Mac discrete graphics card required.

[skoya]

For some reason on a mac book pro retina, opening brackets causes the graphics card to switch from integrated to discrete. This drains the battery quicker when using brackets on the move. Note that chrome/safari and others do not switch graphics. Do we know why brackets does? - If there is an advanced rendering feature being used by brackets then perhaps a switch/option to disable would be greatly appreciated.

[JeffryBooher]

@skoya do you know when this started?

[JeffryBooher]

@skoya Also, do you see this with the Chrome Canary (https://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/browser/canary.html) build as well? I only have 10.8 on retina and gfxCardStatus has issues with 10.8 but it seems that the compositing mode used in the newer builds of Chromium may be shifting the GPU into discreet mode.

[skoya]

I am not sure when it started. Chrome Canary is fine: 31.0.1619.0 - it doesn't switch away from the integrated graphics card.

I am just updating canary to the latest version will report back once downloaded (on 3g at the moment).

I also have OSX 10.8.4

[skoya]

31.0.1620.0 doesn't switch either. Could there be something in the brackets app shell?

[gruehle]

Medium priority to @JeffryBooher for investigation. This may be an issue with CEF, or it could be something triggered by some of our custom CSS. We should figure out what is causing this switch.

@njx had a good suggestion -- try running Tailor (the Chrome Packaged App version of Brackets) and see if it also triggers the discreet graphics card.

[peterflynn]

We could also test the CEF theory by doing something like window.location.href = "www.google.com"; in the dev tools for Brackets, and seeing if that simpler content running in CEF also forces the discrete GPU.

[mseymour]

I'm on 0.34.0-10729 here (Mid-2012 non-retina MBP), and it switches graphics from integrated to discrete.

It's kind of a pain when the card takes a while to switch (No idea if it has to do with the fact that I only have 4GB ram or what, though.)

[framerate]

This behavior is still happening, yet I noticed this bug was closed? Is this something we should look at?

[njx]

This bug is still open. (The "closed" indication above is for another issue that was a duplicate of this one.)

[CMRahman]

Same thing happens in Maverics as well. Is anyone looking into it?

[peterflynn]

@CMRahman You can check the assignee of any bug in the header at the top of the page. In this case it's assigned to @JeffryBooher, so that's who's looking into it.

[JeffryBooher]

It looks like this problem is caused by Chrome Compositing:
https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=192668

I also see this

Even without having any tabs open or fresh start with Chrome just showing the Google search page.

Chrome: Version 31.0.1650.57

Marking this item to Track

[peterflynn]

@skoya @mseymour @framerate @CMRahman Can you reply back and let us know (a) what vintage Mac you're using (Apple menu > About this Mac > More Info should give something like "Mid 2009") and (b) what version of Mac OS you're running. It would also be useful if you could check whether launching Chrome itself causes the same thing to happen. Thanks!

This Chromium comment is interesting:

There are severe bugs in the graphics drivers for the mid-2010 MacBook Pro which can lead to entire system lockups when switching between the integrated and discrete GPU. For this reason Chrome forces the use of the discrete GPU on such systems.

Unclear what exactly defines "such systems" but it would be good to see what the patterns are among users who are hitting this.

[framerate]

I'm a bit confused to your "vintage" mac comment. I have the last generation retina macbook pro.

OSX 10.9 Mavericks

Latest version everything.

Also, I'm running Chrome Canary right now and it is NOT triggering my discrete graphics. Although certain pages will (WebGL for example).

[mseymour]

Mid-2012 non-retina, 10.9. Launching Chrome itself doesn’t cause the switch.

[CMRahman]

OSX > 10.9 Mavericks.

I use Chrome Canary[v33] and it does't trigger discrete graphics. Regular Chrome [v31] doesn't either.
Please let me know if you need any other info.

Thanks.

[JeffryBooher]

I use Google Chrome and it will not let me switch to the lower powered GPU on my Macbook as shown above. @CMRahman are you using gfxCardStatus to determine that you're not running in discreet graphics mode when chrome is running? Even with a blank page -- the helper process seems to require it for me.

[CMRahman]

@JeffryBooher - I seem to have no problem wtih Chrome as you can see from the screenshot. And yes, i'm using gfxCardStatus. I did notice that sometimes, firing up Chrome switches to discreet but then after awhile it switches back to integrated. Something that never happens with Bracket. With Bracket it always seem to run on discreet graphics.

[CMRahman]

@JeffryBooher -- Also, if I have both Chrome and Brackets open and try to switch to integrated only, it complains about Brackets only. Screenshot attached. Thanks.

[daveygm]

I have a pull request that should fix this. It appears to just be a setting in the Info.plist file that allows the integrated GPU to be used for OpenGL and API's that rely on OpenGL.

NSSupportsAutomaticGraphicsSwitching needs to be set to true. Here is the Apple documentation for that.

By default, once your application creates an OpenGL context (by either calling OpenGL directly or an API that relies on OpenGL such as Core Animation, Core Image, etc), the MacBook Pro automatically switches to the higher-end discrete GPU for performance concerns and won't switch back until the application quits.

This can be seen in the Mavericks Activity Monitor under Energy > Requires High Perfg GPU.

[framerate]

Bravo Dave! Thanks for taking the time to find this!

[skoya]

Let us know once it makes a build and I will help test it.
On 13 Dec 2013, at 17:52, Justin Reynard notifications@github.com wrote:

Bravo Dave! Thanks for taking the time to find this!

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub.

[daveygm]

Glad to help guys. The pull request was merged, so I think we will see this fix in Sprint 36.

[jasonsanjose]

Tagged FBNC, see adobe/brackets-shell#399

[CMRahman]

Thanks Dave.

[daveygm]

The update is now live in Sprint 36. This should now be fixed (theoretically) for dual-GPU Macbook Pros produced February 2011 and later running Mac OS X Lion and later. Please test and check back in.

[framerate]

Working great so far for me!

---

*- justin *| @framerate http://twitter.com/framerate | framerate.info

On Fri, Feb 7, 2014 at 2:14 PM, David Mead notifications@github.com wrote:

The update is now live in Sprint 36. This should now be fixed
(theoretically) for dual-GPU Macbook Pros produced February 2011 and later
running Mac OS X Lion and later. Please test and check back in.

Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com//issues/5028#issuecomment-34512454
.

[njx]

Closing as fixed. @skoya - if you could confirm that would be great. Thanks @daveygm!

[skoya]

Confirmed works fine with integrated graphics card - thanks for making brackets usable on the train again!

[tiwuti]

@daveygm Is there a way to get this working on a Macbook pro before 2011?

[calvin2000001]

If I am using Adobe Indesign it says I can't switch, but if I close the program, and then restart Indesign with "integrated", it starts up just fine and stays in that mode. Is that safe?

[daveygm]

Any app on macOS has the ability to request the discrete graphics card if there is one available. And once it’s turned on, it works for the entire system until any and all apps have stopped requesting it. Many graphics apps such as Indesign do that and it’s not a bad thing if you need the more powerful graphics processing. It’s also just fine to run everything on the integrated graphics if you want to conserve your battery. Graphics intensive apps may run slow on integrated graphics but it won’t hurt anything. On Dec 3, 2017, at 5:59 AM, calvin2000001 <notifications@github.com> wrote: If I am using Adobe Indesign it says I can't switch, but if I close the program, and then restart Indesign with "integrated", it starts up just fine and stays in that mode. Is that safe? — You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or mute the thread.