Plexamp Stuck on Discrete GPU on Macbook Pro - Suggest Setting to Disable Discrete GPU Usage

Plex Labs
1

Hi, I’m using Plexamp 3.4.4 on a 2011 Macbook Pro, 15", running MacOS High Sierra 10.13.6.

I love using plexamp as my main music player, but I noticed that whenever it is running, activity monitor detects that the discrete GPU is being used. This has a pretty significant impact on battery life and thermals, and does not seem necessary given that I use plexamp in the background while working.

I’m aware of the dangers of feature creep, but; however it is not necessary for the discrete GPU to always be in use by plexamp. I observe that the discrete GPU turns on as soon as plexamp is started, even without playing music or using the visualizer.

Some possibilities:

  • Add a settings switch to disable use of the discrete graphics. This may actually read as a setting to disable video hardware acceleration. I recently had to disable hardware acceleration in chrome to get it to stop using the discrete GPU, for example.
  • Simply stop using the discrete GPU and stop running the render process when the visualizer is not actively on (I do not leave it running).

I will note that I can use a tool like gSwitch to manually set a systemwide policy and force use of integrated graphics only. This feels like a hack, and stops me from using the discrete GPU when I have an application that actually needs it just to make sure that plexamp isn’t reducing battery life to no end.

Thanks,

  • Droid5x
2

Ah yeah, we’ll see if we can add the requisite electron flags for this (so at least we can have a “force integrated graphics” option.

3

That’s great to hear. I look forward to having the switch in the near future. :slight_smile:

4

When I go to work on monday I will try poking through the .dmg and seeing how well this will work.

In the meantime maybe you can try out the flags in that GH links and see if you can get it working for you?

5

Hi Mikeymop,

I was able to launch plexamp via command line (exec /Applications/Plexamp.app/Contents/MacOS/Plexamp) with the command line option ‘–force_low_power_gpu’. This appears to work, although the app doesn’t show up as an entry in Activity monitor so I can’t verify use of integrated-only through that. At a system level, Activity monitor isn’t recording use of discrete graphics, which is promising.

  • Droid5x
6

Nice! I was able to confirm similar behavior on Big Sur on the MBP I use at work.
I however dont know a way to confirm other than looking at Activity Monitor.

Perhaps a switch in settings could be used to toggle this behavior in Pleamp?

7

That would be pretty useful! For now I am continuing to use gSwitch to force all rendering to happen on the integrated graphics. Looking forward to having an application-specific switch so Plexamp doesn’t use the dGPU when it’s not needed, though.