When to use Higher Performance

i have a March 2009 MBP 17“ and have been experimenting with Higher Performance and Better Battery Life to see when it is an advantage to use the Higher Performance. I cannot detect any difference when I switch and reboot and I have been trying heaps of operations etc. Can anyone suggest to what advantage there is in using Higher Performance? Which apps or operation processes speed up?
Graham e

Hi Graham_e,
My understanding is that this toggle is strictly for the GPU. The "Better Battery Life" is enabling the Nvidia 9400m "shared" GPU. The "Higher Performance" is enabling the Nvidia 9600m GT "discrete" GPU @ 512MB of VRAM.
I regrettably have not had the pleasure of owning one of the beautiful new 17" MacBook Pros but I've been using a 15" MBP with the options for a few weeks now. The biggest difference I've seen, is in applications that require 3D acceleration (gaming/flash). In terms of day-to-day usage the advantages in battery life I saw were minimal, maybe 30-35 minutes. But I certainly have not set out to specifically test the difference.
Sounds like a weekend project.

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