Am I overstraining the computer by forcing Integrated Graphics only?

[Suno]

I own a mid-2012 classic MBP.

I play League of Legends, and recently discovered (accidentally) that the game runs perfectly fine under Integrated Graphics. In fact, the computer itself was less hot and ran much MUCH quieter than under Dedicated Graphics. Since League of Legends is the most graphic intensive application I have, I would like to know if I'm causing any harm, physical or otherwise, by forcing my computer to stay on Integrated Graphics at all time. I'd like to not wake up to a hole on the underside of my laptop one day because of stress under forced settings.

 

[BuCkDoG]

I own a mid-2012 classic MBP.

I play League of Legends, and recently discovered (accidentally) that the game runs perfectly fine under Integrated Graphics. In fact, the computer itself was less hot and ran much MUCH quieter than under Dedicated Graphics. Since League of Legends is the most graphic intensive application I have, I would like to know if I'm causing any harm, physical or otherwise, by forcing my computer to stay on Integrated Graphics at all time. I'd like to not wake up to a hole on the underside of my laptop one day because of stress under forced settings.

Your not overstraining it, you will just get decreased frame rates and a slightly hotter CPU Die temp. Overall, you should be fine. I would still recommend using a Discrete GPU if you have one as they are geared specifically for games and any intensive GPU game.

 

[c1phr]

It's cool to know that you can play just fine on the IGP, in case you ever find yourself attempting to play on battery power for some strange reason. Ultimately, you shouldn't be causing any more stress than the computer is designed for, but there isn't a whole lot of reason not to use the dedicated GPU.

I can understand that the heat and noise might be annoying though, but that's a personal preference there. You might be able to turn up your graphics settings a bit if you use the dGPU in this case.

 

[B...]

Since performance is good, it doesn't hurt the computer. If it did, all 13" MBPs would be toast.