You can see it has an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M GPU, with Optimus. I know this has issues on Linux.
My first question is: Has anyone used this laptop already, with linux, and in particular, opensuse?
I don’t care much about battery life. Therefore, I would like to switch to the NVIDIA GPU full-time. It seems that installing NVIDIA’s official drivers (which offer the best performance but don’t support Optimus in linux) is consistent with this.
So my next question is: If I install NVIDIA’s official drivers and switch to the discrete GPU full-time, will this affect my laptop’s life somehow? Or I shouldn’t worry, since these laptops are designed to make intensive use of the discrete GPU?
Finnally, in this context, should I install Tumbleweed, or Leap?
Hi and welcome to the Forums!
I see no major problem with current OpenSUSE with such a laptop, having used the previous similar model for about a year. You might have to do some tweaking to have all the bells and whistles ringing, but WE (as in “The OpenSUSE Community”) are here to help.
Here are just two caveats, according to my experience.
That model has a Skylake CPU (i7-6700HQ) that might require the latest kernel to work properly; so I would choose Tumbleweed as my first install (currently with kernel 4.5.x) since the 4.1.15.8 kernel currently on Leap is known to have issues with those Skylakes. As an alternative you might install a newer kernel on Leap too, by enabling an additional repository.
That model uses an “Optimus” architecture: DO NOT install the plain Nvidia drivers, unless you are asking for troubles. If you plan on using the Nvidia chip all the time, consider using nvidia-prime (seethis thread).
I’m using nvidia-bumblebee, which runs well when properly installed and allows some power saving when graphic performance is not essential.
Anyway I think that those ASUS are designed well enough to sustain an always-on Nvidia chip.
My idea of turning on the card all the time, was just because I thought it would be simpler. In reality, I only need to make use of the NVIDIA card when only when using these applications:
Wolfram Mathematica, which uses the card in two ways: first, to render graphics, and second, CUDA.
Molecular visualization tools, such as Pymol and VMD.
Molecular dynamics simulation: GROMACS and NAMD, which use CUDA.
So, if I can use bumblebee and get this stuff to work, that’s perfect!
We’ve got a newish skylake Asus (X555U). I started off with Leap 42.1 but found there were problems with (I think) X restarting, eg. after logging out, screen powering down. Also, eg. track pad not working.
My own choice was to take the Tumblweed option. This fixed the problems I was having.
Never used those applications; if they need only OpenCL there is a package called nvidia-compute that works with bumblebee (I use it with LibreOffice Calc) and should work with suse-prime as well. It needed a little tweak, but had no problems with my GTX 960M and should be OK with a GTX 950M as well.
If they need the full-fledged CUDA compiler and runtime environment, there is the full CUDA suite; maybe you should check its status if you choose to install Tumbleweed. If you need more details I suggest you open a new thread clearly stating in the title that you need help with “CUDA, Mathematica and molecular modeling” to get the attention of the few chemistry or math students (or teachers) hanging around here that might be able to help.
As to the choice of bumblebee vs. suse-prime, your needs should be fulfilled by both of them.
Bumblebee is straightforward to install and well tested, has performance limits for gamers but you shouldn’t notice that.
suse-prime might be tricky to install with Tumbleweed AFAIK and has a still limited installed base in OpenSUSE, but there are a few members here willing to help.
I suggest that as soon as you get your hands on the new PC, you download a Tumbleweed LiveCD and check it out to see if you meet with trouble. If you are satisfied with the base setup, we might check out other details when you are ready to install.