rMBP Windows drivers

[RampantAndroid]

Hi all,

Is there any chance there are working drivers for the rMBP in Windows that enable the switchable graphics just yet? I'm running Windows and I'll be lucky to get 2 hours of battery time (and to not burn myself as the whole bloody thing heats up.)

I'm thinking I may just return this if no drivers exist yet - it's been months since the rMBP came out - if we see no drivers now, how likely are we to ever see them?

Thanks!

 

[runawayprisoner]

You'll never see them.

The reason is because Apple has never exposed switchable graphics to any of their MacBook line in Windows. The discrete GPU is always in use.

It's not a driver limitation. It's a firmware limitation.

That said, though, what are you doing in 2 hours? The rMBP should last about 4 hours under Windows with light use.

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

Which video drivers are you using?

 

[RampantAndroid]

I was using the default Apple ones; I then tried the nVidia 304 drivers. Just opening the new UI on Win8 causes the GPU's power draw to spike. Running powercfg seems to confirm the device cannot enter low power states. I'm going to install Win7 in the mean time to see if it works or not.

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

You'll have to get the beta nvidia drivers off the nvidia website. Try that.

 

[RampantAndroid]

You'll have to get the beta nvidia drivers off the nvidia website. Try that.

Yup, I did. As mentioned above, I got the 304 drivers.

 

[runawayprisoner]

The latest drivers for the Retina MacBook Pro is 306.23.

Please check again.

And not being able to enter low power state is not the same as having graphics switching.

 

[RampantAndroid]

The latest drivers for the Retina MacBook Pro is 306.23.

Please check again.

And not being able to enter low power state is not the same as having graphics switching.

Maybe that's what I installed then. I installed the latest as of yesterday.

I know about switching vs low power.

 

[RedBeard]

Just to echo the above, I have an rMBP and a 2010 MBP with the Nvidia 330M. There isn't anyway to get switchable gfx in windows.

I actually get better battery life running OSX and then Windows in Vmware Fusion.

 

[runawayprisoner]

Yeah, like I said... no matter what you install, you'll never get the integrated graphics to show up on MacBooks above 13".

Apple doesn't expose the integrated graphics to Windows at all. The dedicated graphics processor is always constantly running while you use Bootcamp. The only exceptions are the 13" MBP, 13" MBA and 11.6" MBA, but that's because they have only the integrated graphics processor to fall back to.