Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Apple Releases Graphics Firmware Update for 17" Unibody MacBook Pro

The graphics fiascos with Macbooks and iMacs has become SOP over the last couple of years. So much for the argument about the reason Apple offering so few cards video cards is because Macs "just work". It's to the point where most people expect and accept it. Most amazing example of brand loyalty I've ever seen.
 
petermcphee said:
That's something that I like about Apple v. Microsoft. When there is a problem reported, Apple is able to respond fairly quickly with a patch. This is likely a function of there being one hardware/software interaction problem rather than a billion possible problems caused by multiple interactions between multiple hardware combinations. This is where the tight control of hardware that Apple exercises really pays off.
Click to expand...

That would be why they took months and months to own up to the problems with the 8600 in the old MBPs would it? I agree with your overall sentiment, but nobody and no business is perfect not even Apple.

Apple aren't even your special little friend, despite what some people here would believe.
 
Bubba Satori said:
The graphics fiascos with Macbooks and iMacs has become SOP over the last couple of years. So much for the argument about the reason Apple offering so few cards video cards is because Macs "just work". It's to the point where most people expect and accept it. Most amazing example of brand loyalty I've ever seen.
Click to expand...

Indeed. People who have this problem should return the product and insist on a full refund if it is not fixed.

So far so good on my 15" MBP though.
 
bartzilla said:
That would be why they took months and months to own up to the problems with the 8600 in the old MBPs would it? I agree with your overall sentiment, but nobody and no business is perfect not even Apple.

Apple aren't even your special little friend, despite what some people here would believe.
Click to expand...

Wasnt that the chip maker who was keeping it hush hush and then was forced to reveal it had been selling defective chips to many makers?
 
NT1440 said:
Wasnt that the chip maker who was keeping it hush hush and then was forced to reveal it had been selling defective chips to many makers?
Click to expand...

Of course it was. What's your point? Apple held out for ages after the nvidia announcement before admitting they were affected, until round-about the time they were ready to replace the old MBP with the alu-MBP. Dell and HP owned up and arranged to take care of their customers much sooner than Apple did.

It's not a good thing when HP and Dell are schooling you on how to handle customers with faulty computers.
 
Thylacine said:
I was really glad to see Apple responding, but unfortunately it hasn't solved my flickering pixel noise problem when I hook up my 17" Unibody to a 30" ACD with the new Mini DisplayPort to Dual DVI adapter. I truly hope they address that next--it's bad. Here's a pic of what I mean: http://www.repeatpattern.com/snow.jpg
Click to expand...

I have this same issue, plus it will go "all snow" then back to normal, then flickering. The probelm is it doesn't always do it.

Thing I could take it back? I don't want to bring in an external display and wait forever...I just want to get my money back (its still within the 14 day period).
 
Thylacine said:
I was really glad to see Apple responding, but unfortunately it hasn't solved my flickering pixel noise problem when I hook up my 17" Unibody to a 30" ACD with the new Mini DisplayPort to Dual DVI adapter. I truly hope they address that next--it's bad. Here's a pic of what I mean: http://www.repeatpattern.com/snow.jpg
Click to expand...

If your talking about the 30" ACD having green dancing pixels this has been an issue alone to the 30" itself. For the past 4 years I believe no one can solve this issue with the 30" ACD.

I've read numerous threads on this on how people used a different macbook pro, mac pro, changed the graphics card but all shows the same dancing pixels.

I'm afraid its that your 30" ACD has the problem not your 17" uni mbp.
 
jjahshik32 said:
If your talking about the 30" ACD having green dancing pixels this has been an issue alone to the 30" itself. For the past 4 years I believe no one can solve this issue with the 30" ACD.

I've read numerous threads on this on how people used a different macbook pro, mac pro, changed the graphics card but all shows the same dancing pixels.

I'm afraid its that your 30" ACD has the problem not your 17" uni mbp.
Click to expand...

I guess I should have mentioned that by "same" I meant external display...its not the ACD...its a Hanns G 28" screen. I works fine on my other computers???
 
bbadalucco said:
I guess I should have mentioned that by "same" I meant external display...its not the ACD...its a Hanns G 28" screen. I works fine on my other computers???
Click to expand...

As for your issue, I have no idea about Hanns G screens. It might be the screen itself as well. Try hooking up a different computer to that Hanns G screen and if it shows the same symptoms it means there is something wrong with your Hanns G.

As for the 30" ACD, I know forsure it is an issue of the 30" cinema display itself. I've seen threads on this several times just a couple years back when I was researching on the 30" ACD. I did buy a couple but ended up returning them both due to uneven backlighting on each half side of the display.

The crazy part is that you wont have the dancing green pixels right away. Sometimes it will start exhibiting these issues after months or even years. No one knows why to this day.
 
dagamer34 said:
Never buy first-gen hardware folks. You always pay for that premium with kinks and bugs.
Click to expand...

Yeah that makes a lot of sense, what if I go and buy a rev b and still get problems. You buy when you need.
 
Bubba Satori said:
The graphics fiascos with Macbooks and iMacs has become SOP over the last couple of years. So much for the argument about the reason Apple offering so few cards video cards is because Macs "just work". It's to the point where most people expect and accept it. Most amazing example of brand loyalty I've ever seen.
Click to expand...

Or maybe the whole issue is overblown, I guess all people buying Apple products have drank kool aid and following the cult.
 
Bubba Satori said:
The graphics fiascos with Macbooks and iMacs has become SOP over the last couple of years. So much for the argument about the reason Apple offering so few cards video cards is because Macs "just work". It's to the point where most people expect and accept it. Most amazing example of brand loyalty I've ever seen.
Click to expand...

Someone at Apple must be getting paid off to keep making the poor choice of going with NVidia over and over again for graphics here lately....
 
chadder007 said:
Someone at Apple must be getting paid off to keep making the poor choice of going with NVidia over and over again for graphics here lately....
Click to expand...

Apple is probably getting a huge discount. I guess when Nvidia keeps giving Apple some amazing discounts and keeps telling them please believe me for sure this time that we fixed our gpus, I would probably do the same as Apple.
 
polaris20 said:
My 15" Unibody is just fine, thank you very much.
Click to expand...

Irrelevant. I am talking about the batch of chips used in the 17" MBP's. Not the 15"ers. I do not experience this issue with my MBP 17" antiglare unibody, therefor it leads me to believe it is a certain number of 'books, not all.
 
I've had the flash/flicker problem (where you get a black partial or full screen "redraw").

I've consistently been able to trigger it after a sleep/wake cycle. (more info in this thread). Usually, it'll happen after just a quick sleep/wake, but it's virtually guaranteed to happen when the machine is left for a while in either full sleep or just display sleep.

I just woke the machine after 1 hr of sleep, and for the first time, NO flash/flicker. Obviously, a single cycle isn't much, but it's looking good.

(of course, Murphy's Law will make me a liar just as soon as I submit this post... ;)

I will post an update to this later with further data, either way.

17" UB MBP 2.66GHz, stock config
 
better than plad?

in the modern age of graphics an issue with lines on the screen is barbaric. Quality assurance should be ashamed and banished to the far end of the infinite loop.
 
Can someone make a benchmark of the graphic card before applying the firmware update and one afterwards ?
 
gallagh76 said:
Can someone make a benchmark of the graphic card before applying the firmware update and one afterwards ?
Click to expand...

I really like to see some benchmark too. I think they underClocked the GPU of your mbp17 with this firmware
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back