10.8.3 Forcing Discrete Graphics With Dropbox and others

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Level 1

24 points

10.8.3 Forcing Discrete Graphics With Dropbox and others

I have a mid-2010 MacBook Pro, and under 10.8.2 most of my apps ran on the integrated graphics chipset.

Now with 10.8.3, apps including Dropbox, Transmit, Tweetbot, Growl, Reeder, and Bartender are forcing the usage of the discrete graphics card. There are a few more people on MacRumors noticing the same thing. The only one who posted what machine he had was also using a mid-2010 MBP.

I have tested on a brand new MacBook Pro Retina with 10.8.3, and those apps don't cause a switch to the discrete graphics card.

Is anyone else noticing apps forcing the discrete graphics mode in 10.8.3 that weren't in 10.8.2, and if so, what model of Mac are you using?

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.3)

Posted on Mar 14, 2013 9:56 PM

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Answer 1

Mar 15, 2013 12:22 AM in response to corsa

mid-2010 same problems

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Answer 2

Mar 15, 2013 2:30 AM in response to corsa

This is how it's going to be now. The worst example is actually the built-in dictation feature. Once invoked, it will switch the machine to the dedicated GPU and will continue to use it unless you kill the process manually from Activity Monitor.

I have been reporting this bug to Apple (I also have a mid-2010 MPB), and after months of silence finally got a reply to the effect that this behavior is now the norm.

See, according to this technote: http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#qa/qa1734/_index.html%23//apple_ref/doc/ uid/DTS40010791, allowing OpenGL apps to utilize the integrated GPU is only supported on machines shipped in early 2011 and later. According to Apple engineers, the fact that mid-2010 machines could take advantage of this feature was a bug, which has now been fixed.

What this means is that mid-2010 MBP owners can say goodbye to the power saving integrated GPU, along with the associated extended battery life and a system that generally runs cooler.

In some situations, it is probably wiser to disable the "Automatic graphics switching" option in System Preferences > Energy Saver and forget that you system shipped with two GPUs.

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Answer 3

Mar 15, 2013 3:26 AM in response to Ast A. Moore

maybe developers of tweetbot and reeder with dropbox could solve this problem?

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Answer 4

Mungo1

Level 1

9 points

Mar 15, 2013 3:41 AM in response to corsa

Same, 2010 MBP

Same issues, regular apps are triggering the GPU change.

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Answer 5

woland85

Level 1

0 points

Mar 15, 2013 4:28 AM in response to corsa

Mid 2010, i7, 17'' Same problem.

I'm pretty sure on 10.8.2 Dropbox 2.0 still used my intel card on my MacBook Pro.

I'm downgrade Dropbox to old version, and problem gone... But Dropbox have auto-upgrade 😀

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Answer 6

Mar 15, 2013 4:23 AM in response to woland85

yeah, 100% dropbox and all other used on 10.8.2 internal card.

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Answer 7

Mar 15, 2013 4:53 AM in response to corsa

Hmmmmmm.. since my upgrade to 10.8.3 i have the same problems.. no apps have been changed.. so.. this is a 10.8.3 bug..

Solution apple? Or do we have to hack it ourselves again?

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Answer 8

Mar 15, 2013 4:57 AM in response to corsa

It seems that the further into Mountain Lion we get, the more exposure the faulty NVIDIA mid-2010 MBP issues are showing up.

See http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4088?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US - in its attempts to fix other graphic issues, Apple may have exposed more 'bad' mid-2010 NVIDIA models.

Clinton

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