So when an application access the Core Animation framework, the more power hungry chipset is being used. The switching between chipsets is done automatically and triggered by the use of Mac’s Core Animation framework ( OpenGL, OpenCL, Quartz Composer, and Core Graphics). Dedicated chipsets typically have their own memory. We refer to this chipset as the “ discrete” or “ dedicated” video chipset, for example the “ NVIDIA® GeForce GT 330M“. The other video chipset (commonly nVidia) is power hungry, but with good reason it’s much more capable in handling graphics intens applications like video, games, Photoshop, etc. Integrated chipsets often utilizes some of your main RAM.

This is referred to as the “ integrated” chipset and commonly identified on your MacBook Pro as “ Intel® HD Graphics” (OK, you can stop laughing now ).

Typically one of the graphics chips (often an Intel chip) is used for regular office applications that are not graphics intense – which takes less battery juice and makes your laptop run longer on it’s batteries. The Operating System automatically switches between the two chipsets as it sees needed – and sometimes not for the right reasons (although I have to admit that my current MacOS X Lion 10.7.3 does seem to do a better job at it than previous MacOS X versions). Apple equips most of their Unibody MacBook Pro models with 2 video chipsets.

Change graphics card in macbook pro