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Am I using 9600M?

B

blof

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 7, 2009
16
0
Searched in the forums but couldn't find an answer.

How can I be sure that the 9600 GPU is being used in my MBP 15"? For some reason I don't see a switching option in the preferences and the photoshop CS3 and cinebench says I have a 9400. In the Energy Saver pane I only have optimization drop down menu in which I can choose better energy saving, normal or better performance.

thanks for the help
 
Choose 'Battery Battery Life' to use the 9400. Choose 'Better Performance' to use the 9600.

mr_power_settings_9600-9400-01.png
 
alphaod said:
Choose 'Battery Battery Life' to use the 9400. Choose 'Better Performance' to use the 9600.

mr_power_settings_9600-9400-01.png
Click to expand...

Thanks Alphaod but that's the problem. My pref screen doesn't look like yours. BTW I'm using OS 10.5.6
 

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if you clone your drive from another system you won't see that screen. I couldn't get mine to show up when i cloned my imac drive to the macbook. That option is missing. I had to reinstall from the DVD and did a transfer from my time machine drive last night to get the option to show up.
 
As someone has already pointed out, "higher performance" will turn on the 9600M GT and "Better battery life" will use the 9400.

However, I think it's kinda dumb that they don't clearly state right there which card is being used. Is there a reason for that?
Am I strange for thinking that should have been shown? I don't think so.
 
the only for me to get that option ws reinstall osx from the macbook pro cd. If i cloned the drive from my imac that select option isn't available liek the op's image.
 
it's cloned

Yes my system was indeed cloned from our system admin's standard leopard image. I'm not the admin but have privilage to install any software (I dont know if that means anything).

Does that mean I'm stuck to 9400? Is there a way to detect which card I'm using? I'm not interested in gaming but it would be pretty stupid not to be able to use the faster option.
 
blof said:
Yes my system was indeed cloned from our system admin's standard leopard image. I'm not the admin but have privilage to install any software (I dont know if that means anything).

Does that mean I'm stuck to 9400? Is there a way to detect which card I'm using? I'm not interested in gaming but it would be pretty stupid not to be able to use the faster option.
Click to expand...

Go to "Apple Menu>About This Mac>More Info"

then go to display or graphics and you should see 9400M & 9600M GT. When you click on each one, there should be information like Core Image and Quartz Extreme. Which ever you click on, the one that has that info is the card you're using.
 
blof said:
Yes my system was indeed cloned from our system admin's standard leopard image. I'm not the admin but have privilage to install any software (I dont know if that means anything).

Does that mean I'm stuck to 9400? Is there a way to detect which card I'm using? I'm not interested in gaming but it would be pretty stupid not to be able to use the faster option.
Click to expand...

:apple: > About This Mac > More Info > Graphics/Displays

both are shown, you click on either and it says "Color LCD: <display info>"
if it says twice "Dispaly Connector; Status: No display connected" selected card is not in use.
if you are not doing anything heavy on graphics it will only eat battery and produce heat
 
nah, you could just copy the PreferencePane from another MacBook Pro... you dont need to reinstall the system i think

edit: ill zip it in two files i cant get it to upload because its 2MB.. in 5minutes
 
i couldn't figure out how to do that so al li did was reinstall and it showed up. Plus i ddn't have anotehr macbook pro :)
 
Yes, according to your explanation, I'm using 9400 no matter what I change in the energy saver pane. I'm not playing games but I'm busy with very large images and editing some video so 9600 should help.

Now, can anybody help me on how to solve this problem without visiting my admin?

thanks
 
yeah, get him to tell you his password and copy what i attached to "macintosh HD>library>preferencepanes"

you may want to replace the previous energy saver but otherwise just overwrite it.. i am almost certain you need an admin pass to do that.
you cannot do anything else without an admin pass.

its a ZIP inside a SPLIT RAR, which are both in their own ZIPS.
i had to do it like that because i was only able to create a split rar and this forum only allows 1meg zip attachments.

anyway, here you go.
 

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Ploki said:
yeah, get him to tell you his password and copy what i attached to "macintosh HD>library>preferencepanes"

you may want to replace the previous energy saver but otherwise just overwrite it.. i am almost certain you need an admin pass to do that.
you cannot do anything else without an admin pass.

its a ZIP inside a SPLIT RAR, which are both in their own ZIPS.
i had to do it like that because i was only able to create a split rar and this forum only allows 1meg zip attachments.

anyway, here you go.
Click to expand...

I don't believe any admin would give his password. However I have a local admin account, would that do?

thank you so much for the files
 
i think you need to try!
its very simple, either you will be able to overwrite the preference pane or not :)

no problem
 
Nope, didn't work. I was able to overwrite the energysaver pane into harddisk/library/prefpane and user/library/prefpane. When I tried to copy your file, system asked me authentication. I entered my PW and it went OK. However the pane was not modified, at least I still can't see the buttons and 9600 is still inactive after reboot. I also tried this with my localadmin account without succes. What I don't understand is that I'm able to authenticate copying but it is not modified. Strange.

Is there no Terminal command I can use? Any ideas?
 
it should work... not users/library, but macintosh HD/library.
try to delete the original first, then COPY (not move) my file to your macHD/lib/prefpane
 
blof said:
Yes my system was indeed cloned from our system admin's standard leopard image. I'm not the admin but have privilage to install any software (I dont know if that means anything).

Does that mean I'm stuck to 9400? Is there a way to detect which card I'm using? I'm not interested in gaming but it would be pretty stupid not to be able to use the faster option.
Click to expand...

Can you run an 'Archive and Install' ? That will install the correct drivers and make sure you change modes.

Jurwin said:
LOL are you sure you even have a mbp? Maybe you have a MB. Open your eyes and check again! :p
Click to expand...

A MacBook doesn't even have those settings.
 
i had this happen to me when i was installing a cloned MBP to a UMBP, just do an archive & install from the install discs.

or do a clean install the restore discs and use migration assistant hooked up to the clone drive & your all set.


those pref/energy saver drivers werent included in the regular/previous builds of OSX
 
I copied both to user/library/prefpane and hD/Library/prefpane. Former didn't ask authorization latter did. But the pane was not changed to yours even after reboot.

Now I remember that our admin cloned the 10.5.6 one day before the official release, so it was beta. Do you think that might be the problem? Now archive and install is not a problem but there are lots of network and server settings currently installed (for work). Therefore I'm not sure it's a good idea.

Do you think 10.5.7 will solve the problem or visiting my admin is the only way?
 
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