Setting up graphics on Ubuntu for gaming

Question

I would like to change from windows 10 to ubuntu on my "gaming" laptop. It has a core i5 with intel graphics and ATI Radeon HD 8850m graphics.

Do I need to install any driver for the Radeon?
Will I be able to swap processing on-the-fly between Intel graphics and Radeon graphics depending on my usage?

Thanks.

Highyly related but likely no duplicate due to the technical differences of Ubuntu Xenial: https://askubuntu.com/q/791249/175814 — David Foerster, Oct 02 '18 at 18:57

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 02 '18 at 18:40

1

You would have to get an open source AMD GPU driver I believe since there is no more official support for the HD Radeon AMD GPUs on linux anymore (ever since 15.10 or 16.04).
Always use your AMD GPU over your integrated graphics, not to mention integrated graphics relies on your system RAM which is slower than your VRAM (unless you have a horribly unbalanced setup). Even modern Intel integrated graphics can't beat that card in gaming, you shouldn't have to do any kind of processing swapping like that except where the CPU and GPU are meant to exchange tasks, obviously.

Wish you the best of luck! :)

answered Oct 02 '18 at 18:40

tommy61157

Ok. But how to disable integrated graphics completely please? – iLW Oct 03 '18 at 01:33
If you have the driver installed and set up properly, you shouldn't have to, but I'll see if I can find anything on that. – tommy61157 Oct 03 '18 at 11:41

1 Answers1