MacOS – Force integrated graphics card on OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion when working with VMware Fusion 5.x

batterygpumacosvmware

I want to force the GPU on my 2011 MacBook Pro 15 (A1286) to remain on the integrated GPU while I run VMWare Fusion 5.x.

The gfxCardStatus software doesn't work on 10.8. Is there another solution?

Best Answer

With OS X 10.8 gfxCardStatus is no longer capable of enforcing Integrated Graphics card only.

enter image description here

When one uses VMWare Fusion, the discrete graphics card is enforced, which drains the battery too fast.

I have not found any solution online to fix this. But I managed (thanks to PePe) to discover one.

How to use Integrated Graphics Card with VMware Fusion on OS X 10.8:

  • Install gfxCardStatus
  • Before launching VMware Fusion, click on Integrated only (THIS IS A VERY IMPORTANT STEP: click it several times until it has the checkbox on the Integrated only.):

enter image description here

  • Then launch VMWare Fusion, start whatever virtual machine. And don’t do anything inside. Leave it idle. There’s a BackTrack 5 R3 with the integrated graphics card:

enter image description here

  • There’s a BackTrack 5 R3 VM and a Windows XP (both idle) with the integrated graphics card:

enter image description here

  • I’m using iStatMenus (not free) to check my power consumption. Here’s my power consumption with the two VMs:

enter image description here

  • Cody Krieger (the creator of gfxCardStatus) says that even if it says that the Integrated is being used, the Discrete (NVidia) is still being powered on, which invalidates the whole exercise.
  • How do I know that I’m saving power? Well, let’s go to Discrete and check the power consumption:

enter image description here -> enter image description here

  • Now, let’s check what the consumption is (the same two idle VMs):

enter image description here

  • So instead of having 3:27 hours left, I now have 1:22 hours left. My consumption 2.5 Amp, instead of 1.1 Amp.
  • I can’t directly go back though:

enter image description here

  • What I have to do is to stop VMware completely (Cmd + Q), go to Integrated only again and restart all the VMs
  • This is something that I discovered today. So it may not be working as expected, but for now it seems it is.
  • My setup:
    • OS X 10.8.2 on a Macbook Pro 8.2 (A1286, Quad Core i7 2.3 Ghz, 16gb RAM, 256gb OCZ Vertex 3, AMD Radeon HD 6750M 1GB)
    • VMware Fusion 5.0.1 with 2 VMs – Windows XP Pro and Backtrack 5 R3 (both were idle during this setup).
Related Question