Can you select which graphics card a program uses on a mac ?

Sootchucker

Sootchucker

Messages
2,479
Name
Andrew
Edit My Images
No
Re the above, since switching for my main computer from a PC to a Mac about 3 years ago, I had to find a replacement for my beloved image browser program on the PC called Faststone. I tried a number of alternatives on the Mac and settled on a small program called Lyn.

Now Lyn has been working just fine, but I recently updated my new 2018 MacBook pro to OS Mojave. Since then despite my mac being having a quite fast built in Radeon discreet 4gb graphics card and a 6 core I7 processor, when I'm zoomed into an image in Lyn and try and drag the image around (to move about the image), it's really laggy. I'm not sure if this is because the developers of Lyn haven't yet optimised it for Mojave (or High Sierra before that), of if it's defaulting to the Intel graphics and not the Radeon card ?

So is there a way to force a program to use the Radeon card graphics processor on a Mac please to see if that improves matters ?
 
I would say it's most likely that Lyn needs updating. However to answer your question...

You can't switch GPU on a program specific basis.

What you can try is turning off automatic graphics switching (which will mean your MBP uses the discreet GPU all the time). You can do this in "System Preferences" > "Energy Saver".

Another option would be a 3rd party app called gSwitch. Which is based on a much older and no longer maintained app called gfxCardStatus. I don't know if it will work with Mojave though since I haven't upgraded my machines to Mojave yet.

I like Faststone very much too, have you tried XnView MP? I use that on Mac and Linux.
 
PorcupineFloyd said:
have you tried XnView MP? I use that on Mac and Linux.
Click to expand...

Greg - this XnView MP is it similar to 'Windows Picture Viewer', since switching to a Mac earlier this year this is one feature I do miss.
Looking at the download page it has a lot more features than Picture Viewer but for quick scrolling through photos it could be ideal.
(Apologies Sootchucker for hijacking your thread!)

Thank you - Paul.
 
paulh said:
Greg - this XnView MP is it similar to 'Windows Picture Viewer'
Click to expand...
Um yes in essence, at a very basic level, it's the same kind of thing. But as you have seen it's got considerably more features, much like Faststone. As with Faststone though, you can pretty much use it to whatever extent you want, it's absolutely suitable for just a quick browse through images, the additional features don't get in the way of basic stuff really - but they are very beneficial when you need them.
 
Thanks for that Greg, sounds like Faststone could be what I'm after, I shall have a look this evening.



Just re-read the post and realised Faststone is for Windows, have just installed XnView MP and looks very good so far.

Thank you for the info Greg - Paul.
 
Last edited:
I use Xee3 on my Mac. It's similar to ACDSee on Windows and I use it to very quickly review large numbers of JPGs as it preloads other photos in the background as you're viewing. This makes navigation nice and speedy.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top