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metal: Add hint to select low power device instead of the default one (#8182)

On some system like MacBook Pro Intel with AMD card, asking for the default device will always return the AMD GPU.
This is not an issue for 99% of the case when the renderer context is here to provide the maximum performance level like for game.
However, for video application using GPU for 1 quad and 1 texture, using the discrete GPU for that lead to an important power consumption (4 to 8W), heat increase, and fan noise.
With this patch, I successfully amend ffplay to only use the integrated GPU (i.e. the Intel one), instead of the discrete GPU (i.e. the AMD one).
Jeremy Demeule 1 year ago
parent
commit
aa7ba62978
2 changed files with 27 additions and 2 deletions
  1. 11 0
      include/SDL_hints.h
  2. 16 2
      src/render/metal/SDL_render_metal.m

+ 11 - 0
include/SDL_hints.h

@@ -1474,6 +1474,17 @@ extern "C" {
  */
 #define SDL_HINT_RENDER_VSYNC               "SDL_RENDER_VSYNC"
 
+/**
+ *  \brief  A variable controlling whether the Metal render driver select low power device over default one
+ *
+ *  This variable can be set to the following values:
+ *    "0"       - Use the prefered OS device
+ *    "1"       - Select a low power one
+ *
+ *  By default the prefered OS device is used.
+ */
+#define SDL_HINT_RENDER_METAL_PREFER_LOW_POWER_DEVICE "SDL_RENDER_METAL_PREFER_LOW_POWER_DEVICE"
+
 /**
  *  \brief  A variable controlling if VSYNC is automatically disable if doesn't reach the enough FPS
  *

+ 16 - 2
src/render/metal/SDL_render_metal.m

@@ -1654,8 +1654,22 @@ static SDL_Renderer *METAL_CreateRenderer(SDL_Window * window, Uint32 flags)
         return NULL;
     }
 
-    // !!! FIXME: MTLCopyAllDevices() can find other GPUs on macOS...
-    mtldevice = MTLCreateSystemDefaultDevice();
+#ifdef __MACOSX__
+    if (SDL_GetHintBoolean(SDL_HINT_RENDER_METAL_PREFER_LOW_POWER_DEVICE, SDL_TRUE)) {
+        NSArray<id<MTLDevice>> *devices = MTLCopyAllDevices();
+
+        for (id<MTLDevice> device in devices) {
+            if (device.isLowPower) {
+                mtldevice = device;
+                break;
+            }
+        }
+    }
+#endif
+
+    if (mtldevice == nil) {
+        mtldevice = MTLCreateSystemDefaultDevice();
+    }
 
     if (mtldevice == nil) {
         SDL_free(renderer);