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Found way to know what GPU is in use!

dyn said:
Flash Gala uses the videocard for H.264 acceleration. The Intel card does not have this feature but the 330M does. That's why it uses the 330M.
Click to expand...

Right, but I was referring to the change I noted in my post a few back. I mentioned that graphics were swapping BACK to intel without me quitting chrome, but instead when I closed the chrome window (all of the tabs) or navigated from certain pages.
 
PeterC-7 said:
I found the culprit! Apple was going to exchange my machine because of a dud Intel processor, but the Intel processor works fine. There was an Apple Power PC system process calling the NVidia GPU that wasn't showing in the Terminal list.

OK - quiet drum roll please - and the winner for the best stealth process in the biggest overheads appetite category for 2010 is, dadum dadum...

qmasterd

Guest appearances include a significant cameo in: "Why I can't have my cake and eat it too", a major role in "Another nail in the PPC-code coffin" and a supporting role in the romantic Latin tragedy: "Ah Rosetta".

Looks like it's the final cut for Final Cut - PPC version at least - on this machine.
Click to expand...

Ah, PPC version. I think you would benefit from switching up to intel in a lot more ways than that haha. For the record, I have qmasterd running from FCS 3 and chuggin away on intel (but of course launching any actual Final Cut application switches it to the 330m).
 
gfxCardStatus v1.5 is out! Dependent process list is included! Please let me know if it reports any incorrect/incomplete sets of data, and I'll try to troubleshoot/fix as fast as humanly possible.

I removed the 'Update Status' item from the menu, as it now checks upon clicking on the menu item - this is when it updates the dependent process list. You may notice a tiny delay when opening the menu while the 330M is active - this is completely normal. The process list is only updated when the 330M is active for efficiency purposes, hence the difference in delay depending on the GPU.

I also addressed the problem of gfxCardStatus growling when the GPU hasn't actually changed - the display configuration changes, for example, when QuickTime videos are viewed full screen. Now, it will only growl when the GPU changes and the display configuration notification is sent, rather than just on every update of the GPU status.

Comments/suggestions are welcome as always! Have fun!
Cody
 
Sweet works like a charm. Alas it is the same two processes always flicking on the GPU for no good reason :(

Great work as always :)
 

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bitninja said:
gfxCardStatus v1.5 is out! Dependent process list is included! Please let me know if it reports any incorrect/incomplete sets of data, and I'll try to troubleshoot/fix as fast as humanly possible.

I removed the 'Update Status' item from the menu, as it now checks upon clicking on the menu item - this is when it updates the dependent process list. You may notice a tiny delay when opening the menu while the 330M is active - this is completely normal. The process list is only updated when the 330M is active for efficiency purposes, hence the difference in delay depending on the GPU.

I also addressed the problem of gfxCardStatus growling when the GPU hasn't actually changed - the display configuration changes, for example, when QuickTime videos are viewed full screen. Now, it will only growl when the GPU changes and the display configuration notification is sent, rather than just on every update of the GPU status.

Comments/suggestions are welcome as always! Have fun!
Cody
Click to expand...

Great service for the community! Though I will be honest and say that one day soon I hope not to need if/when Apple adds preference to stick with Intel!
 
dyn said:
Flash Gala uses the videocard for H.264 acceleration. The Intel card does not have this feature but the 330M does. That's why it uses the 330M.
Click to expand...

According to anandtech, the intel HD card could support h.264 acceleration. It's up to adobe to implement it for a wider range of cards though. Right now they are only doing it for nvidia cards.

I hope they do.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3682/adobe-enables-gpu-flash-acceleration-in-os-x-we-test-it said:
Because the GPU acceleration only works on NVIDIA hardware, owners of the new 15/17-inch MacBook Pros will tradeoff lower battery life for lower CPU utilization (the NV GPU has to be powered up during Flash video playback). Hopefully this is just the first step as there's no reason why Intel's HD graphics can't offer the same H.264 acceleration as the NVIDIA GPUs.
Click to expand...
 
MBHockey said:
According to anandtech, the intel HD card could support h.264 acceleration. It's up to adobe to implement it for a wider range of cards though. Right now they are only doing it for nvidia cards.

I hope they do.
Click to expand...

I thought Apple only exposed support on the Nvidia cards so far?
 
Thank you Cody, when the MBP arrives I will be putting GfxCS on it straight away :D

Thank you for simplicity:apple:
 
haisdeaks said:
Sweet works like a charm. Alas it is the same two processes always flicking on the GPU for no good reason :(

Great work as always :)
Click to expand...

Thanks very much! Glad I could be of service. :)

tufty said:
Great service for the community! Though I will be honest and say that one day soon I hope not to need if/when Apple adds preference to stick with Intel!
Click to expand...

Haha, I completely understand! I wish the same thing.

jcotteri said:
Thank you Cody, when the MBP arrives I will be putting GfxCS on it straight away

Thank you for simplicity:apple:
Click to expand...

No problem! Let me know how it works out for you. :)
 
NintendoFan said:
Not that this is really new for Apple, but the 330M appears to be underclocked.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=21031786&postcount=957
Click to expand...

Why would Apple underclock an already modest graphics card? I assume it has to do with limiting heat emission and/or increasing battery life. If it's about heat emission, they really should have gone with one of the ATI cards so many people have mentioned before here that's much more powerful, yet with lower TDP and power consumption.
 
whenever my system switches to nvidia, the icon disappears, and I can't restart the app. also it seems to get stuck on the 330m and never reverts back.

EDIT: apparently the latest update fixed that. still don't know why it won't go back to intel though.
 
iGoogle using 330m because of the video chat function

hockey9999 said:
I hope that someone comes up with a way of giving the user more control over which card is active, whether it be Apple or someone else.

I am noticing more weird instances of switching to the 330m, and in my opinion unnecessarily.

For instance, in Firefox, I can have a bunch of tabs open (Right now - Facebook, Macrumors, TUAW, Gizmodo, Engadget) but as soon as I go to my iGoogle page the 330m kicks in. As soon as I close it's tab, the Intel goes back on. My 2007 Macbook was able to handle iGoogle without a problem, is it really necessary to use a discrete GPU for Google??... NO

It's also interesting to watch the battery while doing this. Right now, at 96% it says 7:22 remaining, upon opening a tab with Google, it goes down to about 6:00 remaining whether the tab is in the foreground or not.

Note - I am only referring to iGoogle - the classic Google page does not force the use of the 330m.
Click to expand...

iGoogle using 330m because of the video chat function. That's why you'll see 330m is connected when you open gmail.
 
How can I edit the "list" of Apps that invoke discrete graphics?

I think NetNewsWire (a RSS reader) doesn't need nv, and I have it on all the time!
 
Tanegashima said:
How can I edit the "list" of Apps that invoke discrete graphics?

I think NetNewsWire (a RSS reader) doesn't need nv, and I have it on all the time!
Click to expand...

This is one of the very problems that we're all up in arms about - there's currently no way to force OS X to use the Intel GPU in any scenario. It's either "intelligent" automatic switching, or the NVIDIA card is always on.
 
ReallyBigFeet said:
I just shut down Firefox in prep for a reboot to see if I could un-stick 330M mode. And as soon as I did, I switched to integrated. I'm back in Firefox now, nothing else has changed on my laptop, and I'm STILL in integrated mode. So something in Firefox was causing the graphics to stick it appears.
Click to expand...

Had the same problem... Cody's app helped me locate Google's video chat plugin as being the problem. If you run gmail in the background all the time, you might consider disabling the plug in. It seems similar to the skype issue... (I was even logged out of gchat and still having an issue)
 
Exciting: I was playing around with the iTunes visualizers. Some kick in the 330m (e.g. the "lathe" one). I switched back to the default visualizer, and it went back on integrated immediately, without quitting iTunes!

This is a huge difference from other applications that, once they've used the 330M, stay on 330m until they are quit.
 
Everything is turned off and still I dont see the i.
I tried all possible ways, even close all the programs that are open, it just keeps running on N :(. Guess I have to wait till Apple releases something, would be nice if we can decide when to use it or at least link it to each program we want.

screenshot20100502at253.png
 
BlackZ said:
Everything is turned off and still I dont see the i.
I tried all possible ways, even close all the programs that are open, it just keeps running on N :(. Guess I have to wait till Apple releases something, would be nice if we can decide when to use it or at least link it to each program we want.
Click to expand...

Do you have an external display plugged in? If not, can you list your startup items here?

Thanks!
Cody
 
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