How does one force Plasma to use the iGPU in a system?

Desktop Environments Plasma
1

Title. Trying to get my Plasma install to not use my 1650 and instead use my HD 530, as I’ve been having issues with Waydroid and the only plausible fix is to force the DE to use the iGPU.

2

Is this a laptop with hybrid/optimus setup or is it a desktop?

3

Optiplex 7050 desktop

4

Two things.

  • In a desktop, you need to plug the monitor into the motherboard and not the GPU if you want to use it.
  • Make sure the BIOS doesn’t disable the iGPU when an actual GPU is connected. That is pretty common.
5

Two things.
Main monitor is iGPU, secondary is dGPU. Don’t ask.
* iGPU is detected and sometimes used by Arch already.

6

Might be a little off topic, but have you set up PRIME to render with the dGPU when needed?

PRIME

This is what I used when I still had a NVidia GPU and only wanted to use the motherboard output.

7

You can easily control this by setting KWIN_DRM_DEVICES env variable. Assuming your iGPU is card0 this will force KDE to render everything on iGPU first

KWIN_DRM_DEVICES=/dev/dri/card0:/dev/dri/card1

This is simply not true anymore. At least on wayland and newer hardware/drivers even on desktop.

I have both my monitor and my TV attached to NVIDIA card, but eveything is rendered on my integrated AMD iGPU on my desktop machine. KDE+Wayland and new drivers are providing reverse PRIME for free just by setting KWIN_DRM_DEVICES env variable

$ inxi -MGa
Machine:
  Type: Desktop System: ASUS product: N/A v: N/A serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: ASUSTeK model: TUF GAMING B650M-PLUS v: Rev 1.xx
    serial: <superuser required> part-nu: SKU uuid: <superuser required>
    UEFI: American Megatrends v: 3287 date: 09/20/2025
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GB205 [GeForce RTX 5070] vendor: ASUSTeK driver: nvidia
    v: 580.105.08 alternate: nouveau,nvidia_drm non-free: 550-580.xx+
    status: current (as of 2025-08) arch: Lovelace code: AD1xx
    process: TSMC n4 (5nm) built: 2022+ pcie: gen: 4 speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16
    link-max: gen: 5 speed: 32 GT/s ports: active: DP-2,HDMI-A-1
    empty: DP-1,DP-3 bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:2f04 class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Granite Ridge [Radeon Graphics]
    vendor: ASUSTeK driver: amdgpu v: kernel arch: RDNA-2 code: Navi-2x
    process: TSMC n7 (7nm) built: 2020-22 pcie: gen: 4 speed: 16 GT/s
    lanes: 16 ports: active: none empty: DP-4,HDMI-A-2,Writeback-1
    bus-ID: 0c:00.0 chip-ID: 1002:13c0 class-ID: 0300 temp: 39.0 C
  Device-3: icSpring Web Camera driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo type: USB
    rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 bus-ID: 1-7:5 chip-ID: 32e6:9221
    class-ID: 0102 serial: 2024120914230143508
  Display: wayland server: X.org v: 1.21.1.20 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.9
    compositor: kwin_wayland driver: X: loaded: modesetting,nvidia
    alternate: fbdev,nouveau,nv,vesa dri: radeonsi
    gpu: nv_platform,nvidia,nvidia-nvswitch d-rect: 7680x2160 display-ID: 0
  Monitor-1: DP-2 pos: primary,left model: LG (GoldStar) Ultra HD
    serial: 146047 built: 2018 res: mode: 3840x2160 hz: 60 scale: 150% (1.5)
    to: 2560x1440 dpi: 163 gamma: 1.2 size: 600x340mm (23.62x13.39")
    diag: 690mm (27.2") ratio: 16:9 modes: max: 3840x2160 min: 640x480
  Monitor-2: HDMI-A-1 pos: right model: Beyond TV serial: 65536 built: 2019
    res: mode: 3840x2160 hz: 60 scale: 200% (2) to: 1920x1080 dpi: 81 gamma: 1.2
    size: 1209x680mm (47.6x26.77") diag: 1387mm (54.6") ratio: 16:9 modes:
    max: 3840x2160 min: 640x480
  API: EGL v: 1.5 hw: drv: nvidia drv: amd radeonsi platforms: device: 0
    drv: nvidia device: 1 drv: radeonsi device: 3 drv: swrast gbm:
    drv: kms_swrast surfaceless: drv: nvidia wayland: drv: radeonsi x11:
    drv: radeonsi inactive: device-2
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6.0 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: amd mesa v: 25.2.7-cachyos1.2
    glx-v: 1.4 direct-render: yes renderer: AMD Ryzen 9 9900X 12-Core Processor
    (radeonsi raphael_mendocino LLVM 21.1.5 DRM 3.64 6.17.8-2-cachyos)
    device-ID: 1002:13c0 memory: 1000 MiB unified: no display-ID: :0.0
  API: Vulkan v: 1.4.328 layers: 15 device: 0 type: integrated-gpu name: AMD
    Ryzen 9 9900X 12-Core Processor (RADV RAPHAEL_MENDOCINO) driver: mesa radv
    v: 25.2.7-cachyos1.2 device-ID: 1002:13c0 surfaces: N/A device: 1
    type: discrete-gpu name: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 driver: nvidia
    v: 580.105.08 device-ID: 10de:2f04 surfaces: N/A
  Info: Tools: api: clinfo, eglinfo, glxinfo, vulkaninfo
    de: kscreen-console,kscreen-doctor gpu: gputop, intel_gpu_top, lsgpu, lact,
    nvidia-settings, nvidia-smi wl: wayland-info,wlr-randr
    x11: xdpyinfo, xprop, xrandr
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8

Thank you so much!

9

https://discovery.endeavouros.com/hardware/switcheroo-control/2025/02

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