Spotify Using Discrete GPU

[coops123]

Hi I'm on a 2017 Macbook Pro 15in with the Radeon 560; running MacOS 10.13.3 and the latest version of Spotify avaible today. According to Activity Monitor Spotify is using the discrete GPU. This should really not be happening as Spotify doesn't do any heavy animations or anything like that. I also hypothesize that it is using the 560, but barely using it at all (because it shouldn't need to) as my computer doesn't really heat up to the degree that it would when really pushing the GPU. I still think this is a problem because it is detrimental to the battery life of my device. 

edit: Well I just recieved an update for Spotify and it appears now that they have fixed the problem. Thanks devs! Although the update did nerf all my offline songs for some reason and I had to redownload them... (added second photo of activity monitor)

[user-removed · Accepted solution]

Hey!
No worry. Spotify team is working on it. Feel free to use web version and wait for next update.
/m

[burner]

Could you maybe tell the exact version number of Spotify that you are using?

Is it 1.0.75.483... or already above?

I'm getting really severe graphic issues on my MacBook Pro from 2010 which also has 2 graphic processors and I'm wondering if this maybe has the same foundation as your issue...

Thanks a lot for your support!

[Rediwed1]

The webversion doesn't support Safari anymore so it's basically a no-go.

Good to hear they're working on it.

[user-removed]

Hey! Let's trying Chrome or other browsers on your mac.

[Rediwed1]

Other browsers use way more ram and power, as well as them being a lot slower!

gfxCardstatus can limit discrete card usage though!

[burner]

A short tip: you can leave all your setup as it is, just start Spotify with the --disable-gpu flag!

For years I used gfxCardStatus, but now a member of the Spotify dev team gave me this hint:

e.g. using Apple Script Editor (preinstalled) use this:

              do shell script "open -b com.spotify.client --args -disable-gpu"

save as application and from now on use this to start Spotify 🙂

Have fun!

[andytran93]

Thank you so much for this burner!

Just as a step by step for noobs like me:

On a Mac

1) Open Automator

2) Select Application, then click "choose"

3) Click on "Utilities" on the left panel under Actions tab

4) Double click "run shell script"

5) Enter the following into the box "open -b com.spotify.client --args -disable-gpu"

6) Click File > Save. Call it Spotify iGPU or something

7) Whenever you want to open spotify, open it from this and it should leave your dGPU alone 🙂

[wootness]

Do you guys even test your software? Jesus, get some real developers.

[andytran93 · Accepted solution]

Just updated to version 1.0.77.338 and the issue appears to be fixed! Hopefully it stays that way 🙂

[coops123]

Yep, I just did the same thing.

[user-removed]

Great!

[burner]

Dear all!

As I mentioned before, things have changed now :))

Version 1.0.80 is the version we all waited for!

Have a look in the Spotify menu in the macOS menu bar.

There you will now find the option to deactivate the hardware acceleration...

From now on, discrete GPU will not be triggered by Spotify on older Macs!

Have fun!

Cheers!