Cannot set integrated only on 2019 MBP 16"

[jsumners]

https://youtu.be/fG4T4zBgvuI

^ screen recording of what the app does when trying to set integrated only on a MBP 16".

Kernel log when clicking "integrated only":

default	12:31:24.007374-0500	kernel	AGC:: Switch API called [gfxCardStatus pid:527], data 0 forced 1 target IGD
default	12:31:24.072165-0500	kernel	[IGFB][INFO   ] [Modeset] FB0 : (displayMode=100, depth=0) fb=0, fOnline=0 at 296379846382
default	12:31:24.072189-0500	kernel	[IGFB][INFO   ] [Modeset] Path is not online. Cleaning up
default	12:31:24.072199-0500	kernel	[IGFB][INFO   ]  Disable display called for fb = 0 at 296379846422
default	12:31:24.078062-0500	kernel	[IGFB][INFO   ] [Modeset] FB0: Disabling display
default	12:31:24.078068-0500	kernel	[IGFB][INFO   ] FB0 Conection status change: Connected --> Disconnected
default	12:31:24.078075-0500	kernel	[IGFB][INFO   ] [Set_attribute] (attribute='hdcp', value=4)
default	12:31:24.078078-0500	kernel	[IGFB][INFO   ] [Modeset] FB0 : (displayMode=100, depth=0) fb=0, fOnline=0 at 296379852303
default	12:31:24.078083-0500	kernel	[IGFB][INFO   ] [Modeset] Path is not online. Cleaning up

[Maximapple]

same issue here.

[mifz]

same

[gleep52]

Same issue here... any resolution?

[heinowalther]

same here...

[illiashcherbakov]

same. So like 33% of the app doesnt work and no one seems to be interested in this =)

[jsumners]

same. So like 33% of he app doesnt work and no one seems to interested in this =)

This is an open source project. Anyone can contribute a fix.

[SunburstEnzo]

This isn't directly helpful but could help find a solution to the issue – I have a Late '13 MBP and it's doing a similar issue where selecting Integrated Only does work but the wrong cell is shown as selected. Selecting Discrete Only doesn't do anything, but selecting Dynamic Switching and then Discrete Only does work. So there's a chance the bug is in the cell selection and not the actual switching logic.

In the image below you can see the Discrete Only cell is selected but it's actually using the integrated GPU (the discrete card is an NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M)

[letalvoj]

Please see the following fork. It seems be working for me (2019 MBP 16 running Catalina):
https://github.com/steveschow/gfxCardStatus#homebrew-cask

brew cask install steveschow-gfxcardstatus

@codykrieger have you considered merging the change?

[codykrieger]

@letalvoj I'm aware of that fork. I don't believe that most of the changes contained in the fork are safe to pull in.

And, honestly, these days, I don't recommend that most users use gfxCardStatus for anything other than informational purposes. Especially with a very recent MacBook Pro like yours, it shouldn't be necessary for most workloads.

[jsumners]

I don't recommend that most users use gfxCardStatus for anything other than informational purposes.

Basically what I use it for. But it would be nice if the menus worked correctly. If the tool cannot correctly limit switching, they shouldn't provide the option.

[codykrieger]

@jsumners The only reason I haven't outright removed the functionality is because some users with horribly broken (older) machines are still able to limp by with it until they have the funds to get a repair or a replacement. But that's not most users.

[jsumners]

Understood. But the functionality could be disabled on newer models automatically by simply detecting them and not showing the menu items.

[SunburstEnzo]

What if we put a switch in preferences to enable the switching cells? You could label it as Experimental maybe, but it’s off by default. That way it’s still mainly informational but the user can still try it if they dig around?

[letalvoj]

@codykrieger Well, I am affected by the following issue https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251250701. What helps is to disable the external GPU. Unfortunetelly unplugging the power cable is not a perfect solution so I was looking for a software one.

Since you are familiar with the matter, how difficult woult it be to write a simple Obj-C/C binary which would just disable the dedicated GPU? Nothing else is needed. Disclamer, I am a Scala / Python / C99 developer, XCode & Obj-C apps look like giberish to me.

[codykrieger]

@letalvoj Try sudo pmset -a gpuswitch 0 and see if that does the trick for you. I think that's semi-persistent, but I haven't tried it.

You can go back to the default behavior with sudo pmset -a gpuswitch 2.

[letalvoj]

@codykrieger cool, thx. I'll try it out as soon as the Chrome crumbles again...

EDIT: Well, nope. I have to unplug the external display as well to switch to internal GPU :(

[voody77]

@codykrieger cool, thx. I'll try it out as soon as the Chrome crumbles again...

EDIT: Well, nope. I have to unplug the external display as well to switch to internal GPU :(

This is standard behavior when unplug the external display

[a4z]

@letalvoj I'm aware of that fork. I don't believe that most of the changes contained in the fork are safe to pull in.

And, honestly, these days, I don't recommend that most users use gfxCardStatus for anything other than informational purposes. Especially with a very recent MacBook Pro like yours, it shouldn't be necessary for most workloads.

There is a fan / noise issue when an external monitor is connected.
I have a MacBook Pro 2015, 15 inch , with just an intel card, it is basically silet all the time, watching youtube, doing video conference, no fan.
Disadvantage is of course, making anything that needs GFX is not fun, but most of my work doesn't

The MacBook Pro 16 , 2019, but also other models, the AMD grafic card gets wild when an external display is attached, fanspeed 5000 rpm when doing a video conference. Watching a video on youtube gives me 3000 rpm fans. And this in Clamshell Mode.

The same taks are silent on the 2015 model with the intel card

So I thought, maybe disable the card when I know I do not need it, like I can do int on Linux Thinkpads with Nvidia / Intel cards, could be an option to have the MacBook Pro 16 more silent when connected to an external display. And only enable the AMD card when needed ....

[codykrieger]

@a4z I don't have any experience with the newer 16" models, but with previous dual-GPU models, I don't believe that it's possible to use an external display with the integrated GPU.

[a4z]

sad, I have several Thinkpads, they can do this with Linux and Windows, stay cool, also if an external monitor is attached, and only fire up the discrete card when needed, on Linux I have the most control , of course, with always using the internal intel card and just some apps get off loaded to the discrete GPU, when I say so.

The problem on Mac is huge,
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/16-is-hot-noisy-with-an-external-monitor.2211747/
and it is not only with the 16 inch one, others have the same problem, tons of blogs , videos and discussions about that

Seems this Mac Books are all garbage, plugin in an external monitor and bum, amd card runs wild, 20+ degree on the hardware for no reason other than incompetence paired with greed to spare every single cent in production.

So I was in the hope that there is some software solution for this since other OSes can do it also ..... but :-(

And I do not understand why the 2015 Model can work only with the intel card , its not a hacked one where the ADM card was disabled via EFI variables, it was a cheaper option to but from Mac back then. Think I need to open it one day just to see if this is a model where the dGPU is disabled, or not available at all

[jsumners]

Please take this off topic conversation elsewhere.

[bronson]

sudo pmset -a gpuswitch 0 works great. Thank you.

It appears my MBP 16" can only play Minecraft using integrated graphics. When it uses the discrete GPU, the fans go full blast, it gets uncomfortably hot, and the battery drains in a matter of hours. That's even when plugged into the stock recharger with the stock cable! It burns so much energy it won't even charge.

When I force integrated only, everything is fine. It might run a few FPS slower but it's cool and silent.

I hope you can bring in the less controversial changes from steveschow-gfxcardstatus. My computer still seems to need it!

[craigkovatch]

@codykrieger one use case to consider that argues in favor of keeping the Setting feature is debugging another app. e.g. if one is seeing a weird GPU artifact, it can be helpful to know if that happens only on integrated vs discrete.