Chapter 23. Dynamic Boost on Linux
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## Chapter 23. Dynamic Boost on Linux

## Introduction

The `nvidia-powerd` daemon provides support for the NVIDIA Dynamic Boost feature on Linux platforms. Dynamic Boost is a system-wide power controller which manages GPU and CPU power, according to the workload on the system. By shifting power between the GPU and the CPU, Dynamic Boost can deliver more power to the component that would benefit most from it, without impacting the system's total thermal and electrical budgets. This optimizes overall system performance per watt.

Dynamic Boost will be active only when the notebook system is powered by AC and there is enough load on the GPU. It will not be engaged when the system is running on battery. Dynamic Boost is intended to improve performance on balanced as well as heavily GPU-bound or CPU-bound applications. Dynamic Boost requests the CPUFreq Governor to set the CPU frequency by updating the `/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_max_freq` sysfs entries.

## Hardware Requirements

Dynamic Boost is supported only on platforms that meet all of the following requirements:

1. Notebook form factor.

2. Ampere or newer GPUs.

3. Intel CometLake or newer Intel chipsets.

4. SBIOS support for Dynamic Boost

   Run the following command to check if the SBIOS supports Dynamic Boost:

   `nvidia-settings -q DynamicBoostSupport`

## Software Requirements

The system must fulfill all of the following requirements:

1. Use the systemd init daemon.

2. Support the D-Bus message bus system.

3. Use the cpufreq infrastructure.

## Configuration Steps

Note: The following commands must be run with root permissions

1. Copy the dbus configuration file `nvidia-dbus.conf` from `/usr/share/doc/NVIDIA_GLX-1.0/` to `/etc/dbus-1/system.d`. If the `/etc/dbus-1/system.d` directory does not exist, create it before copying the file and reboot the system so that dbus can scan the newly created directory in the next boot.

2. To enable the nvidia-powerd service, causing it to start automatically on boot:

   `systemctl enable nvidia-powerd.service`

3. To start the nvidia-powerd service:

   `systemctl start nvidia-powerd.service`

Steps to Stop and disable the nvidia-powerd service:

1. To stop the service:

   `systemctl stop nvidia-powerd.service`

2. To disable the service such that it does not automatically start on boot:

   `systemctl disable nvidia-powerd.service`

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