Forcing the system to use the integrated graphics

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Forcing the system to use the integrated graphics

I have a Macbook Pro with the dual graphics system, integrated graphics and separate Radeon card. In System Preferences I can tell the system to use the integrated graphics unless the software requests the Radeon, but there is no selection to tell the system always use the integrated graphics. The are some pieces of software out there, Photoshop, Lightroom, Kindle that force the system to use the Radeon graphics even though they would run, granted not as efficiently, on the integrated graphics.

The Radeon uses a lot of power and drastically reduces the time you can spend on the battery. So there are some instances where it would be worth sacrificing the extra performance of the Radeon to get the extra battery life.

Does anyone know of a workaround to force the MacBook Pro to use the integrated graphics vs the Radeon? Short of completely disabling the Radeon which I'd prefer not to do.

Maybe Apple needs to consider putting this as an option in System Preferences in a future OS release. A switch to tell the system to use the integrated graphics regardless of what the software requests.

MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2018), macOS High Sierra (10.13.6)

Posted on Nov 25, 2018 10:45 AM

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Answer 1

Nov 25, 2018 11:12 AM in response to TomG62

the 2011 models has some samples that developed a defect in their Discrete graphics chips. In response Kody Kreiger wrote gfx card status. it was later improved by Steve Schow for use in later versions of MacOS.

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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Forcing the system to use the integrated graphics

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