[undoIT]

I'm thinking about upgrading to the new Macbook Pro 15" (with antiglare screen option). It is disappointing that Apple didn't provide an option to run the integrated Intel graphics card only. There are times when this would be very useful. If I am trying to maximize battery life, I want to be able to run the integrated card only even if some things might run a bit slow. Also, if I am using the laptop on my lap and want to keep the heat to a minimum, there is another reason to have the option for integrated only.

Does anyone know if there is a way to configure this during the boot process, i.e. EFI shell? There must be a way to switch to integrated only.

[mduell]

There's an option in System Preferences to disable the automagic switching, but it does the opposite of what you want.

[imitchellg5]

Already discussed in previous threads. See http://forums.macnn.com/69/mac-noteb...ave-i5-i7-mbp/

[undoIT]

The other issue is that I'm going to be running Ubuntu on the laptop. I've already tested this at the Apple store with Ubuntu live CD and it defaults to Nvidia card. It would be nice to have a bios option to manually choose either the integrated or discrete card preboot. Generally, suppport is better for Intel cards in Linux. Unfortunately, the bios doesn't exist for Macs so there is no way to set this.