Graphics Switching: awesome or awful?

[KettyKrueger]

Hi all,

Should be taking delivery of my MBP tomorrow but I'm just wanting to hear from people whether Apple's new gfx switching is a good thing or, as I'm reading more and more, a PITA.

If here and the Apple Discussions are to be believed, the new gfx (alledgedly) causes (in some cases) system freezes, kernel panics and death in some rare cases (just kidding).

I've yet to read 1 positive comment regarding this, so with the forums being a place to moan rather than praise, is my vision of the gfx switching rather distorted?

Please chime in.

Thanks.

 

[Eddyisgreat]

gfx switching works fine for me. i believe some of the complaints were because of the odd way some applications will trigger it. But someone here figured out an ingenious way to give us more control over the process, with this application.

gfxCardStatus

but you'll find out tomorrow when it's in your hands. No other way but to experience it 4 urself.

 

[DMKMD]

My MBP was flawless for two months with respect to switching, and then one day videos were out of sync and it was due to a lack of switching. Photoshop no longer triggers the switch but lightroom does. I downloaded the above program and do the changes manually when the computer does not and all is well. Videos are in sync as long as the nvidia graphics card is in use. I still can't figure out what caused the change in my system.

 

[Yimbie]

I personally feel that it's much better to control than it be automatic. You don't exactly know when it will turn on and when it wont. For me, higher gfx card while plugged in and lower gfx card while on battery.

 

[jclardy]

I only had my MBP for a day (It is in the process of an exchange) but I am not a big fan of the auto switching. I found the battery life is way better along with less heat if I just set it on intel only as many of my normal tasks are more cpu intensive than graphics.

I then switch it if I am using something that would benefit from the dedicated card.

My main problem with the auto switching was that it turned on the 330m when I had the iPhone simulator open, and it really doesn't need it as it runs fine on my 1st gen macbook with GMA 950. Possibly if you are simulating iPhone 4 or iPad with the extra pixels but it can't make that distinction so I just control it manually.

 

[MoLiva]

After hearing everyone's complaints I decided to bite the bullet and turn the graphics switching off. I just run the NVidia card all the time. Sure it reduces battery life a bit, but I'd rather my MBP run at its full potential as opposed to having some annoying glitches cause it to under perform.

 

[Dozerrox]

After hearing everyone's complaints I decided to bite the bullet and turn the graphics switching off. I just run the NVidia card all the time. Sure it reduces battery life a bit, but I'd rather my MBP run at its full potential as opposed to having some annoying glitches cause it to under perform.

You'd be much better off installing gfxcardstatus and doing it manually. At least then you could stick it onto the intel chip if you want better battery.

I've never had a problem with the gfx. I manually use intel most of the time and nvidea if I need extra power. Much better heat and no noticeable impact on performance. Just switch if you feel you need to.