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Is the dedicated GPU still tied to the external display port?

squeakr

squeakr

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Like the title says, I was wondering if the display port(s) are still tied to the dedicated GPU. I have an Early 2011 15 MBP and the dedicated GPU is tied directly to the external display port (in my case the MDP/ Thunderbolt port). When I want to run an external monitor, I am forced to use the dedicated GPU as that is the only thing wired to the external display port (I know it made no sense that the internal GPU was fine on the models without the dedicated GPU to drive an external and the internal at the same time, so why apple chose it this way makes no sense to lots of owners).

I am contemplating my next upgrade and was wondering if this still was the case. I like the dedicated GPU for when needed, but misty of the time is not needed for my day to day activities and would like to be able to use an external monitor without having to have the dedicated GPU running to save battery life and have things run a little cooler without the dedicate GPU kicking in.

Are the new models also still configured this way, or is it now possible to drive an external monitor and have only the internal GPU running and not the dedicated (if it exists within the system)?
 
johnnylarue said:
Yes. You can't use Iris Pro to power an external display on a dual-GPU rMBP.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the response. I would have thought with the HDMI port and the MDP/ Thunderbolt port that at least one would have had the capability to drive an external without using the dedicated. I am not in need of an update yet, so maybe I will wait until needed and then by that time they will have remedied this one little thing (yeah, I can hope can't I??? I know they haven't done anything in the last almost 3 years so I guess hope is all I can do. LOL).
 
Exactly. We are always not hear an outlet when in a conference room or working in another location temporarily and need to be connected to an external monitor as well as using the internal, and why should the not dedicated graphics card units be able to not have to worry about battery usage as much in these situations (I realize I am not the average user, as I always have OS X and 2 VMs at the bare minimum running maintaining a network simulation needed for my job, so battery life is even more so less than stellar when the dedicated is added into the mix. It would be nice to get through some presentations without wondering beforehand if I will need to plug in or not). And there is the occasional hook up to another screen, such as a big screen TV to display something foe the family, as not always do my family members have Apple TVs for airplay.

Also as I stated in the OP, that the dedicated GPU adds unnecessary heat to the equation, which ramps the fans at times (fan control is better in Mavericks and it generally runs cooler as well)), but when I am not needing the dedicated graphics, which is most of the times, I would like to keep the system cooler as well to just be easier on the system overall, so it is a two fold advantage to have the internal wired to the ports as well. When on conference calls it is nicer to not have the fan running like a blender in the background.
 
Well you can just buy one of the Iris Pro only models. Gaming performance is still better than of the 2011 and VM doing network simulations really doesn't need much of a GPU.
You can have your 15" without this flaw.
 
dusk007 said:
Well you can just buy one of the Iris Pro only models. Gaming performance is still better than of the 2011 and VM doing network simulations really doesn't need much of a GPU.
You can have your 15" without this flaw.
Click to expand...

I agree, but I would like to have the higher CPUs and I do lots of heavy calculations and CPU usage. I agree that VMs don't take much GPU and that is why I would like the opportunity to have it but only use it when I truly need it, which is the bets of both worlds.
 
But you can have them if you upgrade the basemodel with the Iris Pro. You can add the same CPUs, you can add the same SSD, the 16GB RAM but there still isn't any dGPU. It ends up at the same price so the dGPU is basically for free for those who want it. An upgraded base model doesn't have the 750M and there is the ame 2.6Ghz max CPU available.
 
I now see that you can get the same upgrades with this years model. This hasn't been the way in the past, once upgraded from the base, you got the dedicated card as well (just not as robust, so I guess this is making strides at least). I just really hate customizing a MBP. I like to get the top of the line model, as they generally offer that in store as well, this way when/ if I have issues (as I have in the past several times), they have swapped them out in stores for me no problem (as I am less than 10 miles from the store so it is super easy to get immediate results). If it was an upgraded model, I would of course be waiting for repairs or for Apple to send a replacement (if it were something not available for repair within the store). I just find it silly that they don't have a way to also tie the integrated graphics into the TB and/or HDMI slot, and allow us to select the dedicated on or off as needed/ desired.
 
It isn't like there wouldn't be a way, they just don't do it. I guess they don't see the need to it and it does require a lot more muxing. Right now it is only the connection to the one display that needs two inputs.
What they really should have done in the beginning is beg nvidia for some help with an Optimus driver for OSX. That works just so much better and requires no special hardware at all.

The thing to understand this time around is that there are essentially two lines of MBPs for the same price, one with and one without a dGPU. I am guessing the top of the line Iris Pro version will also be available in some stores. Me I always found maxed out models to be too not worth the money and loose their value faster.
 
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