New MacBook Pro's have bad nVidia chips says Inq

keysersoze · 11:18 AM

Charlie D. over at The Inq has put nVidia in his crosshairs (again), and says the new MacBook Pros have nVidia chips with bad bumps. I realize this is The Inq we're talking about, but this was an interesting read none-the-less, with some interesting materials analysis. Might make some people think twice about purchasing a MacBook Pro.

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/...-bump-material

andrewdale · Dec 9, 2008, 09:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by keysersoze

Charlie D. over at The Inq has put nVidia in his crosshairs (again), and says the new MacBook Pros have nVidia chips with bad bumps. I realize this is The Inq we're talking about, but this was an interesting read none-the-less, with some interesting materials analysis. Might make some people think twice about purchasing a MacBook Pro.

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquir...ros-nvidia-bad

Whether it's true or not, my Early 2008 has been doing just fine, thank goodness. And, as for next notebook purchased, it won't be a MBP. So, I'm safe for now either way!

Croatian · Dec 9, 2008, 10:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by keysersoze

Charlie D. over at The Inq has put nVidia in his crosshairs (again), and says the new MacBook Pros have nVidia chips with bad bumps. I realize this is The Inq we're talking about, but this was an interesting read none-the-less, with some interesting materials analysis. Might make some people think twice about purchasing a MacBook Pro.

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquir...ros-nvidia-bad

Pretty interesting read, i will give you that

my MBP works very well, and if the chip is bad, well it is bad, i have Apple Care and i am sure it will get fixed when and if it happens. If one is going to go looking for a perfect part, it doesn't exist, so waiting for something better, you can always be waiting for that

keysersoze · Dec 9, 2008, 10:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by andrewdale

Whether it's true or not, my Early 2008 has been doing just fine, thank goodness. And, as for next notebook purchased, it won't be a MBP. So, I'm safe for now either way!

That's good. I have both a Santa Rosa MBP and a Dell, both have the 'affected' 8600m in them-- but I haven't had any problems whatsoever with either.

PDE · 11:11 AM

Very interesting article. There are clearly questions that haven't been answered and I think should be answered. Meanwhile, like many others, my early 2008 MBP is doing fine...but I'm just waiting for it to fail after the warranty runs out next summer. I'd feel much more at ease if I trusted this machine, and trusted Apple.

SoybeanStasher · Dec 9, 2008, 10:30 AM

Yeah, I too have Applecare and I'll cross this bridge if/when I get there. Right now I'm beating the crap out of my Late 2008 MacBook Pro with plenty of gaming. If I can't get it to fail within the 3 year Applecare period even with frequent 90C GPU temperatures, I'll be OK with whatever happens after that period.

brentsg · Dec 9, 2008, 10:32 AM

He's always grinding the axe against NV.

Firefly2002 · Dec 9, 2008, 10:35 AM

I figured this was probably the case, since the 9600 is the same damn chip as the 8600... the 9400 at least appears to be fine, though. Lol.

keysersoze · Dec 9, 2008, 10:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brentsg

He's always grinding the axe against NV.

Yeah, I don't know what their history is, but he rarely, if ever, has anything nice to say about the green monster. I take it with a grain of salt, for sure. But the analysis was pretty intriguing-- if nothing more then to learn wtf bumps are.

keysersoze · Dec 9, 2008, 10:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SoybeanStasher

Yeah, I too have Applecare and I'll cross this bridge if/when I get there. Right now I'm beating the crap out of my Late 2008 MacBook Pro with plenty of gaming. If I can't get it to fail within the 3 year Applecare period even with frequent 90C GPU temperatures, I'll be OK with whatever happens after that period.

If/when you kill it, be sure to let us know!

nikhsub1 · Dec 9, 2008, 11:06 AM

As far as Apple knows, the nvidia parts have been corrected... if this bad gpu's are still being produced, nvidia will be doomed. The only thing I can say to those with the new model, get apple care. My 17" MBP has had 2 GPU's fail now, the original (just after a year) and the replacement (4 months after) I am now on my 3rd... Anyway, this is not something I would lose sleep over in any way, although we are talking about mac fanatics so I suspect most of you won't be sleeping much

daneoni · Dec 9, 2008, 11:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Firefly2002

I figured this was probably the case, since the 9600 is the same damn chip as the 8600... the 9400 at least appears to be fine, though. Lol.

Not necessarily...

The Inq may have it out for Nvidia but that doesn't mean what they say doesn't have some truth to it either. Apple should just go back to ATI IMHO...the MacBooks can stay Nvidia if they want that space saving board badly but the iMac/MBP line should go ATI

jhu2 · Dec 9, 2008, 11:59 AM

oh interesting... maybe my macbook pro is affected

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=612732

D A · Dec 9, 2008, 12:03 PM

It is interesting to see that it is only Charlie that has published stuff on this (more or less). For me Charlie has zero credibility and I don't trust anything he writes unless there is another source backing up his statements.

m1stake · Dec 9, 2008, 12:15 PM

LOL, it's amazing to me that this guy kept his job after trying to convince everyone that the Nvidia 8 series was going to suck and the ATI 2000 series would be the best cards ever.

I'm still waiting for Nvidia to quit the chipset business, and for EVGA to stop making Nvidia products.

Generally the Inq is rarely wrong, but they blow things ridiculously out of proportion and almost always distort their stories by using evidence that's totally out of context.

MH01 · Dec 9, 2008, 12:16 PM

The problems he describes are really simple to replicate. Nothing to do with Charlie having it in for Nvidia. If you have a new MBP...

Install Vista via bootcamp and jump into some games. There are plenty of posts on this. Myself for one can get a Black screen of death within 15 min playing world of warcraft. Sometimes it takes 5 min, other times it takes 15 min.

I have replicated it on a 2.8 and a 2.53. Basically they overheat. I have even had it crash in OS X.

Just google black screen of death, and see how many hits you get.

Here is a thread on apple's support site.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread....sageID=8554489

ManWithhat · Dec 9, 2008, 12:16 PM

I think it's way too early to saying anything, especially without any complete card failures. This and they identified two single units in their study, which hardly represents the population. There are also two different versions of the 9600 ( the 256 and 512MB versions ), and the article does not state which it even tested. This and the fact that the study may have easily been done incorrectly leaves this study slightly on the "Plausible, but I'll believe it when I see it" category of rumors.

On another note, my wife and I have laptops with the 8600 and 8400 mobile graphics cards. Both are still functioning flawlessly, and my 8600 has been put through a lot of game playing sessions.

MH01 · Dec 9, 2008, 12:26 PM

Some interesting replies here.

So who actually has a New MBP and uses it to run games under vista using the 9600?

I have myself experienced this issue with 2 laptops.

Chris F · Dec 9, 2008, 12:43 PM

Before jumping to conclusions I would like to see another site do a dissection of the new 9400 chipset and 9600 gpu.

If it is found that the 9600 is using the old solder it would be a disaster for nvidia and more importantly us the consumers. It might be the "catalyst" (hah) needed to move Apple back to using ATI discrete gpu parts.

Thunder82 · Dec 9, 2008, 01:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MH01

So who actually has a New MBP and uses it to run games under vista using the 9600?

I have a new 2.53 MBP (had an old 2.4 MBP (8600) previously, and a Dell M1530 w/ 8600 before that) and have never had problems with any of these machines. I play World of warcraft (on both OSX and Vista) and have never had any problems regarding black screens or overheating. I use laptopvideo2go drivers on the vista side of things. I also play Flatout2 on OSX and a plethora of other games on Vista.

Both of my bosses also have 2.4 MBPs (new unibody) and play WoW & Vanguard on Vista and have had no issues.

Everyone can go ahead and blame every possible issue with their machine on the Nvidia Chips, but theres no way every MBP or even a good majority of them have bunk chips. Apple would have made a move away from Nvidia if the problems were severe, not added more of their chips to their laptop line.

SoybeanStasher · Dec 9, 2008, 01:32 PM

If you visit the gaming forum I think you'll see that many of us game on our new Late 2008 MacBook Pros with no problems.

I have Vista installed and I've been playing Bioshock and Fallout 3 (which by the way, I recommend highly). I've had 3 freezes in Fallout 3 over 22 hours of gameplay, but they weren't black screens of death. The game is known to have freezing issues. The latest Fallout 3 update appears to have fixed that issue for me.

As I said above, I regularly beat the crap out of my MBP's GPU. I figure if it's going to fail, I might as well get it to fail ASAP!

ManWithhat · Dec 9, 2008, 01:42 PM

I'm using Vista x64 and am getting freezing (not black screen) doing non-graphical things (like browsing or word processing). I don't think it's 9600 related.

On the OSX side of things, I have never had a hint of a problem even with long Spore, WoW, and Call of Duty 4 play sessions.

Cheers.

Edit: Which Vista are you guys running? 32 or 64-bit?

SoybeanStasher · Dec 9, 2008, 01:58 PM

32 right now, though I do have the 64-bit version ready to go when I lose the laziness.

Battlefield Fan · Dec 9, 2008, 02:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by keysersoze

Charlie D. over at The Inq has put nVidia in his crosshairs (again), and says the new MacBook Pros have nVidia chips with bad bumps. I realize this is The Inq we're talking about, but this was an interesting read none-the-less, with some interesting materials analysis. Might make some people think twice about purchasing a MacBook Pro.

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquir...ros-nvidia-bad

xbit labs also posted an article like this!

http://xbitlabs.com/news/mobile/disp...hics_Chip.html

hopefully nvidia and apple address this issue.

bluefiberoptics · Dec 9, 2008, 02:14 PM

And I JUST purchased a Macbook Pro Unibody...

Dec 9, 2008, 09:41 AM	#1
keysersoze macrumors 65816 Join Date: Jan 2004	New MacBook Pro's have bad nVidia chips says Inq Charlie D. over at The Inq has put nVidia in his crosshairs (again), and says the new MacBook Pros have nVidia chips with bad bumps. I realize this is The Inq we're talking about, but this was an interesting read none-the-less, with some interesting materials analysis. Might make some people think twice about purchasing a MacBook Pro. http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/...-bump-material __________________ i love brits Last edited by keysersoze : Dec 11, 2008 at 11:18 AM. Reason: Updated link

Dec 9, 2008, 10:10 AM	#5
PDE macrumors 68020 Join Date: Nov 2005	Very interesting article. There are clearly questions that haven't been answered and I think should be answered. Meanwhile, like many others, my early 2008 MBP is doing fine...but I'm just waiting for it to fail after the warranty runs out next summer. I'd feel much more at ease if I trusted this machine, and trusted Apple. Last edited by PDE : Dec 9, 2008 at 11:11 AM.

Dec 9, 2008, 11:06 AM	#11
nikhsub1 macrumors 6502a Join Date: Jun 2007	As far as Apple knows, the nvidia parts have been corrected... if this bad gpu's are still being produced, nvidia will be doomed. The only thing I can say to those with the new model, get apple care. My 17" MBP has had 2 GPU's fail now, the original (just after a year) and the replacement (4 months after) I am now on my 3rd... Anyway, this is not something I would lose sleep over in any way, although we are talking about mac fanatics so I suspect most of you won't be sleeping much __________________ Laptop --> 17" Hi-Res 2.4 SR MBP / 4GB RAM / 7200RPM 500GB HD / 10.6.1 Phone --> 32GB White iPhone 3G S⃣ Desktop --> The Beast

Dec 9, 2008, 11:59 AM	#13
jhu2 macrumors member Join Date: Nov 2007	oh interesting... maybe my macbook pro is affected http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=612732 __________________ Macbook Pro, 2.53 ghz, 4GB RAM, 320 HD; 24" LED ACD; 8GB 2.5g iPhone; Canon 40D, various lenses

Dec 9, 2008, 12:15 PM	#15
m1stake macrumors 68000 Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Philly	LOL, it's amazing to me that this guy kept his job after trying to convince everyone that the Nvidia 8 series was going to suck and the ATI 2000 series would be the best cards ever. I'm still waiting for Nvidia to quit the chipset business, and for EVGA to stop making Nvidia products. Generally the Inq is rarely wrong, but they blow things ridiculously out of proportion and almost always distort their stories by using evidence that's totally out of context. __________________ UMBP/2.4/9600GT/4GB/160GB X25-M iPod Touch 2G/32GB

Dec 9, 2008, 10:30 AM	#6
SoybeanStasher macrumors regular Join Date: Oct 2008	Yeah, I too have Applecare and I'll cross this bridge if/when I get there. Right now I'm beating the crap out of my Late 2008 MacBook Pro with plenty of gaming. If I can't get it to fail within the 3 year Applecare period even with frequent 90C GPU temperatures, I'll be OK with whatever happens after that period.

Dec 9, 2008, 10:32 AM	#7
brentsg macrumors 6502 Join Date: Oct 2008	He's always grinding the axe against NV.

Dec 9, 2008, 10:35 AM	#8
Firefly2002 Banned Join Date: Jan 2008	I figured this was probably the case, since the 9600 is the same damn chip as the 8600... the 9400 at least appears to be fine, though. Lol.

Dec 9, 2008, 12:03 PM	#14
D A macrumors member Join Date: Nov 2008	It is interesting to see that it is only Charlie that has published stuff on this (more or less). For me Charlie has zero credibility and I don't trust anything he writes unless there is another source backing up his statements.

Dec 9, 2008, 12:16 PM	#16
MH01 macrumors 6502a Join Date: Feb 2008	The problems he describes are really simple to replicate. Nothing to do with Charlie having it in for Nvidia. If you have a new MBP... Install Vista via bootcamp and jump into some games. There are plenty of posts on this. Myself for one can get a Black screen of death within 15 min playing world of warcraft. Sometimes it takes 5 min, other times it takes 15 min. I have replicated it on a 2.8 and a 2.53. Basically they overheat. I have even had it crash in OS X. Just google black screen of death, and see how many hits you get. Here is a thread on apple's support site. http://discussions.apple.com/thread....sageID=8554489

Dec 9, 2008, 12:16 PM	#17
ManWithhat macrumors regular Join Date: Jun 2008	I think it's way too early to saying anything, especially without any complete card failures. This and they identified two single units in their study, which hardly represents the population. There are also two different versions of the 9600 ( the 256 and 512MB versions ), and the article does not state which it even tested. This and the fact that the study may have easily been done incorrectly leaves this study slightly on the "Plausible, but I'll believe it when I see it" category of rumors. On another note, my wife and I have laptops with the 8600 and 8400 mobile graphics cards. Both are still functioning flawlessly, and my 8600 has been put through a lot of game playing sessions.

Dec 9, 2008, 12:26 PM	#18
MH01 macrumors 6502a Join Date: Feb 2008	Some interesting replies here. So who actually has a New MBP and uses it to run games under vista using the 9600? I have myself experienced this issue with 2 laptops.

Dec 9, 2008, 12:43 PM	#19
Chris F macrumors regular Join Date: Jul 2007	Before jumping to conclusions I would like to see another site do a dissection of the new 9400 chipset and 9600 gpu. If it is found that the 9600 is using the old solder it would be a disaster for nvidia and more importantly us the consumers. It might be the "catalyst" (hah) needed to move Apple back to using ATI discrete gpu parts.

Dec 9, 2008, 01:32 PM	#21
SoybeanStasher macrumors regular Join Date: Oct 2008	If you visit the gaming forum I think you'll see that many of us game on our new Late 2008 MacBook Pros with no problems. I have Vista installed and I've been playing Bioshock and Fallout 3 (which by the way, I recommend highly). I've had 3 freezes in Fallout 3 over 22 hours of gameplay, but they weren't black screens of death. The game is known to have freezing issues. The latest Fallout 3 update appears to have fixed that issue for me. As I said above, I regularly beat the crap out of my MBP's GPU. I figure if it's going to fail, I might as well get it to fail ASAP!

Dec 9, 2008, 01:42 PM	#22
ManWithhat macrumors regular Join Date: Jun 2008	I'm using Vista x64 and am getting freezing (not black screen) doing non-graphical things (like browsing or word processing). I don't think it's 9600 related. On the OSX side of things, I have never had a hint of a problem even with long Spore, WoW, and Call of Duty 4 play sessions. Cheers. Edit: Which Vista are you guys running? 32 or 64-bit?

Dec 9, 2008, 01:58 PM	#23
SoybeanStasher macrumors regular Join Date: Oct 2008	32 right now, though I do have the 64-bit version ready to go when I lose the laziness.

Dec 9, 2008, 02:14 PM	#25
bluefiberoptics macrumors regular Join Date: Jul 2005	And I JUST purchased a Macbook Pro Unibody... __________________ -NEW! Aluminum Macbook Pro 2.4 GHz -2008 Custom Built Desktop -HP Notebook ZD8000 -Mac Mini G4 1.2 GHz -iPod Touch 8 GB (Week 38)

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