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Forcing the 330m on

Z

Z1NX

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 10, 2009
73
0
Hey people,

Typing this on my new MacBook Pro 15" 2.4ghz. It's a ****ing beast of a machine and so sexy.

Anyway, I was watching a video (on DiggTV) and the quality was noticeably worse than when I watch it on my sister's old plastic MacBook.

I'm hoping/assuming it's because the Intel HD is in use and obviously isn't as good quality. So, is there a way to ensure or force the 330m on? Do I just uncheck "enable graphics switching"?

Cheers
 
Z1NX said:
Hey people,

Typing this on my new MacBook Pro 15" 2.4ghz. It's a ****ing beast of a machine and so sexy.

Anyway, I was watching a video (on DiggTV) and the quality was noticeably worse than when I watch it on my sister's old plastic MacBook.

I'm hoping/assuming it's because the Intel HD is in use and obviously isn't as good quality. So, is there a way to ensure or force the 330m on? Do I just uncheck "enable graphics switching"?

Cheers
Click to expand...

Yes, simply uncheck the graphics switching and it will force the dedicated GPU to stay on.
 
Is the resolution difference?

Your 15" is a higher resolution screen then the 13". Try setting your screen to the same resolution as her 13" and then do a side by side comparison. Otherwise the video may be showing over more pixels on your screen thus stretching/degrading the video.
 
FrancoisC said:
Thing is, your graphic card is not supposed to effect how videos look...
Click to expand...

And in any case, the Intel GM950 on the OP's sister's old macbook is a much older generation from the Intel HD graphics being used on the current MacBook Pros. So no matter how you slice it, he gains nothing and loses battery life.
 
Z1NX said:
Oh right - what does the graphics card affect then?
Click to expand...

The graphics card is more for processing of the video. So if you're watching say an HD movie that you have saved onto your hard drive...an old graphics card will have laggy video (the quality will be the same, but the video will be laggy).

As for stuff like streaming video, the Intel HD is more than twice enough.

The dedicated graphics card in the larger MacBook Pros are for gaming, motion graphics, and modeling.
 
The issue is almost certainly the actual video you are watching. You have a higher resolution screen, which means when you make a video full screen it is fitting the image into many more pixels. For low res videos this is actually a disadvantage - videos get very blocky and ugly looking. Higher resolution video will look much better on your screen than your sisters.
 
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