List of programs that use discrete graphics in i5/i7 MacBook Pros

[Matt 2.x]

You can easily see what card is on with this by forum user bitninja.
http://codykrieger.com/gfxCardStatus/

 

[wandrer2]

I have tried preview and it doesn't pop the 330m for me. It stays on the Intel graphics chip. Someone else may want to do some more testing. There may be something in there that toggles it based on what it is displaying.

Agreed. Regular PDFs do not seem to trigger the 330m in Preview.

It's been established in several threads that Gmail's voice and video chat plugin causes Firefox and Safari to switch to 330m when gmail is opened.

 

[C64]

Am I missing something, or is this thing going to be on most of the time, unless you're really picky/careful about which apps you're using?

 

[530farm]

Just got it but here is a couple i noticed:

VLC
Pod to mac
djay 3.0

 

[La-vida227]

Just got it but here is a couple i noticed:

VLC
Pod to mac
djay 3.0

what about quicktime? does using perian or flip4mac change anything?

Shame about vlc

 

[530farm]

just installed perian to play the videos i have on my comp on quicktime, and that does NOT use Nvidia discrete, so guess thats a good way to watch videos on battery

 

[La-vida227]

just installed perian to play the videos i have on my comp on quicktime, and that does NOT use Nvidia discrete, so guess thats a good way to watch videos on battery

Thanks! I'm starting to think that apple made some of these programs use discrete graphics on purpose

 

[Tegeril]

Looks like I'm not the only person who wrote a GPU Menulet

 

[scaredpoet]

FYI: Photoshop CS4 switches right to the 330M on launch. Good to know my investment isn't going to waste.

 

[nconnella]

Thanks for making the app! So much easier!

 

[paintballswimgu]

nvidia:
ichat video
plex
iphoto
skype
VLC
imovie
Adobe Acrobat Professional
iDVD
iWeb
isale

Intel:
flash video in firefox
screensaver
itunes, including videos
microsoft word
preview
garageband
Apple Remote Desktop
Automator

thats all i have right now. But a few apps surprised me

 

[nconnella]

Add MSN Messenger to the Nvidia list as well. Sad really...

 

[calfan]

i think it's weird that for many of you, Chrome triggers the 330m. It only triggers it for me if I'm running something really intensive, but regular browsing works perfectly.

Also, I believe any PowerPC applications will trigger the 330m. I had Microsoft AU Daemon (for Microsoft Works 2003) trigger the 330m until I closed it.

 

[NOTORIOUS187]

Offtopic, but what's the little menu bar item you have that shows CPU temperature and fan speed?

 

[Tegeril]

Offtopic, but what's the little menu bar item you have that shows CPU temperature and fan speed?

SMCFanControl.

http://81.169.182.62/smcfancontrol_2_2_2.zip

 

[dgdosen]

I'll add the iPhone/iPad Simulator for developers.

 

[scaredpoet]

Looks like I have to get back into the habit of making sure apps are closed if I'm not using them. I've gotten lazy with doing that, but now it looks like even if a Nvidia-running app is just sitting open but idle, the MBP will still use the 330m (and presumably eat up more battery).

 

[axel1111]

Looks like I'm not the only person who wrote a GPU Menulet

not trying to start a war here but you were the second one to make a GPU status checker. Bitninja's gfxCardStatus was the first one out and yours came out 4 days later. a little conspicuous if you ask me.

 

[Tegeril]

not trying to start a war here but you were the second one to make a GPU status checker. Bitninja's gfxCardStatus was the first one out and yours came out 4 days later. a little conspicuous if you ask me.

Err ok. I noticed his once I wrote mine. It's not like we're charging for anything. They do appear to be implemented a bit differently and some of the things mine does his did not do until yesterday (and I'm pretty sure mine was automatically updating before his - but that's besides the point). Having never put out anything I'd ever written in Obj-c, since mine was actually working pretty well, I figured I would share.

I'm sorry for stepping on anyone's toes, but really, is this necessary?

 

[Reluctant Adept]

Bringing up the developer documentation within Xcode switches to discrete graphics, which seems a trifle unnecessary. Closing the documentation doesn't switch back - I needed to quit Xcode to return to the Intel GPU.

 

[dgdosen]

1Password? Why for the graphical shutter they use when starting the app?

 

[paintballswimgu]

Err ok. I noticed his once I wrote mine. It's not like we're charging for anything. They do appear to be implemented a bit differently and some of the things mine does his did not do until yesterday. Having never put out anything I'd ever written in Obj-c, since mine was actually working pretty well, I figured I would share.

I'm sorry for stepping on anyone's toes, but really, is this necessary?

i appriciate both of you guys for making apps. I downloaded the thread starters though, because i liked the graphics instad of letters.

 

[Tegeril]

1Password? Why for the graphical shutter they use when starting the app?

Probably. If anything, this change is going to have users pushing for people to use less superfluous graphics in their applications.

 

[xjames]

UPDATE:
I've written an menulet application that will notify you of which GPU is currently in use. I've tested it on my 17" MBP with success, and put in some fallbacks in case people try to run it on unsupported systems (there are ATI/Unknown icons). You can set it to run at startup, and it will also auto update.

Download Here
Visit the site

Nice! Thanks!!

Now, I'm just curious: What are the 3 icons to the right of your adium in your menubar? I'm always interested in what cool apps are out there that I don't know...

which gives me an idea for a new thread...

 

[rawd]

Donate LOL