How to make steam games use my AMD GPU instad of my Intel GPU?

Question

I have an Intel HD Graphics 520 Integrated GPU and an AMD Radeon R5 M330 dedicated GPU. My steam games seem to be using the Intel GPU, as I get 20-40 FPS out of them, and sometimes they freeze and I get to do a hard reset for my PC to get the OS useable again. While in Windows, using the AMD GPU I get 50+ FPS. In Windows, there is the Catalyst driver and the Intel HD Graphics control panel, which make switching between GPUs very easy, but in Ubuntu there is none of those. How can I switch to the AMD GPU then? I don't care about power consumption so a permanent switch will be fine for me. The GPU is recognized by Ubuntu, and here's the proof (lspci command)"

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Sky Lake Host Bridge/DRAM Registers (rev 08)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Sky Lake Integrated Graphics (rev 07)
00:04.0 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Skylake Processor Thermal Subsystem (rev 08)
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP USB 3.0 xHCI Controller (rev 21)
00:14.2 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP Thermal subsystem (rev 21)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP CSME HECI (rev 21)
00:17.0 SATA controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (rev 21)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Device 9d10 (rev f1)
00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP PCI Express Root  Port (rev f1)
00:1c.5 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP PCI Express Root Port (rev f1)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP LPC Controller (rev 21)
00:1f.2 Memory controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP PMC (rev 21)
00:1f.3 Audio device: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP HD Audio (rev 21)
00:1f.4 SMBus: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP SMBus (rev 21)
01:00.0 Display controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Sun XT [Radeon HD 8670A/8670M/8690M / R5 M330] (rev ff)
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8101/2/6E PCI Express Fast/Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 07)
03:00.0 Network controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8723BE PCIe Wireless Network Adapter

Solution

Launch Steam from terminal using DRI_PRIME=1 steam. Now every game you launch from Steam will use the AMD GPU.

Alternatively, if you are using GNOME, you can right-click the steam icon then choose "Launch using Dedicated Graphics Card".

Comments

[Jeroen]

I do not have a "Launch using Dedicated Graphics Card" option available to me.

[Tooniis]

@Jeroen IIRC you need to install switcheroo-control: sudo apt install switcheroo-control in that case.