I'm having severe performance troubles when I'm using the laptop's built in screen as opposed to an external display.
Whenever I stop using the external display, many of the OSX animations become slow and choppy.
I suspect what's happening is that my external display always uses the discrete graphics card for acceleration. I also sometimes work quite close to the limit of my physical RAM. This probably makes it hard for my integrated graphics card to work efficiently.
Any suggestions on how to force this machine to use the discrete graphics card EVEN when not using an external monitor?
Specs below:
Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro10,1
Processor Name: Intel Core i7
Processor Speed: 2,3 GHz
Number of
Processors: 1
Total Number of Cores: 4
L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 6 MB
Memory: 8 GBNVIDIA GeForce GT 650M
Intel HD Graphics 4000
Best Answer
To force the usage of the discrete graphics card in your macbook you can uncheck the automatic graphics switching checkbox in the system preferences/ energy saver panel
As the message states, this does drain the battery faster.
However, your mac should not behave as you describe, I suggest taking it to a service desk so apple can take a look at it, or call apple to ask why it is so choppy.