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User profile for user: Rod Hagen
Rod Hagen Author
User level: Level 7
32,000 points

Listing of apps which invoke the Nvidia on i5 and i7 MBPs

I and a few others here have been thinking it might be an idea to try to develop a listing of the apps that have been reported as / appear to invoke the NVidia GT330M processor on the MBP.

Rather than making this a thread for arguing about the "pros and cons" of all of this it would be helpful if people could simply list applications which they have found to do so, especially if they are ones that people might not expect to. (There are plenty of other threads where the rights and wrongs are being argued). If necessary, add a comment indicating whether the switch occurs whenever the application is used or only when particular types of use are made of it. If you come across subsequent updates of such programs which change their behaviour and allow them to operate under the Intel Integrated Graphics, or if you find particular apps DON'T provoke this behaviour in your own experience, then perhaps you could post a note about this, too.

I should also note that I am unable to personally "test" any of these, as I don't have access to an i5 or i7 MBP.

A few which have been mentioned as invoking the NVidia elsewhere, in no particular order are:

Tweetie
HyperSpaces
Skype
iWeb
iMovie
GarageBand
Parallels 5 Desktop
Microsoft Office 2004
Microsoft Office AutoUpdate daemon
RapidWeaver
PathFinder
Mathematica
Warp
Droplr
1Password
Clips
NetNewsWire
Koolclip


Cheers

Rod

MBP 13"2.26, MBP15"2.2, iMacG520"RevB , MB2CD, MBCD, ,PM5400/180 & earlier, Mac OS X (10.6.3), 7 chooks, 2 dogs, 2 daughters, 1 pear tree, 0 partridges, itinerant bats, magpie

Posted on Apr 27, 2010 8:45 PM

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78 replies
User profile for user: masklinn
masklinn
User level: Level 1
0 points

May 11, 2010 2:05 AM in response to tsqu

tsqu wrote:
There is no mystery - this is half-baked "intelligent" switching. Look at the list of applications above! Why should we *have to care* what invokes nVidia? Apple need to stop thinking that they know best and empower their users with control over which GPU is used. Or they can change their marketing copy and battery life claims.


User control simply isn't an option for that kind of stuff. On the previous generation, many users weren't even aware which GPU they were running on. Auto-switching is infinitely better (maybe with a master switch option for power users), it just needs to be improved and refined as clearly, at the moment it has far too many false positives.

It would be very nice if Apple's graphics team could tell us which API calls trigger the use of the NVidia card, and the rationale.
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User profile for user: brookieboy
brookieboy
User level: Level 1
4 points

May 11, 2010 2:53 AM in response to Rod Hagen

I'd have to agree with previous posters who have said that the issue isn't the idea of automatic switching, which is great for me 90% of the time, but it's with the way it is implemented. it is a first generation technology, i suppose, and so it should improve. I just hope there's a software improvement on the way...

What I would say is that usually the rules make sense. Ie; using quicktime X doesn't require NVidia, until it starts playing a video. Then when you stop watching the video, it switches back. Similarly watching flash video on 4oD (Channel 4 UK's video on demand service) doesn't envoke the NVidia card until you fullscreen, and then when you quit fullscreen, reverts straight back to intel.

What's not cool is the following:

1) In some applications, NVidia graphics are used where the end user cannot understand why. Ie: Tweetie/ Skype. It would appear that these programs are written sloppily, and I would expect that apple would ask them to change their programming rather than apple changing its. This won't be seen by apple as their problem, and skype for one is known for being markedly bad at providing updates to its software. I think the most realistic solution we could use to solve this problem is if a 'blacklist/whitelist' system is devised and implemented in an app like gfxCardStatus. I can't comment as to how feasible that is right now.

2) In other applications, which run the bulk of their features just fine the Intel card, once the NVidia card has been summoned for a specific purpose, you have to quit that application to regain the intel graphics. This cannot be the way that apple intended it to be 'intelligent.' A fine example of this would be hyperspaces. Usually people have reported that this requires the NVidia card all the time. However, If in the advanced preferences you turn off 'use core animation to animate changes to the desktop,' then it runs just fine on the intel card, UNTIL you click the hyperspaces icon, which then shows a dropdown menu with your spaces on. This triggers the NVidia graphics, yet they will remain in use until you quit hyperspaces, even if you never summon that drop down menu again... This is sloppy, but again it would appear to be to do with that particular app.

Can anyone confirm what extent of knowledge is given out by apple regarding how to develop for the switching gfx cards? This would go some way to pin the blame on either party, so that we can direct our error reports appropriately in the hunt for change 🙂
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User profile for user: Rod Hagen
Rod Hagen Author
User level: Level 7
32,000 points

May 15, 2010 5:34 AM in response to Rod Hagen

Many thanks to all those who have been contributing to this list.

I see that a couple of posters have offered some additional thoughtful comments about the issue generally, and about other related things.

I don't want to discourage debate, but it would be much appreciated if those who wish to expand on such matters could do so in other threads, or by creating their own. The idea here is to simply catalogue the actual behaviour, by listing those apps which trigger the Nvidia card, especially in situations where such behaviour seems unnecessary.

Keeping other more general discussion of the issues involved out of this particular thread makes it easier to keep track of the data.

Cheers

Rod
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Listing of apps which invoke the Nvidia on i5 and i7 MBPs

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