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Disable Automatic GPU Switching on MacBook Pro 2017
Hello,
I received my new MAC Book Pro 2017 yesterday and the first thing I noticed is the on-board graphics card from Intel. Although I understand the benefits of having to use the Intel Graphics card; I want to turn off the Intel Graphics card to use on a permanent basis the Radeon Pro graphics card instead. Could you please help?
Many thanks,
Trevor
MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2017), macOS High Sierra (10.13.1)
You may want to consider looking into the Terminal command pmset. You can read its manual page by typing man pmset in the Terminal app. It uses the same files as System Preferences to configure power related settings but offers more options and granularity along with various useful logging features/stats. It might be helpful especially if you ever notice your power settings have adjusted themselves...
For example, pmset -g will show you your current configuration. If gpuswitch is set to 0 you would use your dedicated graphics processor (not the integrated one on the CPU) all the time regardless of your power source.
Setting it is easily done with:
sudo pmset -a gpuswitch 0
and you can add other settings in there like the added security of deactivating ttyskeepawake and even wake on magic packet/wake on "modem ring" (network can send a well known data file to wake the computer up from sleep which almost certainly keeps a port open to listen for the magic packet at all times):
sudo pmset -a gpuswitch 0 womp 0 ttyskeepawake 0 networksoversleep 0
gpuswitch can be set to 0, 1, or 2 and im not at my computer but can assume:
(uses more energy..not sure how much more but pmset would tell you)
Some people think the average user isn't capable of using the Terminal but they can safely be ignored.
You may want to consider looking into the Terminal command pmset. You can read its manual page by typing man pmset in the Terminal app. It uses the same files as System Preferences to configure power related settings but offers more options and granularity along with various useful logging features/stats. It might be helpful especially if you ever notice your power settings have adjusted themselves...
For example, pmset -g will show you your current configuration. If gpuswitch is set to 0 you would use your dedicated graphics processor (not the integrated one on the CPU) all the time regardless of your power source.
Setting it is easily done with:
sudo pmset -a gpuswitch 0
and you can add other settings in there like the added security of deactivating ttyskeepawake and even wake on magic packet/wake on "modem ring" (network can send a well known data file to wake the computer up from sleep which almost certainly keeps a port open to listen for the magic packet at all times):
sudo pmset -a gpuswitch 0 womp 0 ttyskeepawake 0 networksoversleep 0
gpuswitch can be set to 0, 1, or 2 and im not at my computer but can assume:
(uses more energy..not sure how much more but pmset would tell you)
Some people think the average user isn't capable of using the Terminal but they can safely be ignored.
Though this is solved, as a side note I would like to point out macOS already has an option to turn off the integrated graphics. Under Settings->Energy Settings (to my knowledge available on 2016,2017 MacBook Pro 15 inch only), but chase's response is much more comprehensive.
I found it... Here http://osxdaily.com/2017/01/08/disable-gpu-switching-macbook-pro/
I have to say that I am rather disappointed that Sales Support and Online Support via the Chat system were not able to guide me towards this solution. Instead they told met that it was not possible to switch graphics cards even though I told them that I found it hard to believe that this would be the case. In addition they told me that Apple does not support switching graphics card as it would void the warranty.
I wish I could raise this problem with Apple to make sure that their staff are able to assist their clients since they are supposedly trained on their products.
Trevor
There is also a possibility to switch permanently to the integrated graphics (for example when there are issues with the high performance graphic cards) posted some weeks ago in the Apple community forum....
I request that you request that it subsequently be moved to a more general Using macOS category, as power saver settings are not unique to any one model and multiple graphics processors are found in a variety of form factors. It is extremely important that all questions are classified correctly.
This is the Mac Pro Desktop forum.
I requested your post be moved to the MacBook Pro notebook forum
Disable Automatic GPU Switching
