gfxCardStatus For Mac

MacBook Pro models come with dual GPUs, and macOS a switching system that activates one or the other, depending on your needs. gfxCardStatus is a simple status bar menulet that enables you to manually control switching between the graphic cards.

gfxCardStatus resides in your status bar and provides details about the currently used GPU, together with the current power source: battery or AC. If the system switches to one or another, you will receive alerts via the Notifications Center.

Note that the gfxCardStatus status bar icon changes depending on the currently active switching mode: i is for Integrated Only, and d represents the Discrete Only mode. You can also choose to activate the Dynamic Switching mode, which means that the built-in macOS controller takes over.

If you opt to activate the Integrated Only mode, your MacBook Pro will go on and use the more battery-friendly graphics card. Consequently, the Discrete Only preset enables the graphic card that needs more power.

gfxCardStatus can also help you distinguish the applications that activate the more power hungry graphics card. Just navigate to the status bar menu and open the Dependencies lists. This way, you get to see if the Discrete Only mode is turned on and taking up resources without a good reason.

Worth mentioning is that gfxCardStatus needs to be on the Dynamic Switching mode if you want to use an external display. Also, you cannot switch to the Integrated Only mode if there are apps in the Dependencies list.

To sum up, gfxCardStatus offers manual control over the GPU switching modes for MacBook Pro users. The dual-GPU can be managed automatically by the operating system, but gfxCardStatus enables you to force the switch and preserve battery life in particular situations.