MacBook – Full-screen games on a Retina Macbook Pro sometimes start strangely

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When I start Braid on my Retina Macbook Pro, the game will sometimes start normally, and I can play it, but other times only the bottom left corner of the game is visible, and the graphics look really ugly. The same happens with Trine 2.

I don't know when it works or when it doesn't, just that it seems somewhat random to me. Could it have something to do with the graphics cards? Right now my battery is at 100%, and I'm connected to the charger, so I think the discrete card is the one powering the game. Could this be the problem? How do I tell?

Also, on each game's launcher, I select the "2880×1800" resolution.

Here's Braid looking all messed up:

Less-than-impressive retina graphics

Best Answer

Thanks @eternus for answering, but my issue was that for some reason, my computer doesn't always switch to the discrete card once I open a game. Restarting usually fixes the problem, but a more thorough way to solve it is to get this app called gfxCardStatus, which allows you to specify which card you'd like to use. You choose the "Discrete only" option before running a game, and it should work fine. Here's what it looks like running in your task bar:

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