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I've been trying to turn off nvidia PowerMizer (that is set the performance level to 2 - max). I can do it with nvidia-settings, but it goes back to default after restart. Here's what I have tried:

  • nvidia-settings as root - saving settings to xorg.conf and ~/.nvidia-settings-rc
  • adding options nvidia NVreg_RegistryDwords="PerfLevelSrc=0x2222" to /etc/modprobe.d/nvidia.conf - nothing happened
  • adding Option "RegistryDwords" "PowerMizerLevel=0x2" "PowerMizerLevelAC=0x2" to xorg.conf under device section : gdm did not start up - had to delete xorg.conf to recover
  • adding Option "RegistryDwords" "PowerMizerEnable=0x0" to xorg.conf: nothing happened

Any idea how I can do this?

P.S. Ubuntu 12.10

lfk
  • 881

2 Answers2

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You need to remove whatever you've added to xorg.conf, and add something like the following:

Section "Device"
  Identifier "NVIDIA GeForce"
  Driver     "nvidia"
  Option     "RegistryDwords" "PerfLevelSrc=0x3322; PowerMizerDefaultAC=0x1"
EndSection

PerfLevelSrc=0x3322 means it's going to use fixed PowerMizer mode when on AC.

PowerMizerDefaultAC=0x1 defines the power mode, with 0x1 being Maximum performance.

There is no need to reboot, just logout/login.

mikewhatever
  • 32,638
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    Still goes back to "adaptive" – lfk Dec 25 '12 at 12:57
  • Make sure the PowerMizer is enabled in the Nvidia Settings. If that still doesn't work, you might want to try PerfLevelSrc=0x2222 instead of PerfLevelSrc=0x3322. – mikewhatever Dec 25 '12 at 13:14
  • Makes no difference. I enabled PowerMizer in nvidia settings and added the line to xorg.conf (tried both). Still once I log back in it is back to 'adaptive' in nvidia settings – lfk Dec 25 '12 at 13:25
  • You are right, I forgot the "RegistryDwords" part. The above code has been corrected and tested, and should work. Let me know if it doesn't. – mikewhatever Dec 25 '12 at 14:17
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    It worked! Thanks! The drop-down menu in nvidia settings is still on adaptive, but the performance level stays on 2 and doesn't change which means the code is working – lfk Dec 25 '12 at 14:25
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There is an unofficial patch for recent versions of the proprietary NVIDIA graphics driver (334.21 and 337.12) that writes GPU target attributes like GPUPowerMizerMode to the configuration file of nvidia-settings. That means you can use the NVIDIA X Server Settings GUI to permanently set your desired performance level just as it should be.

tendonto
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