gpu-switcher

KDE Plasma 6 widget + Rust system daemon for switching AMD GPU performance profiles on laptops with RDNA 3.5 / Strix Halo APUs (Radeon 8050S, 8060S, and similar).

Controls power_dpm_force_performance_level and couples it with power-profiles-daemon in a single 5-tier slider. Supports automatic profile switching based on AC/battery state or battery percentage threshold.

---

Features

• 5-tier profile slider (Save → Adaptive → Standard → Perf → Max)
• Couples AMD GPU sysfs level with power-profiles-daemon profile in lockstep
• Auto-switch modes: manual, AC/battery, or battery percentage threshold
• Tray icon changes color per profile (dark blue → teal → amber → orange → red)
• Lightweight: ~2 MB Rust daemon, idle CPU ≈ 0%, pure QML widget (no compiled C++)
• Config persisted at /etc/gpu-switcher.toml

Profile Mapping

Stop	Label	AMDGPU level	PPD profile	Use case
1	Save	low	power-saver	Max battery life
2	Adaptive	auto	balanced	Kernel-managed (default)
3	Standard	profile_standard	balanced	Stable mid clock
4	Perf	high	performance	Sustained workloads
5	Max	profile_peak	performance	Peak boost

Requirements

• KDE Plasma 6.x
• plasma5support package (for P5Support.DataSource in QML)
• power-profiles-daemon (running)
• busctl (part of systemd)
• AMD GPU with power_dpm_force_performance_level sysfs node (RDNA 3.x / Strix Halo confirmed)
• Rust toolchain (for building from source)

Arch / CachyOS:

sudo pacman -S plasma5support power-profiles-daemon

Installation

From source

git clone https://github.com/morvy/gpu-switcher
cd gpu-switcher

# Build daemon + install all system files (requires sudo)
sudo packaging/install.sh

# Enable and start the daemon
sudo systemctl enable --now gpu-switcher

# Install the Plasma widget
kpackagetool6 --type=Plasma/Applet -i plasmoid/package

Then right-click your panel → Add Widgets → search GPU Profile Switcher.

Verify

# Daemon health
systemctl status gpu-switcher

# Manual test via CLI
gpu-switcher-daemon get
gpu-switcher-daemon set 5   # switch to Max
cat /sys/class/drm/card*/device/power_dpm_force_performance_level
powerprofilesctl get

CLI Usage

The daemon binary doubles as a CLI client:

gpu-switcher-daemon daemon   # run as system service (used by systemd)
gpu-switcher-daemon get      # print current stop (1-5)
gpu-switcher-daemon set 3    # set profile to Standard

Configuration

Edit /etc/gpu-switcher.toml (or let the widget write it):

[profile]
current_stop = 2      # 1-5, last active stop
ac_default_stop = 3   # stop to apply when on AC power
battery_stop = 1      # stop to apply when on battery / below threshold

[auto]
mode = "manual"          # "manual" | "ac_battery" | "battery_pct"
battery_threshold = 30   # percent, used by battery_pct mode

Auto-switch modes

Mode	Behaviour
manual	No automatic switching; slider is the only control
ac_battery	Switches to battery_stop on unplug; ac_default_stop on AC
battery_pct	Drops to battery_stop when battery < battery_threshold%

Configure via the widget's settings dialog (right-click → Configure GPU Profile Switcher).

Architecture

Plasma panel
└── gpu-switcher plasmoid (pure QML)
    └─── polls busctl every 3 s for CurrentStop
    └─── calls busctl SetStop on slider move
         │ system DBus
         ▼
    gpu-switcher-daemon (Rust, runs as root)
    ├── writes /sys/.../power_dpm_force_performance_level
    ├── calls net.hadess.PowerProfiles.SetActiveProfile
    └── watches org.freedesktop.UPower for auto-switch events

Building from Source

# Requires Rust stable (rustup recommended)
cargo build --release -p gpu-switcher-daemon

# Binary is at target/release/gpu-switcher-daemon

Uninstall

# Remove plasmoid
kpackagetool6 --type=Plasma/Applet -r net.gpuswitcher.applet

# Stop and disable daemon
sudo systemctl disable --now gpu-switcher

# Remove system files
sudo rm /usr/local/bin/gpu-switcher-daemon
sudo rm /usr/lib/systemd/system/gpu-switcher.service
sudo rm /usr/share/dbus-1/system.d/net.gpuswitcher.Manager.conf
sudo rm /usr/share/dbus-1/system-services/net.gpuswitcher.Manager.service
sudo rm /usr/share/polkit-1/actions/net.gpuswitcher.policy
sudo rm -f /etc/gpu-switcher.toml
sudo systemctl daemon-reload

Compatibility

Tested on:

• AMD Strix Halo (Radeon 8050S / 8060S, RDNA 3.5) — CachyOS, KDE Plasma 6.6.4

Should work on any AMD dGPU or APU that exposes power_dpm_force_performance_level. Not tested on NVIDIA or Intel GPUs.

Note: pp_power_profile_mode (fine-grained DPM heuristics) is not exposed on Strix Halo APUs and is therefore not used.

Known Limitations / TODO

• Polkit check not yet enforced inside the daemon (DBus policy restricts to console-session users; v2 will call pkcheck per method)
• Single GPU only (first AMDGPU node discovered)
• No NVIDIA / Intel path
• Translations: English only

License

GPL-2.0-or-later — see LICENSE.