I was using ThinkBook 16+ 2022 (i7-12700H, 32G RAM) with Qubes OS 4.1 for some years, changed to 4.2 recently and it works nearly flawlessly. I’m planning to buy a new laptop for more RAM, don’t know if I should choose one with discrete GPU.
Possible benefits:
Use dGPU for video editing, AI acceleration, etc.
Possible drawbacks:
Some laptop might use dGPU for external monitors, needs to test and choose laptop model carefully.
GPU pass-through might be difficult to setup or impossible, might break other things.
What’s your experiences about using Qubes OS on laptop with dGPU?
Make sure to buy a MUXed laptop: [GUIDE] Optimus laptop dGPU passthrough · GitHub
So you’ll be able to directly connect your dGPU output to the external display.
Even with MUXless laptop, you can still use dGPU to render the graphics in the qube and then the rendered image will be copied from the qube to dom0 using CPU to display the qube’s image on dom0 screen but the performance will be poor compared to outputting the image directly from the qube to the dedicated display.
What does that mean? I am also eyeing a @novacustom laptop with discrete GPU (dGPU) (hopefully one of those QubesOS-certified ones), so I am also interested about the user experiences and stories with QubesOS and using dGPU passthrough for gaming in a qube, and AI image generation workflows.
Off-topic: I laughed at “Call Rossmann if your MacBook is broke”
What an unexpected plug, in the most random place.
Note: in the unlikely case the reader does not know who Rossmann is, search YouTube for “Louis Rossmann”
You can only be sure that the laptop is MUXed if it was reported by someone that bought the laptop and checked it or if the vendor specifically stated it.
For example, DELL states if the laptop supports the Direct Graphics Controller Direct Output mode on their website.
Yep, like me sacrificing for others, left without MUXed one haha. This is so rare, both current MUXed laptops as well as one buying current high end laptop to report this. What are the odds.
