u/Furious-polak69

Hi Linux gamers,

TLDR: my laptop has 2 videocards, the better one has no audio when running a game via Wine.

Anyway,
I'm running Lost: Via Domus through Wine on Linux Mint 22.3 and I've hit a frustrating audio issue tied to GPU selection. Here's the situation:


The problem:
- When I launch the game using the Intel Arc GPU (default), audio works perfectly
- When I launch using NVIDIA RTX 4050 via PRIME render offload, there is zero audio
- The issue persists whether or not DXVK is installed in the prefix


System specs:
- Distro: Linux Mint 22.3 Zena (Ubuntu 24.04 base)
- Kernel: 6.17.0-19-generic
- CPU: Intel Core Ultra 9 185H
- GPU 1: Intel Arc Graphics (MTL) — driver: i915
- GPU 2: NVIDIA RTX 4050 Max-Q Mobile — driver: 590.48.01
- Audio: Intel Meteor Lake-P HD Audio — PipeWire 1.0.5
- Wine: 9.0 (Ubuntu 9.0~repack-4build3)
- Display server: X11 with Xwayland



Launch command (NVIDIA, no audio):

WINEPREFIX=~/.wine_LOST __NV_PRIME_RENDER_OFFLOAD=1 __GLX_VENDOR_LIBRARY_NAME=nvidia WINEDLLOVERRIDES="d3d9=b" wine Yeti_Final_Win32.exe


Launch command (Intel, audio works):

WINEPREFIX=~/.wine_LOST WINEDLLOVERRIDES="d3d9=b" wine Yeti_Final_Win32.exe




What I've already tried:
- `PULSE_SERVER=unix:/run/user/1000/pulse/native` — no effect
- `__VK_LAYER_NV_optimus=NVIDIA_only` — no effect
- Verified via `pactl list sink-inputs` that the game IS sending audio to PipeWire when on Intel (sink input shows `application.name = "Lost"` at 100% volume)
- When on NVIDIA, no sink input appears at all — the game isn't sending any audio to PipeWire



Key observation: The audio pipeline completely disappears when switching to NVIDIA — it's not a volume or routing issue, the game simply stops outputting audio entirely when PRIME offload is active.


The Intel Arc handles the game okay but struggles in heavy scenes (beach area with many NPCs), hence wanting to use the RTX 4050.