Dual GPU Laptop in Ubuntu. (NVIDIA and Intel HD5200)

I just bought myself a Thinkpad Yoga 14. I'm loving its IPS FHD screen which is accompanied with NVIDIA 840m GPU in addition to its onboard Intel HD5200, which more than enough to satisfy my occasional craving to game and do 3D rendering :)

Here are some useful stuffs I learned about dual GPU setup in Ubuntu.

1. NVIDIA isn't installed by default.
• It's running on Intel HD5200 by default because that's what's installed with the default Ubuntu setup.
• Instruction to install NVIDIA driver can be found here:
• Find out the latest driver that is compatible with your GPU.
• http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx
• To ease  out the process, install the driver via apt-get (e.g. sudo apt-get install nvidia-375 if NVIDIA page says that your latest driver is 375.66)
2. After your driver is installed according to step (1), you can switch between NVIDIA or onboard GPU via 'nvidia' program (open app search pane, type 'nvidia')

• Unfortunately, the new GPU to be used is only applied after a logout..
3. How to switch GPU without logging out or restarting?
1. Fire up terminal
2. sudo prime-switch nvidia  to switch to nvidia
3. sudo prime-switch intel  to switch to nvidia

Enjoy! I'll update this page as I find new tips and tricsk.

Source:

https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-install-the-latest-nvidia-drivers-on-ubuntu-16-04-xenial-xerus