[KDE] - AMD Radeon 780M iGPU Keeps Going Into Software Mode?

Hi,

Running CachyOS KDE Plasma fully updated on a newish mini PC (Beelink SER8).
Something keeps happening with the iGPU which I don’t know how to fix:
For no reason at all, the AMD Radeon 780M iGPU switches to software mode?

The only thing I can do is to restore a system backup using Timeshift.
System info is below.
Please help, thanks!

SS

inxi -F
System:
  Host: ser8-mini-pc Kernel: 6.17.9-arch1-1 arch: x86_64 bits: 64
  Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 6.5.3 Distro: CachyOS
Machine:
  Type: Mini-pc Mobo: AZW model: SER8 v: V10 serial: <superuser required>
    Firmware: UEFI vendor: American Megatrends LLC.
    v: HPT.8xxx.SER8.V029.P8C0M0C15.13.Link date: 02/21/2025
CPU:
  Info: 8-core model: AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS w/ Radeon 780M Graphics bits: 64
    type: MT MCP cache: L2: 8 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 1101 min/max: 419/5138 cores: 1: 1101 2: 1101 3: 1101
    4: 1101 5: 1101 6: 1101 7: 1101 8: 1101 9: 1101 10: 1101 11: 1101 12: 1101
    13: 1101 14: 1101 15: 1101 16: 1101
Graphics:
  Device-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] HawkPoint1 driver: amdgpu
    v: kernel
  Display: wayland server: X.org v: 1.21.1.21 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.9
    compositor: kwin_wayland driver: X: loaded: amdgpu unloaded: modesetting
    dri: radeonsi gpu: amdgpu resolution: 1: 1920x1080~60Hz 2: 1920x1080~60Hz
  API: EGL v: 1.5 drivers: kms_swrast,radeonsi,swrast
    platforms: gbm,wayland,x11,surfaceless,device
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: amd mesa v: 25.2.7-cachyos1.2
    renderer: AMD Radeon 780M Graphics (radeonsi phoenix LLVM 21.1.5 DRM 3.64
    6.17.9-arch1-1)
  API: Vulkan v: 1.4.328 drivers: radv surfaces: N/A
  Info: Tools: api: clinfo, eglinfo, glxinfo, vulkaninfo
    de: kscreen-console,kscreen-doctor wl: wayland-info
    x11: xdpyinfo, xprop, xrandr
Audio:
  Device-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Radeon High Definition Audio
    [Rembrandt/Strix] driver: snd_hda_intel
  Device-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Audio Coprocessor
    driver: snd_pci_ps
  Device-3: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 17h/19h/1ah HD Audio
    driver: snd_hda_intel
  API: ALSA v: k6.17.9-arch1-1 status: kernel-api
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.4.9 status: active
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8125 2.5GbE driver: r8169
  IF: enp1s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: 70:70:fc:07:02:47
  Device-2: Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200 driver: iwlwifi
  IF: wlan0 state: down mac: 86:90:2c:38:16:b9
  IF-ID-1: wg0-mullvad state: unknown speed: N/A duplex: N/A mac: N/A
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Intel AX200 Bluetooth driver: btusb type: USB
  Report: btmgmt ID: hci0 state: up address: 70:D8:C2:52:10:D3 bt-v: 5.2
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 11.82 TiB used: 265.28 GiB (2.2%)
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Crucial model: CT1000P3PSSD8 size: 931.51 GiB
  ID-2: /dev/sda vendor: Seagate model: ST12000VN0008-2YS101 size: 10.91 TiB
    type: USB
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 913.83 GiB used: 264.97 GiB (29.0%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/dm-0
  ID-2: /boot size: 2 GiB used: 318 MiB (15.6%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: zram size: 23.25 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) dev: /dev/zram0
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 38.9 C mobo: 37.0 C gpu: amdgpu temp: 33.0 C
  Fan Speeds (rpm): N/A
Info:
  Memory: total: 24 GiB available: 23.25 GiB used: 8.16 GiB (35.1%)
  Processes: 476 Uptime: 1h 3m Shell: fish inxi: 3.3.40

I’ve been running into a similar issue with my AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE. I’ve tried going back to an lts kernel, rolling back mesa packages, and running chwd -i amd -f to try and get the drivers working again.

I’ve been stuck on llvm for about 2 weeks now, so hopefully there’s a solution. Let me know if there’s anything I can help add to track down the issue.

Thanks all!

Hi,

I did a BIOS update to the mini PC and the above issues seems to be solved…

SS

BIOS update did not fix above issue.
But I learned what thing was causing the above.
It is “NoMachine” remote desktop software from AUR.

I’ll tell the NoMachine people in the forum.
Probably an issue with Wayland?

Thanks for the update, removing NoMachine and following the post uninstall instructions on the arch wiki worked for me:

I also ran chwd -i amd -f to get a fresh install of the drivers, and after a reboot my system is using the gpu again for rendering. Since I’m also using Wayland I think you might be right about NoMachine having an issue with wayland.

The NoMachine people responded, please view below forum thread for solution:

https://forum.nomachine.com/topic/cachyos-kde-wayland-9-2-18-1-installing-makes-amd-igpu-go-into-software-mode