10.8.3 Forcing Discrete Graphics With Dropbox and others

Keynote is a quartz-heavy software with 3D effects, motion, transparencies and such… it's perfectly fine if it triggers the discrete GPU, it would be strange if it didn't!

Skype: it would be nice if it did it only when you start a video call, but it might not be possible without some changes to the whole video/graphic requirements of the software. I don't see them (Microsoft) fixing it any time soon.

I am surprised by the attitude some of you guys have here. I bought a very expensive machine that was working perfectly fine before a crappy update came out. I expect things to get back to NORMAL. Not for myself to start giving excuses as to why some of the apps that NEVER triggered Discrete graphics started doing it now.

By me giving examples, it doesn't mean those examples are the only apps that trigger the discrete graphics. Some apps are ridiculously small and have no graphics/animations in them and still stupidly trigger discrete graphics, example: TrimEnabler.

Apple better fix this ****. I want my battery life back.

I totally agree with you on the little utilities: they shouldn't trigger the GPU, and they have to fix it.

At the same time I believe Keynote is one of those softwares that has all the rights to use the NVIDIA card. I think you just chose a bad example, that's all.

At the same time I want to remind everyone to write feedback to Apple (they don't read these forums) AND to the developers of the softwares: most of the time they have no idea their app triggers the GPU since they don't have mid-2010 mbp. They might not be able to fix it, but at least let them know there's a problem.

For those with a Mid-2010, 15" MacBook Pro (6,2), print out this article and take your Mac to an authorized service center. You need a new logic board.

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4088

There was a post early on about this, but it seemed to dismiss the issue, or Apple has since changed the article.

If you have a bad GPU/Logic board, which is highly likely, no update will ever fix the problem.

Why do you think our graphics problem has something to do with this issue?

My screen does not behave strange, its not getting Black or so...

aburger wrote:

Why do you think our graphics problem has something to do with this issue?

My screen does not behave strange, its not getting Black or so...

I don't think everyone here has that problem. You must decide that based on the article and your Mac's performance. If you do have that problem, there is only a short time left to get it repaired for free.

The graphics switching issue and the logic board issue are two different things. They just, both, happen to impact 2010 hardware. The graphics switching issue is, undoubtedly, a software issue (caused by the 10.8.3 update). I feel quite confident that my logic board is fine as I have experienced none of the other issues.

Why are you spoiling this thread with your confusing information? The issue you are talking about has absolutely nothing to do with the issue in this thread. Everyone with the "Black screen" issue got their logicboard fixed. This has nothing to do with it.

Nadeem97 wrote:

Everyone with the "Black screen" issue got their logicboard fixed. This has nothing to do with it.

I've contacted several people that still have the logic board problem in the last few weeks. Many people do not know about it, which is why I brought it up.

If you are unable to read a post and filter it out based on your experiences, I'm sorry you are so dense.

It's pointless to bring up the black screen issue when -if you were able to read a post and filter it out in the first place- it's very obvious this issue is not related to it at all.

Nadeem97 wrote:

It's pointless to bring up the black screen issue when -if you were able to read a post and filter it out in the first place- it's very obvious this issue is not related to it at all.

I didn't ever say it was related. There is a commonality between the GPU switching and a Mid 2010 MacBook Pro.

When I saw the thread pop up, and having just informed several people of the problem, and given that time is running out to get the problem fixed for free, I added the post to inform anybody that had one to get it checked.

Barney-15E is right. I was hesitant to update to 10.8.3 because of this thread, but I finally did a couple weeks ago. I also had my logic board replaced a couple months ago (before updating to 10.8.3, because of a garbled screen). GUESS WHAT?! My MBP (mid-2010) stays in integrated graphics mode in all the situations you all are complaing about. So for those of you bashing Barney for bringing it up, you may want to check yourself before you wreck yourself (I'm joking) -- Looks like he's right. And also, I reccomended this same information that he is, earlier in this thread, and in another thread I believe and people refuse to see the correlation between the two issues. If you want to look up that post you will see my logic and why I also believed they were related. I don't care to explain it again. Good luck fixing your computers guys.

I've never really had issues with mine up until now, but I do thave this issue since 10.8.3

If I take it into an Apple store, will they repair it?

Feel better now? Look at the direction this thread took now- instead of debugging and providing more apps/information about this issue, it's now heading towards being a duplicate of a 2-year-old thread about the logicboard problems.

Nadeem97 wrote:

Feel better now? Look at the direction this thread took now- instead of debugging and providing more apps/information about this issue, it's now heading towards being a duplicate of a 2-year-old thread about the logicboard problems.

You were the one who went all Paul Blart: Thread Cop. You could have just left it alone and it would have sat there innocuously helping out the few people who stumbled across it. Everyone else would have looked at the article and determined whether the situation applied to them or not.

There are several configurations that are implicated in this GPU switching problem, so the specific article about one of the particular models, requiring more symptoms than just GPU switching, would not cause anyone any problem, except, of course, Paul Blart: Thread Cop.