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I'm not for this feature. I don't want to be playing a game then having it autoswitch if I decide to disconnect power, essentially crippling my 330m intensive game or app. I want total control

Just for clarity. It is an optional feature. You just check the menu item and it behaves that way. Uncheck the menu item and it uses dynamic switching at all times. I will update the page to be more clear.
 
Interesting that he keeps implementing all of the features we're talking about...it's like he thinks it's a competition or something. gfxCardStatus was here first and is open-source. There *is* no competition. :) I digress...

I don't even know what to say to this. Is this necessary? I'm writing an app that works how I want it to (and how people who have submitted feedback to me want it to)

---

On another note,

I'm considering opening source as well for comparisons sake, but I'd need to clean up the code first, it's a bit disorganized at the moment. Regardless, it was interesting that you did because I had an opportunity to see alternative methods for doing these tasks and I really appreciate that as, quite honestly, I'm learning by doing here. GPUInfoMenu checks the current GPU completely differently than you do (OpenGL) and also determines dependent processes completely differently (a very different analysis of the system_profiler process output [SPLogsDataType] - something I discovered nearly accidentally from the cocoa-dev mailing list). I would not have even thought to do what you did for the same tasks. I also have no plans to adjust the way they are implemented.

Good luck with the app/school...I think you mentioned RIT? I was there for a bit before mistakenly (hindsight, as they say) changing majors and schools >.<
 
Thanks! Next update is planned for tonight or tomorrow. If the integrated GPU isn't turned off still after the v1.7 update, I'll take you up on the system profile offer.

You can start it at login now by going to: System Prefs > Accounts > [your account in the left sidebar] > Login Items tab, then click the plus and go find the app to add to the list. I may add a 'run at startup' checkbox in preferences, though, for ease of use.


Thanks :D. I'll let you know how it works once you release 1.7. :)
 
I don't even know what to say to this. Is this necessary? I'm writing an app that works how I want it to (and how people who have submitted feedback to me want it to)

---

On another note,

I'm considering opening source as well for comparisons sake, but I'd need to clean up the code first, it's a bit disorganized at the moment. Regardless, it was interesting that you did because I had an opportunity to see alternative methods for doing these tasks and I really appreciate that as, quite honestly, I'm learning by doing here. GPUInfoMenu checks the current GPU completely differently than you do (OpenGL) and also determines dependent processes completely differently (a very different analysis of the system_profiler process output [SPLogsDataType] - something I discovered nearly accidentally from the cocoa-dev mailing list). I would not have even thought to do what you did for the same tasks. I also have no plans to adjust the way they are implemented.

Good luck with the app/school...I think you mentioned RIT? I was there for a bit before mistakenly (hindsight, as they say) changing majors and schools >.<

Regarding my comments before, I apologize - I really meant that as more of a playful joke (hence the smiley face) than came through. I was in a hurry when I was typing it up (right about to run and take a certification test) and didn't consider that it might sound offensive. On to the more cheerful stuff!...

I'm glad open-sourcing it has helped you see some alternative methods of doing things (even if you don't choose to implement them that way). That was one of the reasons I decided to release it...I figured lots of people would benefit by seeing an example like this (aside from the fact that I'm missing just about every release call necessary...that's on my list of things to do :)).

In terms of school, thanks for the well wishes! Which major did you change from/to and where are you at now? I'm likely double majoring in SE and CS.

Again, sorry - really didn't mean that like it came out. Anyone in this thread will tell you I'm not confrontational or unfriendly (or at least I hope they would). :)
 
No worries, the Internet is a bad place to judge intention.

I was a Computer Science major for a year. I took CS for AP Students and then CS4 in my first year and for some reason decided that wasn't what I wanted to do with my life and transferred and graduated with a degree in Advertising. I promptly went to work as a developer in an ad agency, haha. I should have stayed with CS (timeline reference: I graduated in 08 on time).

The problem with my code is that it's all in a single file right now that just ballooned out of control with the graphics switching code. I need to break it up properly, haha. And I've been struggling with querying system_profiler with an NSTask and using wait-and-notify and getting the data from NSNotificationCenter later. It only works once (and yeah, I'm releasing and recreating a new NSTask), so currently clicking the menu blocks for a moment for me because it's grepping twice (grepping a grepped result ;)) on system_profiler SPLogsDataType and that takes about a full second to execute.
 
Well,I'd personally like to thank you both (and all those involved) for working on providing us something useful,that Apple doesn't.

Now,if you could do something about resolution independence next..
Just kidding.
 
bitninja, I love you for gfxcardstatus. Would've probably got a 13" MBP instead of the 15" i5 if it weren't for your program.

Thank you sir!
 
aww fastswitch

The fast_switch mod that I was so happily using no longer launches after I restarted my computer... I don't get an icon in my bar. Any ideas?

Chris

Edit: its running in activity monitor but no icon :(

Edit: killed it and relaunched and the icon is back.
 
No worries, the Internet is a bad place to judge intention.

I was a Computer Science major for a year. I took CS for AP Students and then CS4 in my first year and for some reason decided that wasn't what I wanted to do with my life and transferred and graduated with a degree in Advertising. I promptly went to work as a developer in an ad agency, haha. I should have stayed with CS (timeline reference: I graduated in 08 on time).

The problem with my code is that it's all in a single file right now that just ballooned out of control with the graphics switching code. I need to break it up properly, haha. And I've been struggling with querying system_profiler with an NSTask and using wait-and-notify and getting the data from NSNotificationCenter later. It only works once (and yeah, I'm releasing and recreating a new NSTask), so currently clicking the menu blocks for a moment for me because it's grepping twice (grepping a grepped result ;)) on system_profiler SPLogsDataType and that takes about a full second to execute.

Interesting! CS -> Advertising...I never would have guessed. You don't see that too often. :D

Anywho - I've got a little blocking issue right now as well, when I'm pulling the process list...too many pipes = super expensive. Lesson learned.

nonlocal said:
Well,I'd personally like to thank you both (and all those involved) for working on providing us something useful,that Apple doesn't.

Now,if you could do something about resolution independence next..
Just kidding.

No problem! :)
 
Alright! Released with one minute to spare...but hey, that's still tonight, like I said...

v1.7 is out! Incorporates many fixes and additions from Kyle's fork on GitHub, and many more performance fixes. This build should be status indicating friendly to users of 9400M/9600M systems (please let me know if it doesn't work), and should also only show "switch GPUs" for said users, instead of "Intel Only," "NVIDIA Only," and "Dynamic Switching" like the rest of the users will see.

As always, please let me know of any problems/suggestions so I can get them fixed quickly. External displays still don't show up in the dependency list - but I promised I'd get this update out, and the majority of the things I wanted to incorporate are there.

Anyone experiencing problems can always download a previous version. Format:

http://codykrieger.com/gfxCardStatus/gfxCardStatus-<version>.zip

Just replace <version> with 1.6.1 or whatever to downgrade.

Thanks!
Cody
 
Bug:

Forced to use Intel only. Opened screen saring and correctly keeps Intel card on. When closing Screen Sharing it switches back on nVidia 330M card even with Intel only check.

Dependancy list is blank and to switch back to Intel I have to click on Dynamic Switching and then Intel only again.

Hope this helps :)
 
Bug #2:

On Intel only mode, viewing a youtube video of firefox 3.6, as soon as I put it in full screen mode, it still switch back to nVidia and, when returning to normal windows mode, it doesn't switch back to Intel.
 
So is the nvidia only just like the one in the options?

Essentially, yes.

UtenteMac said:
Bug:

Forced to use Intel only. Opened screen saring and correctly keeps Intel card on. When closing Screen Sharing it switches back on nVidia 330M card even with Intel only check.

Dependancy list is blank and to switch back to Intel I have to click on Dynamic Switching and then Intel only again.

Hope this helps :)
UtenteMac said:
Bug #2:

On Intel only mode, viewing a youtube video of firefox 3.6, as soon as I put it in full screen mode, it still switch back to nVidia and, when returning to normal windows mode, it doesn't switch back to Intel.

Darn! Haha, thanks for these. I noticed #1, but it seems to be kind of sporadic for me. I think it's due to the automatic switching being disabled in OS X...once all normally 330M-dependent apps are exited (while on the Intel GPU), OS X magically thinks that it should have more control than you, and switches over to the 330M since it thinks that property is unchecked. Or something like that.

I really don't want to do this...feels like more of a hack than a permanent solution. But I guess I could implement notifications when any application is quit so that we'd be able to make sure the correct GPU is still in use.

I really don't like bug #2...I don't think it does that for *everything* that goes full screen. I hope not at least.

EDIT: I couldn't reproduce this with Chrome and full screen Flash. I have an attempted fix that I think can work...but I'm not sure yet. It might break everything. We'll see.

Working on it right now...have to leave soon...it's my goal to fix this in 10 minutes! (I'll most likely fail that goal.)

Cody
 
No problem, Cody! :) For me the lock GPU feature is more a plus than a need.
You've already done a great job.
 
Bug #2:

On Intel only mode, viewing a youtube video of firefox 3.6, as soon as I put it in full screen mode, it still switch back to nVidia and, when returning to normal windows mode, it doesn't switch back to Intel.

I had this happen too but I'm also running the Adobe Gala preview so I dunno if that preview build messes things up!

I had to click back to dynamic, then back to Intel after it got stuck in nvidia mode

I used Firefox 3.6 and Gala, watched a Youtube movie that started in low quality, changed to full screen, then changed res to 1080p. Thats when all the wierdness started.
 
I had this happen too but I'm also running the Adobe Gala preview so I dunno if that preview build messes things up!

I had to click back to dynamic, then back to Intel after it got stuck in nvidia mode

I used Firefox 3.6 and Gala, watched a Youtube movie that started in low quality, changed to full screen, then changed res to 1080p. Thats when all the wierdness started.

Gala specifically only works with the Nvidia graphics when hardware accelerating a video, so there must be something in place to power that up when it is requested. When you swapped to 1080p, you probably got served an MP4 file that Gala can hardware decode.
 
I had this happen too but I'm also running the Adobe Gala preview so I dunno if that preview build messes things up!

I had to click back to dynamic, then back to Intel after it got stuck in nvidia mode

I used Firefox 3.6 and Gala, watched a Youtube movie that started in low quality, changed to full screen, then changed res to 1080p. Thats when all the wierdness started.

Hmmm, I am also running Gala. I was unable to reproduce in Firefox or Chrome. I watched a video in low res like you said, swapped to full screen, and changed to 1080p while playing.

Had you used 1.61 to force swap a card before trying 1.7? I found some strange things happened when I started testing my unofficial 1.7 after having used 1.61. I restarted, tried out my 1.7 again and everything was working fine.

To all, if you notice any issues, restart and try again. Or if you haven't upgraded to 1.7, be sure to restart after you do.
 
There is a bug with keynote 09 and powerpoint as well.

When i open the program, with Intel only graphics, the program seems to work fine and uses the Intel card, but when i exit the program it switches to the 330m. Funny, as this is the opposite of what it's originally supposed to do :)
 
I do not run Gala: standard stable Flash release.

I was responding to what rawd said. He had the same issue as you, but with gala. I'll uninstall gala and try the latest stable release later today.

Ok I will restart tonight and give it a go

Let us know if it still happens for you after a restart.

There is a bug with keynote 09 and powerpoint as well.

When i open the program, with Intel only graphics, the program seems to work fine and uses the Intel card, but when i exit the program it switches to the 330m. Funny, as this is the opposite of what it's originally supposed to do :)

I do not have Keynote install at the moment, but I do have Powerpoint. I opened a presentation I had, started the presentation (which would normally enable the nvidia card), and then ended the presentation and quit the program. It never swapped to the nvidia for me.

I had that issue you are describing when using 1.61 to force switch. On an application quit, it would sometimes swap to nvidia. Did you restart after installing 1.7? As I said before, I found that using 1.7 after having using 1.61 leaves everything in an odd state. Try restarting and give everything another try.

Keep the bug reports coming in. The more detailed they are, the better chances we will have of reproducing them. :)
 
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