Running Zed on iGPU still keeps dGPU active on hybrid

[Draic]

Summary

I am changing Zed to run on my intel graphics. This works fine but it still keeps my nvidia graphics active and therefore creates extra heat, power consumption and fan noise

Steps to trigger the problem:

1. Run 'ENABLE_DEVICE_CHOOSER_LAYER=1 VULKAN_DEVICE_INDEX=1 zeditor' to force Zed to run on iGPU
2. Check with nvidia-smi -q -d POWER to confirm nvidia card being active (see note below)

Actual Behavior:

• nvidia card won't sleep despite nothing running on it while Zed is running on iGPU. Closing Zed will have Nvidia card go to sleep again

Expected Behavior:

• nvidia card should not be forced out of sleep when running Zed on iGPU

Vulkan Device Chooser Layer has been the only way I managed to even force Zed to run on iGPU and all the documented ways do not work on my install. Zed runs better on iGPU than on Nvidia like for example window resizing on Nvidia Wayland is choppy and laggy, while it is smooth on Intel iGPU. So all the extra effort to even get it onto the iGPU has been frustrating.

I don't really managed to find a command that shows me the actual power mode the nvidia card is in, sorry. But if it is sleeping a command like nvidia-smi will take up several seconds, before the card wakes up and then will list very large unrealistic power draw (590W in my case) as its reading is not accurate right on wake. While Zed is running I get a normal read instantly from nvidia-smi and it shows the typical draw when active but in its lowest power mode (3.25 Watt in my system).
The main reason why forcing the Nvidia card to stay active for me is that this will prevent fans to ever stop spinning, while otherwise the system would operate in silence.

I am sorry, but I am not the most technical or linux knowledgeable person, but I tried my best to provide the information necessary (I hope). Thank you

Zed Version and System Specs

Zed: v0.174.5 (Zed)
OS: Linux Wayland endeavouros unknown
Memory: 31 GiB
Architecture: x86_64
GPU: Intel(R) Iris(R) Xe Graphics (RPL-P) || Intel open-source Mesa driver || Mesa 24.3.4-arch1.1

[edwloef]

Can confirm this affects me as well. I've been able to work around it by setting VK_ICD_FILENAMES, however there should exist a better solution than this.

[ConradIrwin]

Does this happen also when running vkcube?

In theory we pick one graphics adapter on startup and use that; so not sure if we're keeping this alive, or if there's something further down the stack

[meduk0]

well ez way of solving it is simple either make an alias in ur local shell to use
alias zed 'VK_ICD_FILENAMES=/usr/share/vulkan/icd.d/intel_icd.x86_64.json zeditor (in case u are a terminal nerd like me )
or go and change /usr/share/applications/dev.zed.Zed.desktop to

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Name=Zed
GenericName=Text Editor
Comment=A high-performance, multiplayer code editor.
TryExec=VK_ICD_FILENAMES=/usr/share/vulkan/icd.d/intel_icd.x86_64.json zeditor
StartupNotify=true
Exec=zeditor %U
Icon=zed
Categories=Utility;TextEditor;Development;IDE;
Keywords=zed;
MimeType=text/plain;application/x-zerosize;x-scheme-handler/zed;
Actions=NewWorkspace;

[Desktop Action NewWorkspace]
Exec=VK_ICD_FILENAMES=/usr/share/vulkan/icd.d/intel_icd.x86_64.json zeditor --new %U
Name=Open a new workspace

or simply add this line set -gx VK_ICD_FILENAMES "/usr/share/vulkan/icd.d/intel_icd.x86_64.json" to ur local shell and it will do it for u just u need to do the opposite with prime-run just note some games will start to be a hussle to get them to work