Setting Up Dual GPU Gaming Laptops in Hyprland

Gaming laptops with dual GPUs are common, and they are a pain on Linux. I run an ASUS Zephyrus G15 with an AMD integrated GPU and an NVIDIA discrete GPU. Before I fixed the setup, I dealt with broken resume from suspend, terrible battery life, overheating, and games that ran worse than they should.

This is a practical guide for setting up dual GPU systems in Hyprland. Most of it applies to other Wayland compositors too.

Step 1: Set the iGPU as primary

Hyprland uses the AQ_DRM_DEVICES environment variable to decide which GPU drives the display. You want the iGPU first for power efficiency and better Linux compatibility.

First, find your GPUs:

lspci -d ::03xx

My output shows an RTX 3060 at 01:00.0 and an AMD Vega at 06:00.0. Create udev rules to symlink these to friendly names:

/etc/udev/rules.d/igpu-device-path.rules:

KERNEL=="card*", KERNELS=="0000:06:00.0", SUBSYSTEM=="drm", SUBSYSTEMS=="pci", SYMLINK+="dri/amd-igpu"

/etc/udev/rules.d/dgpu-device-path.rules:

KERNEL=="card*", KERNELS=="0000:01:00.0", SUBSYSTEM=="drm", SUBSYSTEMS=="pci", SYMLINK+="dri/nvidia-dgpu"

Reload rules:

sudo udevadm control --reload-rules
sudo udevadm trigger

Then tell Hyprland to prefer the iGPU:

env = AQ_DRM_DEVICES, /dev/dri/amd-igpu:/dev/dri/nvidia-dgpu

Step 2: Fix hardware video decoding

Without hardware decoding, video playback burns CPU, drains battery, and stutters at high resolution. Check if your system already supports it:

sudo pacman -S libva-utils
vainfo

If vainfo fails or picks the wrong GPU, set the driver explicitly. For AMD, add to hyprland.conf:

env = LIBVA_DRIVER_NAME, radeonsi

Common driver names: NVIDIA uses nvidia, AMD uses radeonsi, Intel uses i965 or iHD.

Step 3: Switch between Hybrid and Integrated mode

For gaming, you want both GPUs active. For battery life, you want the dGPU completely off.

sudo pacman -S supergfxctl
supergfxctl -s    # list supported modes
supergfxctl -g    # check current mode
supergfxctl -m Integrated   # iGPU only, saves battery
supergfxctl -m Hybrid       # both GPUs, for gaming

That covers the essentials. I wrote a longer post with full hyprland.conf snippets, troubleshooting tips for NVIDIA-specific quirks, and screenshots of the setup: How to Setup Dual GPU Systems in Hyprland.