Disable discrete graphics card on Macbook Pro 2015 ?

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Disable discrete graphics card on Macbook Pro 2015 ?

Hi all-

Does anyone know if it's possible to (relatively easily) disable the discrete graphics card on 2015 Macbook Pro?

When I am using the AMD card I get frequent 'glitches' / 'shudders' of the screen graphics and it's very annoying when I'm trying to work. I have tried gfxCardStatus but it doesn't seem to work properly -- I can't uncheck 'discrete graphics' and if I try to switch to 'integrated only' it usually switches back immediately to 'discrete' (even though the 'i' icon is showed in the menu).

I've run the HW test multiple times, even took it in to Apple and they said the hardware tested OK, but it's still glitching and now my Applecare is expired. I don't seem to have graphics issues running on the integrated graphics, so I'd like to just disable the discrete graphics.

I've searched this topic but have not come across any clear information / solution.

Thanks!

MacBook Pro 15", macOS 10.13

Posted on Apr 7, 2019 11:43 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Grant Bennet-Alder

Level 10

140,909 points

Apr 7, 2019 7:01 PM in response to Darren P

Install gfxCardStatus (https://gfx.io) and set it to "i" (integrated graphics only). It will allow your MBP to run on integrated graphics only, bypassing the discrete GPU which has the issues. This may allow your MBP to run normally, although it will have reduced graphics performance when permforming demanding graphics tasks. The alternative is replacing the logic board, which is not cost effective on a machine that old, unless gfx does not resolve the issue and you really want to keep this MBP.

There is an acknowledged bug in the current version of Cody Kreiger's Open-Source gfxcardstatus, and the developer has confessed he does not have time to fix it right now.

There is a fork off the main build by steveschow available that seems to fix that problem for current versions of MacOS such as ElCapitan and Sierra. He provides a finished .app for direct download -- you do not have to compile anything.

https://github.com/steveschow/gfxCardStatus/releases

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Answer 2

Apr 8, 2019 6:05 AM in response to Darren P

There is a completely different hack developed more recently. It requires only single-User mode to get started, then type a complicated string into NVRAM, then disable System Integrity Protection and run an additional little program (direct-download link provided there) to make the change semi-permanent.

http://dosdude1.com/gpudisable/

.

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Answer 3

Tesserax

Level 10

158,286 points

Apr 7, 2019 11:57 AM in response to Darren P

FWIW, I have a 2010 MacBook Pro which I needed to do the same thing. I found and used gfxCardStatus by Cody Krieger for this and it works well. Unfortunately, I don't think he has a version that works beyond the 2012 MBP models and I'm not aware of anyone else that has done this.

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Answer 4

Darren P Author

Level 1

9 points

Apr 7, 2019 8:41 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Hi Grant,

Thank you. I have been running the gfx app (the updated version from stevechow). The trouble I had with it was that it seems to revert back to dynamic switching at times even though it was set to integrated graphics. Not sure why that has been happening but maybe it's user error .. in any case hoping that there is another solution that could disable the discrete graphics. It's frustrating that this graphics card has so many issues, but I'm hanging onto this machine as long as I can (it's got a lot of ports I actively use)

Thanks!

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Disable discrete graphics card on Macbook Pro 2015 ?

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