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display current graphic card on new mbp 2010

Here is a really nice one by forum-goer bitninja, extremely useful and looks good too.
http://codykrieger.com/gfxCardStatus/

Features:
Simple, clean "i" and "n" icons that signify Intel® HD Graphics, and NVIDIA® GeForce GT 330M graphics, respectively
Automatically updates when the GPU switches
Manual update, if you like to make sure yourself
Growl support - so you know right when the GPU switches NEW
Tiny footprint - doesn't sit in your menu bar and hog RAM or CPU cycles
Automatic application updating - checks for, downloads and installs new versions of gfxCardStatus automatically!

download link: http://codykrieger.com/gfxCardStatus/gfxCardStatus-1.4.zip

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Very nice - ill check this out.

Is there a utility that allows forced switching between the 2 cards? For instance, if an application is using the nVidia chip, but I don't need that kind of power, and would like to save battery life, can I switch it forcibly to the Intel chip?
 
fuzzylemurs said:
Very nice - ill check this out.

Is there a utility that allows forced switching between the 2 cards? For instance, if an application is using the nVidia chip, but I don't need that kind of power, and would like to save battery life, can I switch it forcibly to the Intel chip?
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, this is something that everyone with one of the new i5/i7 MBPs wants but can't have yet. I'm among them...it's proving difficult to figure out exactly how OS X makes the decision to switch, and how to prevent it if possible. If I can figure out how to do it, that functionality will go in gfxCardStatus post haste. :D
 
bitninja said:
Unfortunately, this is something that everyone with one of the new i5/i7 MBPs wants but can't have yet. I'm among them...it's proving difficult to figure out exactly how OS X makes the decision to switch, and how to prevent it if possible. If I can figure out how to do it, that functionality will go in gfxCardStatus post haste. :D
Click to expand...

Thank you my good man! Keep up the great work!
 
I think the goal is not to substitute to the process of automatic switching, but instead find the right system call to enable intel graphics when auto switch is disabled in prefs.
The minimum from apple is to augment the auto/nvidia switch with the intel option. And that seems fairly easy to implement for them. Actual mechanism is a big regression compared to the previous mbp.

rv
 
buserror said:
I think the goal is not to substitute to the process of automatic switching, but instead find the right system call to enable intel graphics when auto switch is disabled in prefs.
The minimum from apple is to augment the auto/nvidia switch with the intel option. And that seems fairly easy to implement for them. Actual mechanism is a big regression compared to the previous mbp.

rv
Click to expand...

Right. I wish they would just do it already...it's more than likely trivial for them, and they can push it out in a software update in two seconds. Not as trivial for the people who don't have the OS X source code...:p
 
bitninja said:
Unfortunately, this is something that everyone with one of the new i5/i7 MBPs wants but can't have yet. I'm among them...it's proving difficult to figure out exactly how OS X makes the decision to switch, and how to prevent it if possible. If I can figure out how to do it, that functionality will go in gfxCardStatus post haste. :D
Click to expand...

If it is difficult to figure out exactly how OS X makes the decision to switch, can we fool the system?
Is it possible to confuse OS X so that when the to-be-created utility is activated, OS X thinks that ALL the applications were belonged to the group that does not use the Nvidia GPU? I guess we need to make use of the list of applications (that trigger the Nvidia GPU) members in this forum have been working on.
 
hajime said:
If it is difficult to figure out exactly how OS X makes the decision to switch, can we fool the system?
Is it possible to confuse OS X so that when the to-be-created utility is activated, OS X thinks that ALL the applications were belonged to the group that does not use the Nvidia GPU? I guess we need to make use of the list of applications (that trigger the Nvidia GPU) members in this forum have been working on.
Click to expand...

There is a list somewhere - the problem is, we know what triggers it. Anything that uses OS X's built in Core Animation framework, and possibly other graphics-related frameworks. But without directly interfering with every application that runs that attempts to access it (which sounds clunky and could potentially cause more problems than it's worth for the blocked app), there's no way to really "fool" OS X I don't think. The biggest part is trying to figure out what happens after the trigger...how it notifies OS X that something is using Core Animation and the 330M should be kicked on.
 
bitninja said:
There is a list somewhere - the problem is, we know what triggers it. Anything that uses OS X's built in Core Animation framework, and possibly other graphics-related frameworks. But without directly interfering with every application that runs that attempts to access it (which sounds clunky and could potentially cause more problems than it's worth for the blocked app), there's no way to really "fool" OS X I don't think. The biggest part is trying to figure out what happens after the trigger...how it notifies OS X that something is using Core Animation and the 330M should be kicked on.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. Under energy saying, there is an option on whether to allow automatic switching. As I mentioned in other thread, it looks like there is a bug over there. Under the battery tab, check that option to allow automatic switching when running off the battery. Then, under the power adapter tab, uncheck that option so that the OS uses the Nvidia GPU all the time. However, when click on the battery tab again, automatic switching is unchecked. This seems strange. Do you know anything about it?
 
hajime said:
Thanks for the reply. Under energy saying, there is an option on whether to allow automatic switching. As I mentioned in other thread, it looks like there is a bug over there. Under the battery tab, check that option to allow automatic switching when running off the battery. Then, under the power adapter tab, uncheck that option so that the OS uses the Nvidia GPU all the time. However, when click on the battery tab again, automatic switching is unchecked. This seems strange. Do you know anything about it?
Click to expand...

I didn't until just now, but it looks like you hit the nail on the head. It's probably just a bug that Apple looked over. Hopefully they'll at least acknowledge some of these issues in the next couple days.
 
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