auto-switching dGPU on unplug/plug-in

[Freyqq]

I just found a neat trick for my rMBP with 750M, which I thought others might enjoy. The new Photos app from 10.10.3 has a unique feature not found in any other program, to my knowledge. When plugged in, the dGPU activates. When unplugged, the dGPU deactivates. So, if you keep the Photos app minimized at all times, your computer will automatically switch between dGPU and iGPU depending on if your are plugged in.

Honestly, this is exactly how I want it to switch in the first place. Best performance when plugged in and battery-saving with unplugged.

 

[JTToft]

So, if you keep the Photos app minimized at all times, your computer will automatically switch between dGPU and iGPU depending on if your are plugged in.

- Presumably, it doesn't override other apps that need the dPGU, so that they can't take advantage of it if you're on battery and Photos is running?

gfxCardStatus will do want you want more reliably and more easily.
EDIT: It seems that feature has been removed in later versions, so never mind...

 

[Freyqq]

- Presumably, it doesn't override other apps that need the dPGU, so that they can't take advantage of it if you're on battery and Photos is running?

gfxCardStatus will do want you want more reliably and more easily.
EDIT: It seems that feature has been removed in later versions, so never mind...

That's not how it works... Dgpu is either active or inactive. Either all programs use it or none do.

Gfxcardstatus also doesn't allow you to automatically switch when plugged in.

 

[NathanA]

That's not how it works... Dgpu is either active or inactive. Either all programs use it or none do.

Right, but the point is that another app that you might be running (regardless of whether Photos is running or not) might *require* the dGPU, which means that even when unplugged, if you are running this other app, the dGPU will activate and every app will use it. So you cannot guarantee by running Photos that the dGPU will be deactivated while unplugged. All you can guarantee by running Photos is that dGPU will be active while plugged in.

-- Nathan

 

[Freyqq]

Right, but the point is that another app that you might be running (regardless of whether Photos is running or not) might *require* the dGPU, which means that even when unplugged, if you are running this other app, the dGPU will activate and every app will use it. So you cannot guarantee by running Photos that the dGPU will be deactivated while unplugged. All you can guarantee by running Photos is that dGPU will be active while plugged in.

-- Nathan

Of course. But, it guarantees that the dGPU is active when it is plugged in and will also bring it back to the iGPU when unplugged in most cases. Obviously, if you ran something else that needed the dGPU, it would activate no matter what. However, I personally don't have many apps that activate the dGPU, so it works well for me and perhaps others on this forum.