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

One other thing I've noticed: using an external display also kicks in the 330M regardless of what software you're running. Odd that a GMA950 can drive an external display just fine, but an Intel HD can't?

I'm also annoyed by the way the new unibody MBPs handle waking up from sleep while on battery. I was hoping there could be a case where I could run an MBP off battery with the lid closed, using external keyboard and mouse and an external display. Useful if you don't want to pull out your magsafe but have these other things on your desk. Alas, it won't work: it has to be on the charger.
 
Bug report: After initial install and startup, the app showed the Intel icon in the menu bar. I started iPhoto and the app crashed. The image disappeared from the menu bar, but I could click in the blank space and get the dropdown menu although nothing in the menu seemed to do anything.

I had to restart the app.
 
Add Skitch to the list.

Also, if anyone is having problems with Skitch on their i5.. let me know.. Cause I am.
 
Apple Seeds Mac OS X 10.6.4 Build 10F37

"According to reports, the current build focuses on Graphics Drivers"

i hope that includes better switching from integrated/discrete
 
Hi all, I use Parallels desktop a lot due to some business apps that I need on a regular basis. I find that everytime i start Parallels, even if i haven't started a virtual machine, the discrete graphics kick in.

Does anyone know of any other virtualization software such as Fusion kicks in the nvidia graphics? I'm considering switching software for the extra battery life.

I only recieved my pro 15" yesterday and i'm getting a maximum battery life of 4 hours. Is this normal?
Thanks
 
any final cut studio users? my buddy uses his mbp (last generation core2duo) with final cut pro and i wasn't sure if that used the discrete or the integrated graphics card

i told him to use the discrete mode just incase
 
shamster01 said:
Hi all, I use Parallels desktop a lot due to some business apps that I need on a regular basis. I find that everytime i start Parallels, even if i haven't started a virtual machine, the discrete graphics kick in.

Does anyone know of any other virtualization software such as Fusion kicks in the nvidia graphics? I'm considering switching software for the extra battery life.
Click to expand...

I dabbled briefly with Virtualbox on my MBP yesterday. There were options in the VM configurations to allow or prevent the VM from having direct access to 2D and 3D acceleration on the host machine. I didn't actually try it, but I suspect that if you leave these unchecked, then there's as good a chance as any that the 330M won't kick in.

There are (as yet) no drivers for Windows and definitely not linux to support switching between discrete and integrated graphics, so if the VM OS is made aware of the nVidia GPU, then it's always going to be on. There's just no way around that.

At any rate, Virtualbox is free and actually works quite well, so it's worth trying out.


I only recieved my pro 15" yesterday and i'm getting a maximum battery life of 4 hours. Is this normal?
Click to expand...

Depends on what you're doing. If the discrete graphics were on most of the time, and the MBP was grinding away at something or had a lot plugged into it, then that sounds about right.
 
I was surprised that my MBP didn't switch to the discrete card when I was watching videos in Safari (youtube,gametrailers etc).
 
scaredpoet said:
I dabbled briefly with Virtualbox on my MBP yesterday. There were options in the VM configurations to allow or prevent the VM from having direct access to 2D and 3D acceleration on the host machine. I didn't actually try it, but I suspect that if you leave these unchecked, then there's as good a chance as any that the 330M won't kick in.

There are (as yet) no drivers for Windows and definitely not linux to support switching between discrete and integrated graphics, so if the VM OS is made aware of the nVidia GPU, then it's always going to be on. There's just no way around that.

At any rate, Virtualbox is free and actually works quite well, so it's worth trying out.




Depends on what you're doing. If the discrete graphics were on most of the time, and the MBP was grinding away at something or had a lot plugged into it, then that sounds about right.
Click to expand...

great and thanks! will give it a shot!
 
Triggers NVidia for me
MercuryMover (alternative Mondomouse does not)
Socialite (alternative Twitterrific does not)
Choosy (alternative Multibrowser does not)
 
the_wallcrawler said:
Bug report: After initial install and startup, the app showed the Intel icon in the menu bar. I started iPhoto and the app crashed. The image disappeared from the menu bar, but I could click in the blank space and get the dropdown menu although nothing in the menu seemed to do anything.

I had to restart the app.
Click to expand...

Apologies for the crash, I'm looking to roll my own crash reporter so I can get notification of application crashes, and it should be coming shortly. For now, if you could take a look in ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/ and send me a PM with some of the crash details, I can take a look at what might have caused the problem and try to fix it.
 
Tegeril said:
Apologies for the crash, I'm looking to roll my own crash reporter so I can get notification of application crashes, and it should be coming shortly. For now, if you could take a look in ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/ and send me a PM with some of the crash details, I can take a look at what might have caused the problem and try to fix it.
Click to expand...

Chose to instead implement the FeedbackReporter framework. It's in now. If you update the application and manually choose to submit feedback, it should grab previous crash data and send it along rather than you needing to do any hard work.
 
FYI: Found out that desktop sharing into your MBP (i.e. Back to My Mac) will trigger a switch to discrete graphics, and will go back to integrated when you disconnect.
 
More I discovered the triggers NVidia for me
Zooom2 (alternative Mondomouse does not)
Camtwist
Adobe Flash Media Live Encoder
 
Screen Sharing pops nVidia for me, as well as playing 1080p or 1080i H.264 content in QuickTime X.

Edit: Forgot, Chrome pops nVidia when using Gmail but oddly, Firefox and Safari don't.
 
Tegeril said:
As Sneakz suggested, what I was really getting at was that it would be best to file an enhancement request to Apple to change the way graphics switching is currently implemented. Sure, an individual application developer can change their code to make fewer calls to the GPU, but the best bet lies with Apple.

This does bring up a bit of a conflict of interest though. Apple is really interested in using the GPU to offload tasks from the CPU to improve performance that the CPU is not designed to perform. What would really be best in my mind is that the current switching method remain with one additional setting, a switch to change between 'favor performance' and 'favor battery life' that would change the criteria that triggers the GPU from a set of GPU calls to a subset of those calls when you choose battery life.
Click to expand...
There is 0 conflict of interest. It simply ridiculous and the only rational reason this could have (other than maybe they simply blew it by accident) is that Apples Intel GPU drivers suck and to cover this up they always activate the Nvidia GPU.
Less GPU calls from developers is aboslutely stupid to request because at some stuff a GPU is just a million times more efficient. But for almost all of the 2D CPU acceleration Intel's GPU is more than fast enough. A Lenovo T410 can also provide a snappy GPU accelerated interface of some App. It can display pretty much all of MS Office Powerpoint effects without any problem. Apple just needs to offer a simple List that is user manageable. Currently Safari can do a lot on Intel HD but Chrome cannot and it probably makes as many GPU calls. It probably is on some list that says do not activate here. On this list are currently only some Apple apps and for all the million programs left Apple just goes the fool proof way that kills battery life and does not offer any manual fix.

Somebody has to find this list (where Safari is on) which is hopefully not hardcoded into some driver.

It is also weird that there is no way to activate the Intel HD in Windows as there are enough drivers out there for other Notebooks that use Multiplexers. Maybe there is some generic driver that works with the Multiplexer. The Intel HD drivers for Windows are here already. I guess it is to prevent users from using Windows for anything but Gaming. Apple just does not like Windows. Maybe a similar reason as this whole Flash dispute. They do not want free Flash apps that compete with the App Store and pretend that Flash is a battery hog while promoting HTML5 which has proven to use as many resources as Flash when it is doing similar work. While Flash is at least the same on any platform and HTML5 will always also have those little differences in different Browsers.
 
no one's tried final cut pro or logic pro?!

or do they simply not use it?

i'm assuming logic doesn't and final cut does at the moment...

cheers
 
Skim (after hitting Search)

Skim is a PDF reader and annotator that integrates well with some latex editors.
 
Hmm, Cinch doesn't seem to trigger the NV GPU for me -

Tho that mini-app is awesome! *thumbs up*
 
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