Defect Confirmation

[Michek]

I can confirm this behaviour on my Macbook (MacBook Pro 15, late 2016, i7, Intel HD Graphics 530, AMD Radeon Pro 450, no Adobe software).

The only thing that is different is, that the Photo App doesn’t require the AMD graphic card on my computer and therefore I can’t see this effect. But when I open iMovie instead, the Macbook switches to the AMD card and I have exactly the same picture.

I like to say thank you saduser as we now have a test in place with which everybody can reproduce the issue in a few seconds without installing third party software! As the graphic symptoms arent’t unique, it might not work in all scenarios.

The behavior that graphic card switches don’t work on Apple Macbooks in a reliable manner is not new. E. g. I had an issue about 6 years ago with my Macbook mid 2010. At the end Apple replaced my mainboard and I had to pay about 400€ for it even the issue was documented in the Apple forum a thousand times. Luckily I bought the Macbook from Amazon and they took over the costs.

One interesting thing about my mid 2010 Macbook: The issue (complete crash) wasn’t present on Leopard and came put with Snow Leopard and all following OS versions. Nevertheless it was a hardware issue which was eliminated by replacing the mainboard.

 

[Kn!ghthawk]

So maybe those not having the issues are already using the dGPU when they run the "test"? That might be it.

It's possible although for the love of G-d I still don't know why just using iPhotos and maybe a few safari tabs would trigger the dGPU. For that matter even using Lightroom & Photoshop most of the time doesn't trigger it for me. The integrated GPU isnt the greatest but I've had to really try and get it to switch.

 

[saduser]

It's possible although for the love of G-d I still don't know why just using iPhotos and maybe a few safari tabs would trigger the dGPU. For that matter even using Lightroom & Photoshop most of the time doesn't trigger it for me. The integrated GPU isnt the greatest but I've had to really try and get it to switch.

If I disable the integrated GPU via energy settings I cannot reproduce the issue at all.

 

[Kn!ghthawk]

If I disable the integrated GPU via energy settings I cannot reproduce the issue at all.

Yeah that's it then. Only happens when switching from integrated to dGPU. Thankfully this hasn't caused any major issues on my machine since I need it for a photo shoot on Tuesday & they essentially want everything processed and handed over on the spot. Nothing like a deadline!

 

[Jaekae]

So maybe those not having the issues are already using the dGPU when they run the "test"? That might be it.

Test should be that they click the automatic graphic switching option in the power management settings, to switch between igpu and dgpu.

And i think its those on 13" that does not have it since they only have 1 iGPU, no switching on those

 

[Chupa Chupa]

Confirmed on my stock 2.6 15".

 

[saduser]

Well, not that I'm the least bit surprised but the 10.2.2 release didn't fix a thing.

 

[therealseebs]

Interestingly, I know at least one person who can't reproduce this.

My guess would be that Photos is switching to 30-bit color which makes it need the dGPU. Not 100% sure, though. But that would be a sensible thing if they had the ability.

 

[saduser]

Interestingly, I know at least one person who can't reproduce this.

My guess would be that Photos is switching to 30-bit color which makes it need the dGPU. Not 100% sure, though. But that would be a sensible thing if they had the ability.

You can force the switch by going to Energy Saver in System Preferences to disable Automatic graphics switching.

 

[eknkc]

I can't repro it with Photos.app but If I keep Siri open and navigate to something that would fire up the discrete GPU in safari (http://webglsamples.org/aquarium/aquarium.html) then I get the same glitch.

 

[saduser]

Still broken in the latest beta. 10.12.3 Beta (16D12b)

 

[fokmik]

i think this is maybe related only with macs that has iGPU and dGPU ?! on my imac doesnt happen 10.12.1 and on my macbook pro late 2013(iGPU only) also not happening

 

[saduser]

Still occurs with the public beta that was released today.

10.12.3 Beta (16D17a)

I suspect that's the last beta I'm going to see before time runs out. Looks like it's going back.

 

[jdelcorr]

I can confirm it happens with my tbMBP 15" 460, :/ thought I had received one of the good ones. Currently running non-beta 10.12.2. It happens without having Photos open, just Siri(when I toggle the "automatic graphics switching").

 

[WhiteWhaleHolyGrail]

Still occurs with the public beta that was released today.

10.12.3 Beta (16D17a)

I suspect that's the last beta I'm going to see before time runs out. Looks like it's going back.

You're right, minor and elaborately revealed software glitches that are bound to be remedied imminently as they always are with Apple products? Dell beckons you to the kingdom of technological perfection my friend.

Or not...

 

[therealseebs]

You're right, minor and elaborately revealed software glitches that are bound to be remedied imminently as they always are with Apple products? Dell beckons you to the kingdom of technological perfection my friend.

This is a pretty major glitch, and I wouldn't say that Apple "always" remedies software problems "imminently".

I filed a bug report on NeXTStep in 1990 and last I checked the bug is still there in MacOS. They did originally accept the bug report as a valid bug, even. But they've dropped enough of their focus on Mac that I doubt it'll ever get looked at.

Maybe they'll fix it. Maybe they won't. But claiming that they "always" fix things promptly is ludicrous.

 

[saduser]

This is a pretty major glitch, and I wouldn't say that Apple "always" remedies software problems "imminently".

I filed a bug report on NeXTStep in 1990 and last I checked the bug is still there in MacOS. They did originally accept the bug report as a valid bug, even. But they've dropped enough of their focus on Mac that I doubt it'll ever get looked at.

Maybe they'll fix it. Maybe they won't. But claiming that they "always" fix things promptly is ludicrous.

My other concern is the fact that not everyone is able to reproduce such a simple test case... this means faulty hardware cannot be ruled out. I'm not about to keep a $4,000 machine with a possible H/W flaw.