Is the graphics card important for editing, not for rendering?

Software darktable
1

I have a strange situation and it looks like the iGPU works better in rare situations, than the dGPU with my Ubuntu 24.04 pc.

Graphics:
Device-1: Intel driver: xe v: kernel
Device-2: AMD Raphael driver: amdgpu v: kernel
Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.11 driver: X:
loaded: amdgpu,modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa dri: iris gpu: xe
resolution: 3840x2160~60Hz
API: EGL v: 1.5 drivers: iris,radeonsi,swrast
platforms: gbm,x11,surfaceless,device
API: OpenGL v: 4.6 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: intel mesa
v: 25.0.7-0ubuntu0.24.04.2 renderer: Mesa Intel Graphics (BMG G21)
API: Vulkan v: 1.3.275 drivers: N/A surfaces: xcb,xlib

So is there a reason not to use the integrated AMD iGPU for editing and the dGPU for rendering only?

2

You can use whatever you’d like, but unless your GPU is really really slow and has very little memory, then it will always be faster than your iGPU.

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3

Maybe there is a misunderstanding and I didn’t ask correctly.

The question is not, if an Intel B580 (dGPU) is faster than the iGPU AMD Raphael with rendering, of course it is.

I have different cpus, let’s take the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 with AMD Raphael driver.

Assume I do denoising when editing using the iGPU and look at the preview, but then I do the export with the Intel dGPU (I assume this can be configured and works in a best case automatically)

Is there any disadvantage doing this instead of using the dGPU too for editing?

4

Your editing will be slower when using the igpu.

5

I would just benchmark it. My understanding is that iGPU shares memory with the CPU and does not suffer from transfer bottlenecks, so it may be faster overall.

My assumption would be that whatever is faster for editing would be faster for export, too, but again, benchmark. Personally I care less about export because it happens in the background.

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6

How? I know how to benchmark the export, but that is not what I want.

Actually I don’t notice a difference when I crop an image in darktoom mode.

I have a weird problem. The monitor / video signal often is not recognized by the motherboard after power on / reboot. So I cannot access the UEFI or the grub-menu. It looks like it works a lot better with the iGPU. This happens only with my 32" monitors, not with 27" or 24".

7

https://docs.darktable.org/usermanual/4.8/en/special-topics/mem-performance/

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