iGPU vs dGPU - pros and cons of using the dGPU only?

[TL24]

My annoyance towards the stutter we experience with the MBP 16 running off of the iGPU has been well documented lol... With that said, I've been thinking of only running the dGPU at all times regardless of whether I'm plugged in or on battery. I completely understand it'll drain the battery faster but what are the other cons of only using the dGPU at all times?

 

[watchmainspring]

Pretty sure the battery is the only negative. Theoretically heat too. If you're on a desk consider an egpu.

 

[TL24]

Pretty sure the battery is the only negative. Theoretically heat too. If you're on a desk consider an egpu.

I think the 5600m GPU is a beast and should be fine heat wise. I'll give it a go for a few days and report back.

 

[rav3nloft]

Hello,
I experience the micro-stutter as well and was running my MacBook Pro 16'' on the AMD card only for some time. Battery does not take that big of a hit as long as you do not use graphic intensive programs or have them run in the background. You should give it a try.

However, I have one question to you:
Are you not experiencing this weird cursor jittering/jumping when hovering over links when the MacBook is running on the AMD GPU? My cursor jumps forwards and backwards within half a second when I hover over any link in the browser. You can see an animated screenshot and a thorough documentation of the issue here:

Weird cursor behavior

I have come across this weird bug a few moments ago. When the cursor transitions from link mode to normal, it moves to the left for an instant before being displayed in the correct location. This only happens when I have the Automatic graphics switching off (I turned it off to confirm that...

forums.macrumors.com

Is this only happening to a minority of people or does nobody care about the jittering? The jittering does not happen when running on the iGPU, which is a shame. I have to decide between stuttering or jittering!

 

[TL24]

Hello,
I experience the micro-stutter as well and was running my MacBook Pro 16'' on the AMD card only for some time. Battery does not take that big of a hit as long as you do not use graphic intensive programs or have them run in the background. You should give it a try.

However, I have one question to you:
Are you not experiencing this weird cursor jittering/jumping when hovering over links when the MacBook is running on the AMD GPU? My cursor jumps forwards and backwards within half a second when I hover over any link in the browser. You can see an animated screenshot and a thorough documentation of the issue here:

Weird cursor behavior

I have come across this weird bug a few moments ago. When the cursor transitions from link mode to normal, it moves to the left for an instant before being displayed in the correct location. This only happens when I have the Automatic graphics switching off (I turned it off to confirm that...

forums.macrumors.com

Is this only happening to a minority of people or does nobody care about the jittering? The jittering does not happen when running on the iGPU, which is a shame. I have to decide between stuttering or jittering!

I unfortunately have not experienced this cursor bug, I'm currently on Big Sur Beta 10 but I was previously on Catalina and I did not have that issue either.