Windows 7 Not Recognizing the GPU on a Apple Macbook

Question

First, my apologies for any lack of specific information - asking this question for someone else, based on a phone call I had with him playing "family tech support expert".

My brother has a 15 inch Macbook Pro, of mid-2010, MacBookPro6,2 line, the generation immediately previous to the newest incarnation of the Macbook Pro. He got a model with switchable graphics, either the integrated Intel GPU or an Nvidia GeForce GT 330M.

The OS X side of his machine seems to be running fine - he gets decent frame rates playing Starcraft II, System Profiler recognizes his card, and all is well.

Windows 7 appears to be struggling in Bootcamp. The first hint was the Sins of a Solar Empire refuses to launch, informing him that his Windows Experience Index score is a 1, and Sins needs at least a 2 to run. As his computer's profoundly not a "1", I had him run the WEI utility, and sure enough, it lists his GPU score as a 1.

Similarly, when I have him bring up System Information, there's nothing in Display. Adapter RAM displays as 0, most things are "Unknown", "None" or "Missing", etc.

Any idea what could be causing this, or how to fix it?

Answer 1

Installing Windows 7 on a MacBook Pro via Boot Camp is a 4-step process, with Step 4 being where you install all the Mac-hardware-specific drivers into Windows. If he skipped Step 4 or had problems with that part of the process, he may be limping along on generic drivers (or only using integrated graphics instead of the separate GPU).

I'd probably have him repeat Step 4 of the Boot Camp install process.

• Boot Camp: Windows 7 installation frequently asked questions
• Mac OS X v10.7.x (Lion) Boot Camp instructions
• Mac OS X v10.6.x (Snow Leopard) Boot Camp instructions