Graphics Switching in Windows 7 - Macbook Pro 2011

Hi,

I'm having the same issue.on a Macbook pro from 2010, running Snowleopard and Windows Vista.

If you want to report the issue to Apple, you can use the form on:

www.apple.com/feedback

If you can spread the word to other people that have the same problem and get them to use the feedback form, then there is a chance that Apple will do something about this.

Anyone that brought their Macbook Pro back to the shop because of this issue should also mention this in the feedback form.

You might think that using the feedback form is pointless but at least if it's used there's a chance of something being done about this issue. Especially if enough people do it.

Everyone reporting this issue would have to fill in the feedback form in the same way.

- Is this issue to do with the MacBook Pro or with Mac OS X, since it's Mac OS X that has Bootcamp?

I have the same conflict because 3DS Max doesn't recognise the AMD Radeon HD 6750M in my Win7 partition. I haver to use both OS since Final Cut is exclusive for Mac and 3DSMax only runs in Windows. Definitely, Boot Camp should come with the complete set of drivers to run Windows smoothly.

I just need to play my brand new game "Battlefield 3" at the moment, it tells me the graphic dislplay adapter fails to initialize, that I may miss the proper driver, is this because of it not switching graphic cards?

Windows on Mac though runs warmer/hotter and lacks the thermal fan control that the SMC would normally offer to Mac OS.... so while the hardware is exy and looks nice, esp laptop, there are downsides to doing so. Drivers being another area.

And I would expect, but don't know, but getting AMD installer is more likely even with Apple's help, and not via Apple except for Boot Camp 4.x. Anyone that dealt with the BC 4.0.0 drivers know that they were not "ready" and were buggy, and later versions are an improvement. Same goes for 10.7.0 and every other initial release.

theologos wrote:

It feels that this is being done on purpose so that it appears to users that OS X offers a better experience and battery life over Windows.

And that information came from where exactly?

beejohnmustard wrote:

Parallels is not an option because you will never get the same performance as Bootcamp. This is just the nature of having a Host OS which needs CPU cycles, and the Guest OS running at the same time. If you are using Windows 7 as your main OS, and performance is a concern, Parallels will not suffice.

How do you know how much performance is needed, I run Win7 on an MBP, it is more than fast enough for everything execpt games, about which I could not care.

SMC controls fans fine in win7 on my early '11 15" MBP - Avidemux uses all 4 cores & 8 threads when reencoding AVC mkv's, and the fans kick in (along with the SNB i7 multiplier scaling) to keep temps in the mid 90 degrees C.

My issue is we cannot use the Intel Quick Sync fixed function video transcode engine built into the Sandy Bridge i7 as Apple hide the Intel HD 3000 display driver (by not allocating it resources). Quick Sync requires the execution units that are accessed via the HD 3000 driver, so no HD 3000 driver installed, no Quick sync.

Quick Sync is HEAPS faster and better quality than the encoders/transcoders that run on GPU's using CUDA or the AMD equivalent.

All Apple need to do is allow the drivers to be installed, but can still force windows to use the discrete GPU for output.

There are third party software solutions to allow quick sync to run in this configuration (Lucidlogix Virtu drivers).

Come on apple.

Austinlonz wrote:

snip

. If someone could find an adress to spam with complaints ..........

Are you sure that you want to start sending spam?

This is getting to be a joke. I bought this laptop (previous generation with the nVidia 330M GPU, but still has the integrated intel gpu as well) primarilly as a desktop replacement while on the road or away from my primary workstation. I mostly do very cpu intesive simulations in matlab, but this god **** computer runs so hot that it drops the cpu clock rate to 1.5Ghz! But it will let the gpu stay at full speed 24/7 while in windows.

Why would you make a computer, put all this fancy hardware in it, then make it impossible for you to actually use it? If running the thing full boar results in the cpu cutting its frequency almost in half (if playing a game it will drop to about 1.2gHz! which is the lowest intel will let the cpu run) then why bother putting that kind of hardware in there?

This might be the last mac laptop I buy. Thats saying a lot, with it, an Apple Display, my old MBP and an iPhone on my desk. Not to mention the computers I have purchased for my family (5 MB/P and 1 iMac). At least with a PC laptop you know what you are getting, a piece of crap that can actually use its hardware!

And to the battlefield guy, you just need to update your drivers with theo ones from AMD/nvidia. The bootcamp drivers are so old its rather pathetic. Apple doesn't find the need to support windows at all. I wonder if they made boot camp just so they could cripple windows. I feel like the hackers that were competing to get windows on Apple's first intel computers could have done a better job than this. This is pathetic apple.

Jim

Hi.

You can leave feedback about this on www.apple.com/feedback

I'm not sure how much attention they pay to the forum.

Wow, I am glad I came across this thread.

I was about to spend £2,000 on a MacBookPro until I read this.

It would have been nice to be able to use OSX but I can live without it.

I cannot accept paying so much for a laptop that will not work properly with Windows, as it is essential to my computing world.

Shame I was really looking forward to that purchase, but I guess I just dodged a bullet there.

I bought a used MacBook Pro and its been a battle to get certain power management features working that I get on my Thinkpad. There are obvious bugs with Windows 7 and certainly it seems Apple wont fix it, so its only up to you to get things going. I use an open source program to force Power Saver and Balance when Im on battery because Windows 7 under MacBook Pro has no clue on what to do. I use another open source program to control the fans because Windows 7 doesnt know what to do when the notebook gets too hot. Im also using another program to force the 9600M GT video card to throttle to low settings when not in use because Windows 7 somewhat refuses to throttle when not needed that includes when using the battery. Apple please update all these issues I started liking my MacBook Pro but I feel this is my first and last MacBook Pro I feel I should go back to using a Thinkpad fulltime.

Well, my opinion is that there is nothing Apple could do this to work. Like in Lion every application has it needs, for example if you are using Safari, intel graphics will do the job, and if you try iPhoto, it will automaticly switch to discrete graphics, so what Apple will have to do is to re-programme every single windows application to ask first if there is integrated graphics, and if the application can use it to do the job, else it will turn discrete graphics and do the same jobs, same like in Lion. Not only Mac laptops, every single laptop has this problem, high battery usage, Win7 was made before this was even on paper. Wait and try for win8 there will be alot of improvements i think. 🙂

No, no, no.... you are so wrong please stop posting... There isn't a need to re-programm every single Windows application. Do you understand how graphics switching even works? The easiest option Apple can give us is a toggle to turn on either discrete or onboard GPU. Automatic switching would be more work, but a toggle shouldn't be. This could be done by modifying the EFI settings to turn off the discrete GPU when booting Windows.

Don't be such a fan-boy! There are already solutions for OSX to force on the fly switching, so you can force integrated graphics and maximize battery life, or force another app that doesn't support switching to use descrete. I would even take Ricky's solution of having to reboot.

The battery life on PC laptops in windows 7 is just fine. They have proper drivers written that can handle graphics switching or just use integrated graphics depending on the laptop.

You need to realize that the internal hardware of Macs is pretty much the same as PCs. Apple adds a few nice features (nice screens, touchpads and the killer feature, Mac OS) but other than that they are essentually the same on the inside.

Jim