Alternative to nvidia-settings GpuPowerMizerMode in Ubuntu?

According to this comment, you need to have a dummy X server running. Here is how I've been able to accomplish this in Ubuntu 20.04.

1. Install the necessary packages:

sudo apt install xorg

2. Run nvidia-xconfig:

sudo nvidia-xconfig -a

3. Edit /etc/X11/Xwrapper.config and add:

allowed_users=anybody

4. Start the X server:

startx

5. In another terminal, run nvidia-settings:

DISPLAY=:0.0 nvidia-settings -a "[gpu:0]/GpuPowerMizerMode=1"

It happily replies with:

Attribute 'GPUPowerMizerMode' (orion:0[gpu:0]) assigned value 1.

Now the Performance State of my GPU stays at P2.

this is how i solved it on my machines (headless servers, using SSH);

make sure tmux is installed, or use SCREEN

tmux new-session -s [your new session's name here]

sudo ls 

sudo X :0 &

export DISPLAY=:0

nvidia-settings -a [whatever commands you want to use]
nvidia-settings -a [whatever commands you want to use]
nvidia-settings -a [whatever commands you want to use]