Automatic Graphics Switching and 10.7.2

Question

Has anyone else experienced problems with Automatic Graphics Switching on 10.7.2?  After I updated to 10.7.2, I would get either a black or green screen after the chime and and grey screens, so that I would not even see the log in screen.  I reset the PRAM and SMU, reinstalled the combo update, made sure all of the other updates including the Thunderbolt Software and Video Updates were applied, and still I was getting the same problem.  I was able to boot into both Safe Mode and Repair Mode successfully, but there still were no indications of what was causing this problem.
Finally, I plugged in an external monitor, and I could get the screen to come back both on the LCD as well as the external monitor.  That led me to suspect the Intel HD Graphics 3000 Built-in card.  Once I made sure that Automatic Graphics Switching was unchecked under Energy Saver, the problem went away.  However, the computer is only using the AMD Radeon HD 6750M card, which probably uses up more battery life than the built-in Intel card.
I conducted an Apple Hardware Test, and everything passed.  I also get the chime at bootup.  I suspect that three System Extensions - AppleIntelHD3000Graphics, AppleIntelHDGraphics, and AppleIntelHDGraphicsFB - all have problems and that this is a software issue.  When I removed them from the System Extensions folder and then put them back in, I got an error message that they had been improperly installed.  Furthermore, when I removed these extensions, the problem went away, even with the Automatic Graphics Switching option enabled, but when I installed the 10.7.2 combo update, the extensions and the problems came back.
Can anyone else verify that Automatic Graphics Switching under 10.7.2 works for them?  I suppose this still could be a hardware problem, but I strongly suspect there is a software problem with the drivers.  I have a 15-inch early 2011 MacBook Pro, 4 GB, running 10.7.2 and all updates applied.

Answer 1

In a nutshell, the discreet Nvidia chip supports hardware acceleration in flash, the integrated chip does not.
For reasons i'm not quite sure of, either Flash, and Automatic Graphics Switching do not really work well together. My guess is that Flash reads the information from the Nvidia Chip (ie that it supports hardware acceleration) and allows the feature to be enabled, but then the apple software does not switch to the Hardware Accelerated chip, because, i guess, it believes that the Intel chip should be sufficient for the job.
In my experience, forcing the MBP to use the Nvidia chip, and leaving hardware acceleration on provides slightly better battery life when playing supported videos, but, of course unless you remember to re-enable Automatic Graphic Switching again when you're done, it'll kill your battery life later, so I find it safer, unless I am watching a, say, 3 hour long flash video to disable H.A. In flash, and hope that, between them, Apple and Adobe can work this one out... though given their public disagreements over Flash, this could be wishful thinking.
With HA disabled, you are in no worse a position than you were a few months ago before "Gala" came around, so it's not so bad.