After three hours with the SMC Update I am pretty sure that the slight and rare graphic problems are gone.
I had them under 10.8 (not with the preinstalled 10.7, but under 10.7 I saw the beachball ONCE for two seconds, never again since then) mainly in Safari (in the WordPress.com online browser editor p.e.) once or twice in an hour. At one time it was so bad (again another browser editor of a strange forum software) that I even thought something will crash soon (but it didn't and the glitches—parts of the displayed image got stuck during scrolling—healed themselves sooner or later).
I bet Apple fixes a LOT of things in such "small" updates and doesn't mention them in the official documents. The SMC Update is highly recommended for rMBPs even if you don't need or care about Power Nap!
The machine is a beast. It's so awesome fast, I still can't believe it. I have it for three weeks now and every day I am more fascinated with that piece of hard- and software. I can't move my eyes off that gorgeous screen. When I look at my old MBP (2007) after some time I'm marveling that this resolution was the standard for decades. It's not revolutionary, but a huge step in evolution.
A brand new notebook with advanced technical standards, a grand upgrade for a new operating system version, a firmware update—and everything runs smooth and fine. Unbelievable. Chapeaux, Apple! Everything stays better.
Excellent. Exclusive. Best computer of all time, best os of all time.