Acer gaming laptop GPU power management setup

[28allday]

Acer gaming laptops (Nitro/Predator) running Omarchy with NVIDIA GPUs are stuck at their lowest GPU power limit unless the acer_wmi kernel module is configured with predator_v4=1. Without this, the Turbo key that cycles through GPU power levels doesn't function, and nvidia-powerd for Dynamic Boost isn't enabled.

The actual power limits vary by laptop model and GPU, but without this configuration every affected Acer laptop is locked to its minimum. This is a significant performance bottleneck that isn't obvious to users — everything appears to work fine, just slowly.
Suggested solution

An optional setup script (e.g. Setup > Hardware > Acer GPU Power) that:

Configures acer_wmi with predator_v4=1 in /etc/modprobe.d/

Sets the platform profile to performance

Enables nvidia-powerd for Dynamic Boost

Prompts for reboot if needed

Shows the current and maximum GPU power limits so users can confirm it worked

After setup, users press the physical Turbo key to cycle through their laptop's available power levels up to its maximum.
Reference implementation

I have a working script that handles all of the above. Happy to adapt it to Omarchy's conventions and submit a PR if there's interest.

[onelegdave]

Ran into what looks like the general case of this on an ASUS ROG Strix G16 (Ryzen 9 9955HX + RTX 5060) — GPU pinned at exactly 50W, which turned out to be its default TGP with no Dynamic Boost.

Same root cause you found on the Acer side: nvidia-powerd isn't enabled. Arch ships the unit with preset: disabled, and install/config/hardware/nvidia.sh installs the driver and sets up KMS but never enables the service, so any laptop is left at base TGP.

Confirmed it by masking the daemon on a working install and rebooting — ceiling drops from 100W to 50W and the card pins at 49.5–50W under load, matching the Omarchy behaviour to within a fraction of a watt.

Nice work spotting this. Your thread was what put me onto nvidia-powerd in the first place. Filed it as #9678 in case a non-Acer-specific fix is easier to land — a plain systemctl enable nvidia-powerd in the install script would cover both, since it's harmless on desktop cards.

[28allday]

I actually submitted a PR for this as there is a bit more to it on an acer involving the physical power button #5430 (comment)