When I upgraded my work machine from an early 2006 MacBook Pro to the new 17-inch, I restored my old system from a Time Machine backup and lost any custom drivers present in the OS X installed at the factory. This meant I could not change video cards. My machine was stuck in “higher performance” mode (Nvidia GeForce 9600 M GT) with no option to use the “better battery life” mode (9400 M).
I was disappointed when I read the OS X 10.5.7 news and found no mention of the missing video card selector. The wording here was not promising:
Improves performance of video playback and cursor movements for recent Macs with NVIDIA graphics.
But after I installed the 10.5.7 update I found the new option right where it belongs, in the Energy Saver preference panel, shown here:
Hey Apple, you should have included this in an OS X update before shipping the hardware. But it’s too late to argue. My biggest gripe about the 17-inch is now moot.
There question is why new machine don’t allow quick switching for power saver, 10.5.6 removed this functionality, but now it’s back in 10.5.7, however a friend has an aluminium macbook and doesn’t have this option