improwise Posted April 13, 2009 Share Posted April 13, 2009 Sorry if this has been discussed before, but when searching, I have found mixed answers to this. Is it possible to switch between the 2 graphics cards when using BootCamp on a MacBook Pro (unibody) even though it can only be done in OSX, or is it impossible to use anything but the 9600 in Windows? Found this on the nVidia site: Apple's hybrid graphics technology is supported under the MacOS X operating system version 10.5.5 and higher only. When running Microsoft's Windows XP™ or Microsoft's Windows Vista™ using Apple's Boot Camp, the system locks into higher performance mode which uses the Geforce 9600M GT discrete GPU for all graphics related tasks and can not be changed to use the Geforce 9400M motherboard GPU for battery life mode. Is it really true? For me who wants to use the MBP for work and not gaming, it is a big disadvantage, as the 9600 probably uses more power and genrates more heat.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
schwamm Posted May 16, 2009 Share Posted May 16, 2009 Sorry if this has been discussed before, but when searching, I have found mixed answers to this. Is it possible to switch between the 2 graphics cards when using BootCamp on a MacBook Pro (unibody) even though it can only be done in OSX, or is it impossible to use anything but the 9600 in Windows? Found this on the nVidia site: Apple's hybrid graphics technology is supported under the MacOS X operating system version 10.5.5 and higher only. When running Microsoft's Windows XP™ or Microsoft's Windows Vista™ using Apple's Boot Camp, the system locks into higher performance mode which uses the Geforce 9600M GT discrete GPU for all graphics related tasks and can not be changed to use the Geforce 9400M motherboard GPU for battery life mode. Is it really true? For me who wants to use the MBP for work and not gaming, it is a big disadvantage, as the 9600 probably uses more power and genrates more heat.... I was frustrated by the same problem myself and just stumbled on your forum. I assume it would be difficult to manage as both vista and xp device managers see only the 9600 gt. I've heard if several Sony laptops though that utilize a similar setup and can change graphics modes without even logging out. Frustrating huh? Maybe snow leopard will offer more help, but that doesn't seem plausible since it's a bootcamp issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beastie Posted June 19, 2010 Share Posted June 19, 2010 I was frustrated by the same problem myself and just stumbled on your forum. I assume it would be difficult to manage as both vista and xp device managers see only the 9600 gt. I've heard if several Sony laptops though that utilize a similar setup and can change graphics modes without even logging out. Frustrating huh? Maybe snow leopard will offer more help, but that doesn't seem plausible since it's a bootcamp issue. Same problem here.... I read some inf file hacks to force graphics card driver install. I will try it this week, if works I will post here. People hacked the osx, to install on pc, will hack this also, It's just a matter of time I belive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qreed Posted July 16, 2010 Share Posted July 16, 2010 Same problem here....I read some inf file hacks to force graphics card driver install. I will try it this week, if works I will post here. People hacked the osx, to install on pc, will hack this also, It's just a matter of time I belive. AFAIK (new to EFI based systems) the hacked inf's will not do much since the SMC(?) doesn't expose the other video card (at least not the Intel IGP on my i7). Maybe it's possible in the same way as enabling AHCI via the MBR. If I'm talking noobish here, please do correct me. I would be very happy if I could switch between them even if I have to reboot to do so. But I've been searching for about a week now and haven't found a thing that comes close. And I don't see Apple spending any effort into this real soon considering the quality of all their other bootcamp drivers. (It almost looks like they are trying to put Windows in a bad daylight -- which they are actually) I should have done some more research before I ordered this MBP because if I knew that driver support was this bad I would have bought another Dell or Sony. (Probably both considering the price of this MBP) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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