot/efi/EFI/custom/
  5. Run sudo gedit /etc/grub.d/40_custom
  6. Add the following at the bottom and save the file:
search --no-floppy --set=root --file /EFI/custom/apple_set_os.efi
chainloader /EFI/custom/apple_set_os.efi
boot
  1. Run sudo update-grub
  2. Download gpu-switch from https://github.com/0xbb/gpu-switch/blob/master/gpu-switch
  3. Run sudo ./gpu-switch -i
  4. Reboot
  5. Open nvidia-settings
  6. Go to "PRIME Profiles"
  7. Click on "Intel (Power Saving Mode)"
  8. Click on "Quit"
  9. Log out

References:

@waynema02
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waynema02 commented Jul 18, 2021 •
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To switch back to Intel graphics, simply select Intel in PRIME Profiles. You can also use terminal commands to switch graphics card. For example, this command will switch to Intel graphics card.

sudo prime-select intel

To switch to Nvidia card:

sudo prime-select nvidia

To check which card is being used right now, run this command:

prime-select query

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