Sure, that fancypants new MacBook Pro has two separate graphics processors built-in, but you may be wondering just how you take advantage of that Jekyll & Hyde nature. The idea, of course, is that the GeForce 9400M gives you less power than the 9600M GT, but as a tradeoff consumes less power, meaning that you’ll likely want to switch when you’re relying on battery power, like when you’re on a plane.
Flipping the switch is as simple as, well, flipping a switch (okay, hitting a radio button). In the Energy Saver preference pane (now denoted with an energy-efficient compact fluorescent light bulb—poor kids today will have Thomas Edison rolling over in his grave with their swirly curly cue lights) there’s a section labelled Graphics Performance with radio buttons for “Better battery life” and “Higher performance” (by default the “Better battery life” option is selected).
Just hit the switch to make the change. The one downside? You’ll be asked to logout and back in before the change takes effect (presumably so that OS X can kill and relaunch WindowServer). I have a suspicion that the logout requirement will eventually be possible on the fly, but we’ll have to wait and see. Yes, we wills…
It's a shame that one has to log out. For a portable, it would be ideal to have the performance setting so that the 9600 is used when the computer is plugged in and down-shift to the 9400 when unplugged (or perhaps when battery power is under 50%).
BB
It would be really great if this was a per application setting, so that it would change graphics engines when you launch that ultimate game.