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Tbdbuckeyeitl

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 25, 2012
199
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I have a 27 inch i7 680 mx 1 gb fusion iMac. I have returned a few of them for scratches etc. the only thing I can tell is wrong with it is the fans are a little Loud. I am reading all these threads about image retention and am getting worried. I don't seem to see any IR but I haven't used the computer a great deal. What happens after the initial 14 day, I do have apple care. Will I get a new computer? If they fix it and scratch it in the process will they fix that. I am almost so worried I am thinking of returning for something I don't have yet.... Are all of these 27 have IR?
 
Do all 27 inch iMac have image retention?

Have the late 2012 27 inch i7 680mx fusion drive iMac. Do all of these have image retention. I just got it this week
 
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I have the 2011 model and my eyes are pretty sensitive to things like this, since I notice it on my LG Plasma TV, but never once do I see it in my year and half of ownership.
 
I've not done the checkerboard nor will I but I have not noticed any retention and I stare closely as my work for 8-12 hours a day (graphic design stuff).
 
My iMac had the yellow tint issue on the bottom half of the screen but no image retention from leaving several windows up for 30 min then minimizing and comparing on a dark gray back ground. So I say that not all have retention and you should return yours. I took mine in to repair the yellow tint problem and won't take it back until I check for retention at the store.

mine is a i7, 680mx, 8gb, 1tb fusion
 
I've not done the checkerboard nor will I but I have not noticed any retention and I stare closely as my work for 8-12 hours a day (graphic design stuff).

I don't blame you for trying out that checkerboard test. One does not have to do that test to test out your IR if you have it or not. Just pick a busy background for wallpaper like something with trees or has lots of lines in it, and then leave it there for a while then switch to a lighter background like all solid grey light in color and see if you can make out any of the detail from the previous wallpaper that you used. If nothing seen, you are in the clear. My 2009 iMac has IR really bad but I notice it without doing any checkerboard test.

Final thought, too many people are looking for things to go wrong with their new iMac. Chill out and enjoy your new Mac. If there is something obvious then of course exchange it. But if one looks hard enough they will find something wrong no matter how small. Question is can you live with what you find or not?
 
I don't blame you for trying out that checkerboard test. One does not have to do that test to test out your IR if you have it or not. Just pick a busy background for wallpaper like something with trees or has lots of lines in it, and then leave it there for a while then switch to a lighter background like all solid grey light in color and see if you can make out any of the detail from the previous wallpaper that you used. If nothing seen, you are in the clear. My 2009 iMac has IR really bad but I notice it without doing any checkerboard test.

Final thought, too many people are looking for things to go wrong with their new iMac. Chill out and enjoy your new Mac. If there is something obvious then of course exchange it. But if one looks hard enough they will find something wrong no matter how small. Question is can you live with what you find or not?

Yeh I think this way. If I don't see any issues with my current workflow then I am fine. If I push it to the extremes to find them it will just make me feel bad and in turn affect the quality of my work/day. If I did find anything and got it repaired I would probably end up with finger prints and dust under my screen from the repair job which would be infinitely times worse for me.
 
I have a 27 inch i7 680 mx 1 gb fusion iMac. I have returned a few of them for scratches etc. the only thing I can tell is wrong with it is the fans are a little Loud. I am reading all these threads about image retention and am getting worried. I don't seem to see any IR but I haven't used the computer a great deal. What happens after the initial 14 day, I do have apple care. Will I get a new computer? If they fix it and scratch it in the process will they fix that. I am almost so worried I am thinking of returning for something I don't have yet.... Are all of these 27 have IR?

STOP WORRYING! Life is too short to be worrying so much about these things. Any computer being mass produced at the scale of the iMac is unlikely to be perfect in every way. If you look for problems, you will always inherently find them - no matter how minor they are.
 
Do all of these have image retention

No.


I have the 27 inch 2012 iMac and mine does not suffer from image retention at all.

I was a bit worried before I got it, but I think the image retention issue is only affecting a very small amount of panels.

I've been lucky with my iMac, no image retention, no yellowing, no backlight bleeding.
 
If I have image retention. Is this something that stays on the screen forever ? Or does it go away with time or by using a screen saver.
 
If I have image retention. Is this something that stays on the screen forever ? Or does it go away with time or by using a screen saver.

It lasts about 20 seconds. Although if you've already returned "a few of them" maybe you're looking for perfection you aren't going to find in a mass-produced product, and should just return this one too.
 
Most 2012 iMacs do not have IR. The people who get two or three in a row with IR... it's just crazy to me.
 
No IR here, and I was big time worried about getting one with. I agree... it's a small issue and those who get it should get a replacement. Those who get a few in a row with it...have me scratching my head. Mine has no IR, no scratches, no loud fans, etc. Made in China
 
No image retention here either. However, IR is something that can come with time cause it did to my old 24" iMac. It was perfect when I got it and then a couple of months of use it started getting some really bad IR.

Hopefully this won't happen to the new iMac.
 
I'm not sure what the hell happened the other day, it didn't look like IR.. but I left the youtube homepage on my screen for a while (I don't recall how long exactly). Anyway, I noticed some kind of IR or whatever it was when I went to the dashboard full of widgets. Against that gray background, there were verticle green lines where the white was from the youtube page.. and it was not present where the thumbnails from the site were located. I left my screen saver on for about 10 min and it slowly went away. I tried to replicate the issue, left a page up with contrasting colors and such.. but nothing happened.

I noticed with other examples of IR, you can make out basically the entire page, words, images included. There was no such detail when this happened.. just verticle greenish lines to outline.
 
My iMac had the yellow tint issue on the bottom half of the screen but no image retention from leaving several windows up for 30 min then minimizing and comparing on a dark gray back ground. So I say that not all have retention and you should return yours. I took mine in to repair the yellow tint problem and won't take it back until I check for retention at the store.

mine is a i7, 680mx, 8gb, 1tb fusion
Interesting, they just replaced my old iMac because even three changes of display could not get rid of the yellow at bottom half of the screen, I pick up my new one tomorrow, I truly hope it works properly, I had to wait since last October for the replacement of my old 27 inch. Gonna have them let me check for it at the store...
 
Interesting, they just replaced my old iMac because even three changes of display could not get rid of the yellow at bottom half of the screen, I pick up my new one tomorrow, I truly hope it works properly, I had to wait since last October for the replacement of my old 27 inch. Gonna have them let me check for it at the store...

If I understood correctly they changed your screen 3 times and it still had the yellow tint issue on 3 different screens?
 
If I understood correctly they changed your screen 3 times and it still had the yellow tint issue on 3 different screens?

All iMacs are slightly "yellower" on the bottom. There are some that are worse than others, absolutely, but they all have this. I have it on my 2012 iMac, but after calibration it's so slight it doesn't bother me.
 
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