Integrated graphics faster than dedicated??

[Baloney]

I have a late 2011 MacBook Pro with an HD6770M. Lately I've become a fan of the game www.slither.io. It's quite graphics intensive -- or so I thought. I've always used gfxCardStatus to switch between graphics, and naturally used dedicated whenever playing the game. It was always very slow and laggy - interestingly, it would get faster if my computer was cold or if I pushed it to the end of my desk where the fan was over empty space.

Recently I accidentally played the game with integrated graphics set, and it worked much better. The lag was all but gone.

So I assumed it was dust inside my fans, and opened up the bottom - there's definitely some dust in there, but nothing that can cause that much lag? And my computer isn't really warmer than usual during regular use. What could this be?

 

[Patcell]

I'm not familiar with that game, but maybe something to do with drivers..? The game may just be better optimized for Intel integrated graphics than Radeon GPUs. Just a thought...

 

[maflynn]

It's quite graphics intensive

That game isn't really graphic intensive. I've played in my iPhone and its kind of fun. its fairly basic when it comes to graphics. I have no idea why your iGPU is performing better then the dGPU however.

 

[leman]

There is nothing graphically intensive about slither.io, it’s a basic browser game with very simple vector graphics. As to why it’s faster with integrated graphics, ask the developers of your browser.