nvpowermizerd is a daemon to improve the PowerMizer mode switching behavior for nVidia cards on Linux/Unix. It uses the X idle time information to aggressively switch to full power mode when the user is interacting with the system, and gradually switch back to adaptive mode when the user is idle for a certain amount of time.
The main issue with nVidia's own PowerMizer "Adaptive" mode is that it's not aggressive enough. It depends on GPU load to make mode switching decisions, which results in low desktop performance (for example with gnome-shell) when the PowerMizer is in its lowest setting. This results in choppy shell animations etc. Even though PowerMizer eventually does switch to performance mode, it is still not desirable to suffer choppy animations with such powerful GPU's - we shouldn't have to run the GPU at full blast all the time to have smooth shell animations.
nvpowermizerd monitors the X idle time using the XScreenSaver extension, and uses that information to toggle the PowerMizer mode between "Adaptive" and "Full Performance". We switch to full performance mode very quickly (ex. 10ms) after detecting an idle->active transition - and stay at full performance mode until the user is idle for a long time (ex. 20 seconds). This results in smooth GPU performance while the user is active, and power savings when the user is idle.
To compile npowermizerd, simply type:
make
which will create the nvpowermizerd executable. You can then run this
executable directly, or add it to your X session's startup applications so
it is run automatically.
To see debug logs launch with:
nvpowermizerd -v
To specify which GPU nvpowermizerd should manage use:
nvpowermizerd -g 1
You can use nvidia-settings -q gpus to see available GPU's and their ID's.