Forcing switching of graphics card...stuck on discrete GPU

[Alpha Centauri]

Hi all, thought I'd ask for this specific use case for help.

Current Hardware: mid 2009 15# MBP 5,3. 3,06GHz
OS: 10.15.7 (dosdude) patched Catalina.
GPU: NVIDEA GeForce 9600M GT 512MB (discrete) and NVIDEA GeForce 9400M 256MB (integrated).
Other: Maxed 8GB 1067 MHz DDR3 Ram; Samsung Evo 850 1TB SSD.

Initially this vintage required logging in/out after manual selection of GPU within energy preferences. Whilst officially supported I made good use of gfx CardStatus to circumvent this and it worked very well but unfortunately the dev. took it no further. Dynamic switching was never really an option available to me.

At some stage, cannot remember when, I lost the option to even switch cards in energy pref. I guess this occurred once I moved on from the last supported OS (ElCapitan). About this mac confirms the discrete 9600M to be online and currently in use, this is how it's been for a while now with no easy option to switch. An observation, booting into an external backup of 10.11.6, I could obviously manually log in/ out to switch cards. Interestingly the integrated 9400GT option "stuck" only briefly booting back into the patched Catalina OS.

I do realize it's all a sub optimal cocktail of ancient HW and unsupported SW. I went this route with 10.15.2 and have arrived at 10.15.7, where I'll stay. It's all running stable, smoother and Safari is finally on 15.5.

So..for those times to save battery and keep thermals low, I'd like to try switching to the integrated card. Whilst not terrifically versed in use of Terminal, I'm open to give it a shot if it's a basic command. This is really all I can think of at this stage going forward.

Thanks for reading this far, looking forward to some advice. Otherwise will just stay with the state of how it currently is.

Cheers.

 

[jav6454]

I don't think Macs with the 9400M chipset had the option of switching between cards. I believe the the 9600M GT was always on by default as the logic board itself was designed by Nvidia.

 

[Alpha Centauri]

I don't think Macs with the 9400M chipset had the option of switching between cards. I believe the the 9600M GT was always on by default as the logic board itself was designed by Nvidia.

Yer that's what drove me to post in hope to force it somehow. Right up until final support in El Capitan one would select in energy prefs but required to log in/ out to activate the switch.

It's also why gfx Card Status by Cody Krieger was such a handy little beast. https://gfx.io

It sat unassumingly in the tool bar and allowed manually switching GPUs without the melodrama of the logging procedure. It's actually still sitting there dormant and without function. I guess the need for 3rd party Devs began to decline once Apple introduced Dynamic Switching. From memory (also declining) this was 2011 onwards but unsure about that bit.

 

[jav6454]

You are right

[...]

It sat unassumingly in the tool bar and allowed manually switching GPUs without the melodrama of the logging procedure. It's actually still sitting there dormant and without function. I guess the need for 3rd party Devs began to decline once Apple introduced Dynamic Switching. From memory (also declining) this was 2011 onwards but unsure about that bit.

You are right no this part. Back then, Apple didn't have the limitations of an Intel IGP hanging over. Mainly due to Intel being a d about the licensing and stifling innovation by Nvidia.

 

[Alpha Centauri]

@jav6454 I didn't know that Nvidea was so involved historically in the logic board design..one is always learning! Strangely enough I still remember from 2009, hitting that custom configuration button to up the CPU to 3.06GHz (from the std 2,53GHz). I guess because it added substantially to the price. Looking back and using this machine 13 yr later, it was probably a good decision.

Thank you for replying. I think given the age of this MBP and the variables of an unsupported and patched OS, makes this uniquely challenging. Even though the battery saw a replacement recently I thought additionally to save charge cycles going integrated GPU when not needed, it's getting tough sourcing decent batteries also. So going severely experimental toward a solution comes secondary to breaking a currently stable system.

But...not giving up just yet.

 

[jav6454]

Apple and Nvidia came together for the Late and early 2009 MacBook and MacBook Pro refresh. Basically Nvidia designed the logic board with the "Northbridge" being replaced with the 9400M and the Pros receiving the 9600M GT.

The problem was this was done when Intel was switching over to the "Nehalem" style architecture where RAM was connected directly to the CPU. In other words, bye-bye FSB. Intel wanted to control as much as the integrated GPUs out there and decided to not license the new architecture to Nvidia.

Hence we got Intel's craptastic iGPUs mixed in with Nvidia/AMD discrete units. That's where the whole Dynamic Switching came in. Intel's CPUs started to become power hungrier as were GPUs, so Apple had to design a system to provide performance and efficiency.

With the 9400M it was a different story. In a sense, the whole 9400M and 9600M GT was a stepping stone to let Apple see the benefits of having a tightly integrated GPU and CPU.

 

[Alpha Centauri]

[]

This account is quite fascinating really and makes the timeline/ journey to the current Intel models even more interesting, thanks for taking the time to write it too.

I recall my first mac being a 2006 iMac PPC 17# G5. Graphic design buddies introduced me Apple and I haven't looked back, loved the iLife suite pkg. Right then and there Rosetta appeared and another huge change was afoot. Toward the end that thing used to get so hot and have its share of kernel panics, not to mention the discs it would ingest and refuse to spit out.

This reminds me, speaking of Dynamic Switching again. System Info>Graphics/Display:

9400M = Automatic Graphics Switching: Supported
9600M GT = Automatic Graphics Switching Supported

Except..it doesn't.

 

[jav6454]

This account is quite fascinating really and makes the timeline/ journey to the current Intel models even more interesting, thanks for taking the time to write it too.

I recall my first mac being a 2006 iMac PPC 17# G5. Graphic design buddies introduced me Apple and I haven't looked back, loved the iLife suite pkg. Right then and there Rosetta appeared and another huge change was afoot. Toward the end that thing used to get so hot and have its share of kernel panics, not to mention the discs it would ingest and refuse to spit out.

This reminds me, speaking of Dynamic Switching again. System Info>Graphics/Display:

9400M = Automatic Graphics Switching: Supported
9600M GT = Automatic Graphics Switching Supported

Except..it doesn't.

That's cause the idea behind the 9400M and 9600M GT was that the 9600M GT would be on for GPU stuff and the 9400M would help out (like SLI). However, both served a secondary purpose of GPGPU computing when Snow Leopard hit under Grand Central Dispatch.

 

[Alpha Centauri]

That's cause the idea behind the 9400M and 9600M GT was that the 9600M GT would be on for GPU stuff and the 9400M would help out (like SLI). However, both served a secondary purpose of GPGPU computing when Snow Leopard hit under Grand Central Dispatch.

That info re-dynamic switching wasn't there whilst on supported OS. In SL it looked like this:

Battery battery life = switched to 9400
Higher performance = switched to 9600

A dialog instructing to log in and off to activate selected card would follow. Well, or the gfx UI achieving the same, without even opening EnergyPrefs. When booting recently into ElCapitain, I also could select one or the other but perhaps I did this through the gfxApp again..but it worked and I was purely on integrated. Rebooting back through the EFI of Catalina, it reverted on it's own back to descrete. I need to try this again and definitely take more notes.

 

[jav6454]

Yes, it was a manual switch. Not unlike the post iX laptops with automated switching.

 

[Alpha Centauri]

I'm stumped, things have changed re discrete GPU permanently on. Noticed kernel panik this morning based on waking from sleep. Shut off, went to work, restarted after work. All seemed fine. Thought to do a SMC reset, still all fine. Went for PRAM reset and noticed iStat showed no more activity from the 9600GT (that was previously permanently on). No temp, GPU VCore at 0.00V, GPU Core at 0.00 Amp.

Another SMC reset and GPU Voltage and Temps reappeared. About this Mac indicates use of integrated 9400M only since all this. In iStat the GPU Vram Graph stopped showing, guessing as the integrated only card is on.

However, under load I see the discrete GPU Die (Digital) temp rising even though all indicates only the integrated is operating.

Any clues? Is the 9600GT glitching? I sort of got my wish from the original OP but none of this seems right at all and smells (not literally) of a hardware failure somewhere.

 

[jav6454]

At this point, I'd say that the issue is hardware related and one or both GPUs are starting to fail. If anything, I would highly recommend you start preparing back-ups in case. This might sound a bit of indifference, but I would suggest you start looking at a new Mac.

 

[Alpha Centauri]

Bit of an emergency question. Currently no backup having lost some drives.

Running a fairly stable 10.15.7 environment with the dosdude patch on 5,3 HW. Would everyone recommend on a patched OS to simply copy the user folder only to ext backup OR cloning it. I've got Super Duper.

If cloning and making a bootable copy (if even possible with a patched OS), should the ext initially be APFS formatted as the main drive currently must be? Seems obvious it must be but just wanting to confirm.

Thanks in advance

@jav6454 totally agree re backup. Could you please advise me on the above Question I posted previously at start of this month, regarding best way to backup a patched drive. Been sitting on hot coals since losing 2 drives recently...and now this.

 

[jav6454]

I am not versed when it comes to cloning drives with patched OSs. I will differ to other posters on the matter.

 

[Alpha Centauri]

I am not versed when it comes to cloning drives with patched OSs. I will differ to other posters on the matter.

ok thanks anyways. I posted it twice on the unsupported mac forum and unfortunately got no replies.

Edit: any idea of a forum member who might know?

 

[Alpha Centauri]

Summary of crash log:

{panic(cpu 0 caller 0xffffff8014a9092c): Sleep transition timed out after 180 seconds while entering darkwake on way to sleep. Suspected bundle: com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily. Thread 0x74.
Failure code:: 0xd5f2a20d 00000031}

Some research of log eludes to capacitor C7771failure. Sure, I've got a shop that does componenent level repairs under this warrenty I have.

The priority however remains of how exactly to create a bootable clone of this patched OS asap?