GfxCardStatus

gfxCardStatus is an open source menu bar app for macOS that was developed by Cody Krieger to monitor graphics activity in MacBook Pro models with multiple GPUs. It can also allow users to manually switch graphics output to their built-in Intel Core GPU or discrete GPU (such as AMD or Nvidia).

History
gfxCardStatus 1.0 was announced on the MacRumors forums as a "public beta" in Spring 2010. Users found that manually switching from a power-hungry discrete GPU to the more efficient built-in Intel Core GPU could significantly improve battery life.

gfxCardStatus 2.0.1, which added support for 2011 MacBook Pro models with AMD GPUs, was released in March 2011. This version was quickly downloaded over 140,000 times. It was identified as a viable workaround to extend the life of MacBook Pro models with failure-prone Radeon HD 6000M series GPUs from AMD by minimizing their use.

A fork of gfxCardStatus was created to address similar, though less common, issues in MacBook Pros with Nvidia GPUs.

Release history

 * Version 1.0 — April 22, 2010
 * Version 1.1
 * Version 1.2
 * Version 1.3
 * Version 1.3.1 — April 26, 2010
 * Version 1.4
 * Version 1.5
 * Version 1.6
 * Version 1.6.1 — May 8, 2010
 * Version 1.7 — May 12, 2010
 * Version 1.7.5 — May 23, 2010
 * Version 1.8 — August 1, 2010
 * Version 1.8.1 — August 2, 2010
 * Version 2.0 — December 17, 2010
 * Version 2.0.1 — March 1, 2011
 * Version 2.1 — July 20, 2011
 * Version 2.2.1 — June 25, 2012
 * Version 2.3 — September 23, 2012
 * Version 2.5 — December 16, 2020

Version 2.0.1

 * Mac OS X 10.5 to 10.5.8 (Leopard)
 * 2008 or newer MacBook Pro with at least two GPUs.

Version 2.2.1

 * Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) to 10.7.5 (Lion)
 * 2008 or newer MacBook Pro with at least two GPUs.

Version 2.3

 * Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) to 10.8.5 (Mountain Lion)
 * 2008 or newer MacBook Pro with at least two GPUs.

Version 2.5

 * OS X 10.9 (Mavericks) or later
 * 2010 or newer MacBook Pro with at least two GPUs.