I have a Lenovo ThinkPad S531 running OpenSuse 12.3 64bit.

This notebook has the following graphics cards:

- integrated Intel HD 4000

- discrete (muxless) AMD Radeon HD 8670M

After the standard setup, the i915 driver seems to be used for the integrated graphics according to hwinfo.

Gnome system info shows "Gallium 0.4 on llvmpipe (LLVM 0x302)" as graphics driver

The problem is that although gnome 3 is starting correctly, all the 3D effects are being rendered by the CPU, therefore the CPU load is very high (about 60-70% while just browsing).

I tried to install the proprietary fglrx driver, but then I don't have 3D acceleration, so the fallback mode of gnome 3 is started.
I've read that to get the fglrx driver working, you shouldn't put "nomodeset" into kernel boot options, but then I just get a blank/black screen...

I need a solution to either use the integrated graphics with proper 3D acceleration (not CPU) or a working ATI card, otherwise my battery life time is less than 2h although it should be more than 8h...

It seems not to be OS related, as I tried the same with Debian 7 with no success.

hwinfo

hwinfo --gfxcard

10: PCI 02.0: 0300 VGA compatible controller (VGA)

    [Created at pci.319]

    Unique ID: _Znp.RJVQI2gB7qF

    SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.0

    SysFS BusID: 0000:00:02.0

    Hardware Class: graphics card

    Model: "Intel VGA compatible controller"

    Vendor: pci 0x8086 "Intel Corporation"

    Device: pci 0x0166 

    SubVendor: pci 0x17aa "Lenovo"

    SubDevice: pci 0x220b 

    Revision: 0x09

    Memory Range: 0xe0000000-0xe03fffff (rw,non-prefetchable)

    Memory Range: 0xd0000000-0xdfffffff (ro,non-prefetchable)

    I/O Ports: 0x5000-0x503f (rw)

    IRQ: 16 (166 events)

    I/O Ports: 0x3c0-0x3df (rw)

    Module Alias: "pci:v00008086d00000166sv000017AAsd0000220Bbc03sc00i00"

    Driver Info #0:

      Driver Status: i915 is active

      Driver Activation Cmd: "modprobe i915"

    Config Status: cfg=no, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown



  22: PCI 100.0: 0380 Display controller

    [Created at pci.319]

    Unique ID: VCu0.bGTkJOAmF28

    Parent ID: vSkL.CIWrhEZxJf6

    SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:01.0/0000:01:00.0

    SysFS BusID: 0000:01:00.0

    Hardware Class: graphics card

    Model: "ATI Display controller"

    Vendor: pci 0x1002 "ATI Technologies Inc"

    Device: pci 0x6660 

    SubVendor: pci 0x17aa "Lenovo"

    SubDevice: pci 0x220b 

    Memory Range: 0xc0000000-0xcfffffff (ro,non-prefetchable)

    Memory Range: 0xe2700000-0xe273ffff (rw,non-prefetchable)

    I/O Ports: 0x4000-0x4fff (rw)

    Memory Range: 0xe2740000-0xe275ffff (ro,non-prefetchable,disabled)

    IRQ: 11 (no events)

    Module Alias: "pci:v00001002d00006660sv000017AAsd0000220Bbc03sc80i00"

    Config Status: cfg=no, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown

    Attached to: #9 (PCI bridge)



  Primary display adapter: #10  

lspci

lspci -nnk

00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation 3rd Gen Core processor DRAM Controller [8086:0154] (rev 09)

      Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:220a]

  00:01.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v2/3rd Gen Core processor PCI Express Root Port [8086:0151] (rev 09)

      Kernel driver in use: pcieport

  00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller [8086:0166] (rev 09)

      Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:220b]

  00:14.0 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family USB xHCI Host Controller [8086:1e31] (rev 04)

      Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:220a]

      Kernel driver in use: xhci_hcd

  00:16.0 Communication controller [0780]: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family MEI Controller #1 [8086:1e3a] (rev 04)

      Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:220a]

      Kernel driver in use: mei

  00:1a.0 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #2 [8086:1e2d] (rev 04)

      Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:220a]

      Kernel driver in use: ehci_hcd

  00:1b.0 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller [8086:1e20] (rev 04)

      Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:220a]

      Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel

  00:1c.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 1 [8086:1e10] (rev c4)

      Kernel driver in use: pcieport

  00:1c.1 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 2 [8086:1e12] (rev c4)

      Kernel driver in use: pcieport

  00:1c.3 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 4 [8086:1e16] (rev c4)

      Kernel driver in use: pcieport

  00:1d.0 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #1 [8086:1e26] (rev 04)

      Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:220a]

      Kernel driver in use: ehci_hcd

  00:1f.0 ISA bridge [0601]: Intel Corporation HM76 Express Chipset LPC Controller [8086:1e59] (rev 04)

      Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:220a]

      Kernel driver in use: lpc_ich

  00:1f.2 SATA controller [0106]: Intel Corporation 7 Series Chipset Family 6-port SATA Controller [AHCI mode] [8086:1e03] (rev 04)

      Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:220a]

      Kernel driver in use: ahci

  00:1f.3 SMBus [0c05]: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller [8086:1e22] (rev 04)

      Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:220a]

  01:00.0 Display controller [0380]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI Sun [Radeon HD 8600M Series] [1002:6660]

      Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:220b]

  02:00.0 Unassigned class [ff00]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTS5229 PCI Express Card Reader [10ec:5229] (rev 01)

      Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:220a]

  03:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM43228 802.11a/b/g/n [14e4:4359]

      Subsystem: Broadcom Corporation Device [14e4:0607]

      Kernel driver in use: wl

  04:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller [10ec:8168] (rev 07)

      Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:220a]

      Kernel driver in use: r8169

I solved this problem by using a newer (3.11) kernel

First I installed the newest xf86-video-intel on OpenSuse 12.3, but that didn't change anything. However, when I added the Tumbleweed repos and updated all the packages the problem was solved. I could remove the "nomodeset" from boot options and 3D acceleration worked perfectly!

I installed Arch on this ThinkPad and it works perfect as well, probaply more stable than Tumbleweed...

Linux 3.11.2-1-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Fri Sep 27 07:35:36 CEST 2013 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Now I have about 6h of battery life..nice!! :-)