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What exactly would the Discrete graphics be required for?

K

kettlecorn

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 21, 2011
284
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I have it set so when I'm using battery, it runs purely on integrative graphics and when it's on power, it'll use Dynamic. I'm wondering if I am going to be missing out on anything by using only integrated? Are there things that absolutely require the discrete graphics (or would function much better) other than gaming?

I just traded my 2011 Macbook Pro 13" core i5 w/ Intel HD 3000 for a 2010 Macbook pro 15" with the nVIDIA gt330m. The MBP13 did everything I needed it to but then again, I don't know what's capable with a better graphics card.


EDIT: I meant 15" 2010, not 13". So traded a 13" 2011 for a 15" 2010
 
Last edited:
kettlecorn said:
I have it set so when I'm using battery, it runs purely on integrative graphics and when it's on power, it'll use Dynamic. I'm wondering if I am going to be missing out on anything by using only integrated? Are there things that absolutely require the discrete graphics (or would function much better) other than gaming?

I just traded my 2011 Macbook Pro 13" core i5 w/ Intel HD 3000 for a 2010 Macbook pro 13" with the nVIDIA gt330m. The MBP13 did everything I needed it to but then again, I don't know what's capable with a better graphics card.
Click to expand...

Perhaps I misunderstood you, but neither of those computers have discrete graphics.
 
The 2010 13" MBP has an NVIDIA 320M GPU, which is integrated into the chipset. The GPU is NOT dedicated, but it is a bit better than the Intel 3000 HD GPU, which is also integrated, but the 2011 MBP has a much better CPU than the 2010 MBP. Why would you trade a 2011 MBP for a 2010 MBP, especially since you don't know, what discrete GPUs are there for, or what they even are?

Mac 101: Integrated versus discrete graphics
 
simsaladimbamba said:
The 2010 13" MBP has an NVIDIA 320M GPU, which is integrated into the chipset. The GPU is NOT dedicated, but it is a bit better than the Intel 3000 HD GPU, which is also integrated, but the 2011 MBP has a much better CPU than the 2010 MBP. Why would you trade a 2011 MBP for a 2010 MBP, especially since you don't know, what discrete GPUs are there for, or what they even are?

Mac 101: Integrated versus discrete graphics
Click to expand...

Holy crap, sorry typo guys.

I trade my 13" MBP core i5 (2011) for a 15" Macbook Pro with Nvidia 330m and Integrated (2010). I wanted the bigger screen and resolution so decided to check it out. It was a fair trade with no additional cash on either end though mine was newer and longer warranty.

simsalad, i do know what discrete graphics are lol, im not stupid. I want to know if there are any apps that are required or run better on discrete.
 
kettlecorn said:
Holy crap, sorry typo guys.

I trade my 13" MBP core i5 (2011) for a 15" Macbook Pro with Nvidia 330m and Integrated (2010). I wanted the bigger screen and resolution so decided to check it out. It was a fair trade with no additional cash on either end though mine was newer and longer warranty.

simsalad, i do know what discrete graphics are lol, im not stupid. I want to know if there are any apps that are required or run better on discrete.
Click to expand...

Sorry, but the "13" 2010 MBP" part was confusing.
Anyway, some graphic intensive applications like Motion, or FCP X, or Photoshop, or After Effects, or LightRoom, or ... just work faster and more fluent with a dedicated GPU, depending on the graphical content.

I once had a professional DCC GPU in my PC and applying effects in a video compositing application called Combustion was fun, as I could play a sequence back in real time, with colour correction and particles and whatnot. But that GPU couldn't play any current (then) or past graphic intensive game, as it was not prepared for that.
 
in my '11 2.2 15" I have it set so on battery it's integrated, then on power it has the standard dynamic switching. You'll find that sometimes it will just force the discreet anyway if it needs it, so you won't miss out on much. Definitely worth it for the power savings anyway
 
awesome thanks for the response. Yeah i figured that integrated while on battery would be the best way to conserve battery life, just didnt want to miss out on anything.
:)
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_5 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8L1 Safari/6533.18.5)

Some applications use OpenCL for better performance, which runs only on the dedicated GPU (the HD3000 doesn't support this). Not exactly sure which apps use OpenCL though.
 
Quinoky said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_5 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8L1 Safari/6533.18.5)

Some applications use OpenCL for better performance, which runs only on the dedicated GPU (the HD3000 doesn't support this). Not exactly sure which apps use OpenCL though.
Click to expand...


Well I'm reportin back to say that I've been trying to use only integrated with battery mode and somethings don't work. I use chrome and youtube videos dont work. Where the video should be, you can see my desktop wallpaper. If I toggle back to dedicated, it will start playing.

Not sure if this is because it's normal or because I switched in 2011 Macbook pro 13"'s harddrive into this mac. I switched the harddrive because me and the other guy trading had some problems with backing up our existing content so we tried it and it worked. So far, under system profiler everything is normal, it detects both cards and is running SL 10.6.8.. but who knows? Maybe that's the problem.

Can anyone confirm that with integrative graphics that their youtube does NOT work in google? Only using dedicated work?
 
kettlecorn said:
Well I'm reportin back to say that I've been trying to use only integrated with battery mode and somethings don't work. I use chrome and youtube videos dont work. Where the video should be, you can see my desktop wallpaper. If I toggle back to dedicated, it will start playing.

Not sure if this is because it's normal or because I switched in 2011 Macbook pro 13"'s harddrive into this mac. I switched the harddrive because me and the other guy trading had some problems with backing up our existing content so we tried it and it worked. So far, under system profiler everything is normal, it detects both cards and is running SL 10.6.8.. but who knows? Maybe that's the problem.

Can anyone confirm that with integrative graphics that their youtube does NOT work in google? Only using dedicated work?
Click to expand...

Integrated Graphics runs YouTube fine on my machine (with latest chrome). 2011 17" mbp.
 
kettlecorn said:
Well I'm reportin back to say that I've been trying to use only integrated with battery mode and somethings don't work. I use chrome and youtube videos dont work. Where the video should be, you can see my desktop wallpaper. If I toggle back to dedicated, it will start playing.

Not sure if this is because it's normal or because I switched in 2011 Macbook pro 13"'s harddrive into this mac. I switched the harddrive because me and the other guy trading had some problems with backing up our existing content so we tried it and it worked. So far, under system profiler everything is normal, it detects both cards and is running SL 10.6.8.. but who knows? Maybe that's the problem.

Can anyone confirm that with integrative graphics that their youtube does NOT work in google? Only using dedicated work?
Click to expand...

Had that exact problem and someone here told me that it's because you switched graphics cards while running chrome. Chrome and firefox etc. can't switch which graphics card they use while open, so quit chrome and reopen in the integrated and it should be sweet, fixed it for me anyway
 
TheRdungeon said:
in my '11 2.2 15" I have it set so on battery it's integrated, then on power it has the standard dynamic switching. You'll find that sometimes it will just force the discreet anyway if it needs it, so you won't miss out on much. Definitely worth it for the power savings anyway
Click to expand...

When it's on battery and you turn the dynamic switching off, the MBP reverts to using only the 6750M.
Unless, of course, you have some sort of magical script or something.
 
TheRdungeon said:
Had that exact problem and someone here told me that it's because you switched graphics cards while running chrome. Chrome and firefox etc. can't switch which graphics card they use while open, so quit chrome and reopen in the integrated and it should be sweet, fixed it for me anyway
Click to expand...

yeah it was weird, i did restart chrome but it didnt seem to work and now a few hours after messing around with backups and re-installs, i'm running on integrated and youtube (HD) runs fine now. Must've been a doozy
 
In OSX I use the integrated graphics alway even plugged in.
Unless you really do some rendering or extensive Photoediting there is no benefit in the 330M. With integrated the Notebook stays a lot cooler and very quiet even under medium load. Also the whole relaunching of apps when you switch GPUs is annoying. iphoto also needs a relaunch to work well.
I only use the 330M because I have to when using an external screen.

And obviously I use in Windows for Gaming which is where you really see a difference to all integrated Nvidia and Intel GPUs (not AMD though).
 
The lack of discrete graphics in the 13" is basically what's keeping me from buying one...I think it will really make the machine last longer.
 
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