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HD Graphics worse then GMA 950???

T

The-Pro

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Dec 2, 2010
1,453
40
Germany
I dont literally mean that the HD Graphics is worse then the 950 but in something it is. My old 1.83Ghz C2D Mac Mini with the GMA 950 (64mb) was able to play videos in safari fullscreen on a 1680x1050 screen and it was completely smooth. No stuttering. On my 2010 15" i7 macbook pro with the 288Mb Intel HD graphics if i play a video from any website in safari, at any quality, fullscreen (1680x1050 Hi-Res screen) it stutters. Its horrible. Why does it do that???? its really annoying because i cant always change to the discrete GPU because it sucks battery and dont have my charger with me all the time. Also a reason why i dont want to change GPU is that if im in bed and watching something fullscreen then the fans go to 4500-5500 rpm using the nVidia. If im using the HD Graphics then the fans hover around 3500 rpm. i prefer it if my MBP is quieter in a quiet environment. However I usually have to stay on window mode or change to the discrete :(

Anyone else have this problem on their 2010 15" or 17" MBP??? Shouldn't the HD Graphics be able to play Full HD video on a Full HD screen without stuttering??

cheers
 
I know what you are talking about. Have you noticed that it seems to be flash player videos that are giving you grief?
 
diamond.g said:
I know what you are talking about. Have you noticed that it seems to be flash player videos that are giving you grief?
Click to expand...

Yeh ok your right to an extent :D HTML5 videos lagg aswell :( i was just playing a 1080p vid on youtube. it worked fine. changed it to 360p, it lagged. Megavideo lags. Its possible that it depends on the website. But still the GMA 950 didnt have any problems!!!
 
I would think your internet connection to be more the culprit than intel graphics.

Granted, they are far from the best, but it shouldn't have any problem playing online videos.

I don't see youtube or other videos play faster if I switch to my discrete card vs. the integrated one.
 
xxBURT0Nxx said:
I would think your internet connection to be more the culprit than intel graphics.

Granted, they are far from the best, but it shouldn't have any problem playing online videos.

I don't see youtube or other videos play faster if I switch to my discrete card vs. the integrated one.
Click to expand...

yeh my internet does suck, but i let videos load all the way before playing.

i agree, they should be able to, and the old 950 did better the HD Graphics.

Well certain content stutters so much (roughly 15fps) on fullscreen, however some vids are smooth although 1080p. on the discrete its always smooth. I can post a vid if it helps??
 
TenderBranson said:
i've noticed this with my 2011 mbp as well. Just opening chrome makes my discrete gfx card kick in.
Click to expand...
You can search the forums for why this is happening, but basically chrome is using opengl so it turns the discrete card on when you open the program. If you don't want it to do that download gfxcardstatus.

The-Pro said:
yeh my internet does suck, but i let videos load all the way before playing.

i agree, they should be able to, and the old 950 did better the HD Graphics.

Well certain content stutters so much (roughly 15fps) on fullscreen, however some vids are smooth although 1080p. on the discrete its always smooth. I can post a vid if it helps??
Click to expand...
well if you are letting the video load all the way then it's not the internet connection.
 
There's updated Graphics Drivers coming in 10.6.8 - there is hope. But I have also tried Youtube HD (1080) video's on a friends 13" i7 MBP and no stuttering.

Perhaps update to the latest Flash?
 
The-Pro said:
Anyone else have this problem on their 2010 15" or 17" MBP??? Shouldn't the HD Graphics be able to play Full HD video on a Full HD screen without stuttering??

cheers
Click to expand...
Yes, my Intel HD causes youtube videos to constantly skip frames (not sure if its the same as "lag," it plays, but it keeps skipping at both 360p and 720p.

Switched to 330GT and it played smooth. I pretty much always use the 330GT because most of the time I'm plugged in. I never had a problem with the fans on my 2010 17", although it does tend to heat up. I also noticed with Intel HD that there is something called WindowsServer in iStat going at 70-80% when playing flash.
 
smugDrew said:
There's updated Graphics Drivers coming in 10.6.8 - there is hope. But I have also tried Youtube HD (1080) video's on a friends 13" i7 MBP and no stuttering.

Perhaps update to the latest Flash?
Click to expand...

gooood, would be nice if they get it fixed. well the HD 3000 you tested shoudl be considerably better then the HD graphics fro my machine.
i have flash 10.2 right now, havnt upgraded to 10.3 yet, but there arnt any performance improvements with 10.3 anyway!!?

Krafty said:
Yes, my Intel HD causes youtube videos to constantly skip frames (not sure if its the same as "lag," it plays, but it keeps skipping at both 360p and 720p.
Click to expand...
Exactly, the exact same thing.

Krafty said:
Switched to 330GT and it played smooth. I pretty much always use the 330GT because most of the time I'm plugged in. I never had a problem with the fans on my 2010 17", although it does tend to heat up. I also noticed with Intel HD that there is something called WindowsServer in iStat going at 70-80% when playing flash.
Click to expand...

are the thermals on the 17" better?? the 2007 17" i have downstairs never has fans hgher than 3300rpm even at full load. while a friends 2007" 15" goes at 6000rpm under full load (technically the same insides).
Thats weird, i dont have that, ive sometimes see WindowsServer reach 40% but only for a couple secs, i recall having seen it reach around 8ß% though. Does that always happen when you use the Intel HD????
 
Krafty said:
Yes, my Intel HD causes youtube videos to constantly skip frames (not sure if its the same as "lag," it plays, but it keeps skipping at both 360p and 720p.

Switched to 330GT and it played smooth. I pretty much always use the 330GT because most of the time I'm plugged in. I never had a problem with the fans on my 2010 17", although it does tend to heat up. I also noticed with Intel HD that there is something called WindowsServer in iStat going at 70-80% when playing flash.
Click to expand...

I did a test last night, opened youtube and did a search for 4k. Loaded up the water scene clip and played it at original resolution. It stuttered at first so I let the whole clip load and it was smooth as butter. Running at 4k resolution on the Intel HD GPU. Fullscreen or in the small window.
 
The-Pro said:
Exactly, the exact same thing.



are the thermals on the 17" better?? the 2007 17" i have downstairs never has fans hgher than 3300rpm even at full load. while a friends 2007" 15" goes at 6000rpm under full load (technically the same insides).
Thats weird, i dont have that, ive sometimes see WindowsServer reach 40% but only for a couple secs, i recall having seen it reach around 8ß% though. Does that always happen when you use the Intel HD????
Click to expand...
I would suppose, I never had the fans blare which was a huge relief from my previous 2006 MacBook. Down is a snapshots of the Intel HD. The fuzzy image is when I switched to Intel and restarted Firefox and tried to wach youtube. A few seconds later, I got the "Missing Plugin" error. Then after refreshing it played, and after letting it load, still stutters.

diamond.g said:
I did a test last night, opened youtube and did a search for 4k. Loaded up the water scene clip and played it at original resolution. It stuttered at first so I let the whole clip load and it was smooth as butter. Running at 4k resolution on the Intel HD GPU. Fullscreen or in the small window.
Click to expand...

Below is a few screencaps from using Intel HD. Whats weird is when using the Intel HD, WindowServer spikes, but with the 330GT, Firefox itself spikes (usually 50-70%, but no sign of WindowServer)
 

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@krafty

hmmm so weird, I switched to integrated graphics last night before going to bed.

When I woke up this morning I opened up my laptop and clicked a youtube link. I got the exact same "static" image in place of the youtube video. I could still hear the audio, but there was no video just the same exact fuzzy image you posted.

-edit-
going back and switching to discrete, I get to see the video.

If I switch back to integrated I get the fuzzy images again in youtube.

(FYI 2011 15" MBP, OSX 10.6.7, Firefox 4, Flash 10.3)
 
It has something to do with Firefox, cause Safari plays it flawlessly.
 

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This is really weird, maybe it's because I use the GT so much that the Intel HD just had too much vacation time and needed to start running. After letting it sit on Intel HD for a while, I decided to run another youtube video in Firefox and now its running smoothly. Only thing different is that I restarted my computer since the last run.
 

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i think it's a bug with firefox or a problem with the switching of the cards (perhaps with gfxCardStatus???)

I can get it to sometimes play on the integrated, sometimes I get the fuzzy youtube screen, but I have yet to restart my machine since this morning.

Very weird, I have never seen this before and I usually always run on integrated unless I am gaming or something.... hmm?
 
johnnyturbouk said:
-same here

-i have also noticed, of late, that flash videos in chrome really sucks! Safari seems to be the most stable but i prefer chrome as my default browser
Click to expand...
opening chrome will make EVERYONES discrete turn on, this is a known issue

Ironic, imo, that Safari runs flash the best on a mac considering Steve is so anti-flash... :eek:
 
I have a pc (laptop) with sandy bridge i7 2630qm. I use the integrated graphics most of the time. I have not noticed any stuttering at all. It is better than the ATI X1400 in my old computer. I use firefox as my browser and have not experienced any problems.

Just saying this might be a software issue with the apple computers.
 
flash has been freezing firefox soo much. because of some issues i had with my 2009 17"mbp apple swaped it for a 2011. this machine as annoyed me more since i got it. the fans are louder at idle, and youtube always crashes (more so than on my 2009). i hate how users cannot set the graphics card - as you could with the 9400m.

i have gfxCardStatus installed, but i wish i could run dual monitors on the HD. I hate apple for this.

for what i was using it for... i liked the 2009 over this new 2011.
 
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