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    Manual control of graphics switching in 2010 MBP is here

    Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by JohnSavage, May 13, 2010.

  1. JohnSavage

    JohnSavage Notebook Guru

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    Many of you probably already know about this, but I was so happy to discover this today that I thought I'd share it with the forum in case anyone doesn't know about it yet. I don't see a thread about it, anyway.

    It's called gfxCardStatus. It's an open source, free program that you can download here, straight from the developer:

    gfxCardStatus: menu bar gpu status monitor for os x / cody krieger - mobile, desktop & web developer

    It runs in the menu bar along the top of the screen with a little italicized i or n to indicate which GPU is currently in use. If you want it will display a Growl notification whenever your GPU is switched. And best of all, it allows you to set your graphics to automatic switching, NVIDIA only, or Intel only.

    It works perfectly. I was especially disappointed when I discovered that Papers, a piece of software very handy for organizing and viewing PDFs scientific literature, was for some reason kicking on the NVIDIA graphics. But this little program solves the problem completely. It would have been nice to see Apple implement this on its own, but in case anybody here is looking for this option, or wondering if/when it will be possible on the new MBPs, I thought I'd pass along that it is possible now!

    (If there's anything else I'd want it would be the ability to associate certain options with certain programs, but in the meantime I'm happy to settle for this)
     
    JohnSavage, May 13, 2010
    #1
  2. ajreynol

    ajreynol Notebook Virtuoso

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    there's also another app that does this.

    GPUInfoMenu 1.5

    don't know if one works better than the other. I'd like to see someone with an MBP try both and see if one is less glitchy or has a better UI than the other.
     
    ajreynol, May 13, 2010
    #2