fastest way to get my video card to freak out?

[74NovaDES]

Hey all.. So I'm the "semi" proud owner of a 2011 MacBook Pro with the famous video card issue. At the same time, I ran into a battery swelling issue.. fun fun. The battery swelled up so bad, it slightly bent the case of the laptop. Anywho.. I finally made the appointment to bring my MBP into the Apple store for service, and the guy who helped me ran a diagnostic test on everything, and the video card(s) passed. He said not to worry because they would run the test several more times and get it good and hot.

Long story short, they called me back the next day and said my battery was replaced and my laptop was ready for pick up. When I asked about the video issue, the girl told me they ran the test several times, but couldn't get the card to fail. So my question to you all is this... when I go back to the Apple store, what's the fastest way to get it to heat up and freak out? Not sure if I'll have internet access at the store, and was thinking about bringing some high def movie files or something. Thoughts? Thanks!

 

[leman]

If you are looking to stress a GPU, you should use a computationally intensive OpenGL or OpenCL stress tool. For OS X, this sounds good: http://www.geeks3d.com/gputest/

A hi-def video will not stress the GPU in any way. Not to mention that its done by the integrated GPU, which is much better at decoding videos.

P.S. Furmark test is known to be very good at stressing the GPU

 

[74NovaDES]

If you are looking to stress a GPU, you should use a computationally intensive OpenGL or OpenCL stress tool. For OS X, this sounds good: http://www.geeks3d.com/gputest/

A hi-def video will not stress the GPU in any way. Not to mention that its done by the integrated GPU, which is much better at decoding videos.

P.S. Furmark test is known to be very good at stressing the GPU

Thanks for the info... but I have to ask.. What???? How can HD video not stress the GPU in any way? I'll check out the link you provided.

 

[leman]

Thanks for the info... but I have to ask.. What???? How can HD video not stress the GPU in any way? I'll check out the link you provided.

Why would it? Video decoding is fairly cheap nowadays and GPUs have dedicated hardware that can do it very efficiently.

 

[cruisin]

Thanks for the info... but I have to ask.. What???? How can HD video not stress the GPU in any way? I'll check out the link you provided.

Every year, HD video takes less power as the GPU becomes better. If you tried HD video on a much older GPU, it might actually struggle. Also consider that smooth HD video and low power usage is important, so it is heavily optimized (and part of a GPU is reserved for video) for a great experience.

Try high bitrate 4K video (the youtube stuff is weak but might still work) and play the video in a loop. It will take a while for 4K to be as effortless as regular HD is today. For example, Sintel in 4K stutters on my Iris Pro integrated graphics, but it is fine on the 2nd GPU.

Or find a free/cheap 3D game (or a demo) that you can crank up the settings and leave running (not a simple 2D puzzle game). Similar to the GPU tests, this will actually try to use 100% of your GPU and you can leave it running (or play it). CSR Racing (for example) is free on the app store.

Just make sure to disable sleep so that nothing turns off after a while.

 

[JTToft]

For example, Sintel in 4K stutters on my Iris Pro integrated graphics, but it is fine on the 2nd GPU..

- That's odd. Both the MKV and MOV versions play perfectly in VLC and QuickTime on my much older HD 3000.

We are talking about these, aren't we?

 

[cruisin]

- That's odd. Both the MKV and MOV versions play perfectly in VLC and QuickTime on my much older HD 3000.

We are talking about these, aren't we?

The site address is correct, but when I got the file I downloaded "Sintel.2010.4K.x264.mkv" which is a 3.74 GB file. Now I see the name has changed slightly and the size has gone up a bit.

After experimenting, it seems that the retina mode (aka HiDPI) is killing the performance, since the visible "1920x1200" (more space) is actually 3,840x2,400 scaled down. Forcing the resolution to be exactly 1920x1200 solves the stutter issue.

 

[leman]

Try high bitrate 4K video (the youtube stuff is weak but might still work) and play the video in a loop. It will take a while for 4K to be as effortless as regular HD is today. For example, Sintel in 4K stutters on my Iris Pro integrated graphics, but it is fine on the 2nd GPU.

I just tried it on my HD4000 in retina 1680x1050 scaled mode, no stutter here (using MPlayerX).

Or find a free/cheap 3D game (or a demo) that you can crank up the settings and leave running (not a simple 2D puzzle game). Similar to the GPU tests, this will actually try to use 100% of your GPU and you can leave it running (or play it). CSR Racing (for example) is free on the app store.

It is quite unlikely that these games will be able to stress the GPU similar to what Furmark and related tests can do. The important thing is to feed the GPU with data quickly enough so that all of its execution units are busy all the time. Stress tests like Furmark are specifically designed to do this. Games are not. Driver overhead, state changes etc. will result in periods of inactivity on the GPU.

 

[JTToft]

After experimenting, it seems that the retina mode (aka HiDPI) is killing the performance, since the visible "1920x1200" (more space) is actually 3,840x2,400 scaled down. Forcing the resolution to be exactly 1920x1200 solves the stutter issue.

- Of course. That makes sense.

 

[cruisin]

I just tried it on my HD4000 in retina 1680x1050 scaled mode, no stutter here (using MPlayerX).

My personal preference is VLC, and apparently it doesn't handle retina very well. I tried MPlayerX and it works much better. Thanks for the hint.

It is quite unlikely that these games will be able to stress the GPU similar to what Furmark and related tests can do. The important thing is to feed the GPU with data quickly enough so that all of its execution units are busy all the time. Stress tests like Furmark are specifically designed to do this. Games are not. Driver overhead, state changes etc. will result in periods of inactivity on the GPU.

Does Furmark have a OSX version? I only found GpuTest for OSX.

 

[leman]

My personal preference is VLC, and apparently it doesn't handle retina very well. I tried MPlayerX and it works much better. Thanks for the hint.

Its possible that VLC is not using GPU hardware accelerated decoding. I had some problems with it in the past (high energy usage) so I have moved to MplayerX, which does seem to work considerably better.

Does Furmark have a OSX version? I only found GpuTest for OSX.

I don't believe that Furmark has an OS X version, but the GpuTest for Mac includes a Furmark-style test among others.

 

[cruisin]

Its possible that VLC is not using GPU hardware accelerated decoding. I had some problems with it in the past (high energy usage) so I have moved to MplayerX, which does seem to work considerably better.

If it wasn't using the GPU, switching to the 2nd GPU shouldn’t have any effect. I think it's something else.

 

[magbarn]

Run bootcamp and then run furmark for days until it starts to artifact. Problem is, the replacement logic board will be just a refurbished GPU in it that has just been 're-flowed'. In other words, it also will develop the same problem over time. Only permanent solution is to sell your macbook and only look at MacBooks without a discrete gpu from AMD/Nvidia.

 

[StockDC2]

Awesome responses in this thread. You guys are all advising him how to intentionally damage his computer so that he can abuse Apple's policy and get a replacement for a component that isn't damaged (notice how I didn't use the word faulty). And people wonder why Apple products are so expensive.

 

[74NovaDES]

Awesome responses in this thread. You guys are all advising him how to intentionally damage his computer so that he can abuse Apple's policy and get a replacement for a component that isn't damaged (notice how I didn't use the word faulty). And people wonder why Apple products are so expensive.

No.. the point you are missing is that I CAN'T reliably use my $2000.00 MBP without the discrete video card freaking out and locking up the laptop. The problem is SO bad that Apple has issued a recall for my model. You can read about it here. I dropped it off at the Apple store and they couldn't replicate the symptoms. I'm asking for the quickest way to stress the GPU to reproduce the problems I've been having... NOT "intentionally damage" my laptop.

Ever take a car to the mechanic, and it doesn't "make that noise" that you tried telling him about? Same thing here skippy...

Thanks to everyone else for the suggestions! I'll be heading up there later today.

 

[Hyuga]

I had same problem with my spare laptop, but I took video with my phone when it acted up and showed it at service point and it was enough for them to replace it.

No.. the point you are missing is that I CAN'T reliably use my $2000.00 MBP without the discrete video card freaking out and locking up the laptop. The problem is SO bad that Apple has issued a recall for my model. You can read about it here. I dropped it off at the Apple store and they couldn't replicate the symptoms. I'm asking for the quickest way to stress the GPU to reproduce the problems I've been having... NOT "intentionally damage" my laptop.

Ever take a car to the mechanic, and it doesn't "make that noise" that you tried telling him about? Same thing here skippy...

Thanks to everyone else for the suggestions! I'll be heading up there later today.

 

[leman]

Awesome responses in this thread. You guys are all advising him how to intentionally damage his computer so that he can abuse Apple's policy and get a replacement for a component that isn't damaged (notice how I didn't use the word faulty). And people wonder why Apple products are so expensive.

Don't be silly. If you can damage your computer just by running some kind of software on it, the computer is defective in the first place.

 

[bradleyjx]

I had same problem with my spare laptop, but I took video with my phone when it acted up and showed it at service point and it was enough for them to replace it.

This is how I got mine replaced as well. At the time, mine would also refuse to boot fully, so both closeups of the pattern on the startup screen and a video of the computer refusing to fully boot for a couple minutes were plenty.

Sidenote: I was lucky to an extent as well, as I brought it in with an optibay and ram upgrades installed. Wasn't an issue in my experience.

 

[JTToft]

Sidenote: I was lucky to an extent as well, as I brought it in with an optibay and ram upgrades installed. Wasn't an issue in my experience.

- Fortunately, whatever modifications you have made yourself doesn't impact the coverage.

I brought mine in with no HDD/SSD, RAM upgrades and even an upgraded AirPort card.

 

[wct097]

GPUTest for OS X includes the Furmark test. I used that to demonstrate the problem with my mid-2012 machine when I took it to the service center. Mine did, however, fail their testing for GPU issues.

The reason watching a video doesn't cause the problem to arise with the discrete GPU is that the video player probably isn't invoking the discrete GPU. Playing video is likely done by the integrated graphics as video playback is not the same as 3D rendering which you see in games. Reason being, the video playback is just showing a series of images where the 3D rendering is actually drawing the images that it displays.

Awesome responses in this thread. You guys are all advising him how to intentionally damage his computer so that he can abuse Apple's policy and get a replacement for a component that isn't damaged (notice how I didn't use the word faulty). And people wonder why Apple products are so expensive.

Running a stress test is not going to cause damage to a laptop. Running the stress test simply brings the flaw to light, if it exists. Before you shoot your mouth off accusing people of fraud, you should probably educate yourself on the subject.

 

[nudoru]

I had one of these (with 4 logic boards) and on the last one, this issue occurred intermittently and was not predictable at all. The Apple genius left it running the GPU stress test for a weekend with no fail. I ran benchmarks for days with no fail. But then I'd open a browser and boom!

Stressing it out may cause it to fail faster, but after that experience i don't think it's a guarantee. It'll eventually die.

 

[RogerB]

Take Photos

I had the same problem where my 2011 17" MBP passed the tests. Fortunately I had taken photos of the screen when the graphics problems were happening. This is an acceptable alternative proof for Apple. They repaired it under the "MacBook Pro Repair Extension Program for Video Issues".

 

[74NovaDES]

I had one of these (with 4 logic boards) and on the last one, this issue occurred intermittently and was not predictable at all. The Apple genius left it running the GPU stress test for a weekend with no fail. I ran benchmarks for days with no fail. But then I'd open a browser and boom!

Stressing it out may cause it to fail faster, but after that experience i don't think it's a guarantee. It'll eventually die.

Ya know... it's funny you mention that. I usually have Chrome open with a ton of tabs open, and if I rebooted the laptop and didn't manually switch the graphics card to "integrated", the video issue would occur (with Chrome open). I'm wondering if having the browser open heats up the CPU in addition to the GPU and causes the freak out. Hence, when they ran their GPU test sans the browser, it passed. I didn't make it back to the Apple store today, and am off work tomorrow so I'm definitely going, and will try the stress test in addition to having my browser open!

 

[74NovaDES]

Update.... Okay.. so now I'm totally scratching my head. The Apple store replaced my battery and trackpad for about $140 bones.. (I think I got the trackpad for free.. Thanks ! ) I paid the nice lady and told her about the situation and she said if I got the video card to freak out, they'd absolutely take it right back in. She also stated that if I took it home and it happened, I could take a picture or video of it, and that would be good enough for them do the repair.

So there I sat.. for about 35 - 40 minutes running the Furmark test, and also trying to load up my browser... and no dice. The MBP stuttered a little bit, but would not do the freak out routine.. So home I went. Whilst at home.. I loaded up the Furmark test yet again, and opened Chrome with several tabs and launched high def Youtube vids... again.. machine got hot and stuttered.. but no graphics freak out. Before I brought it to the Apple Store, I could barely use the thing before it locked up... now it's rock solid.. what gives?

 

[totten76]

Update.... Okay.. so now I'm totally scratching my head. The Apple store replaced my battery and trackpad for about $140 bones.. (I think I got the trackpad for free.. Thanks ! ) I paid the nice lady and told her about the situation and she said if I got the video card to freak out, they'd absolutely take it right back in. She also stated that if I took it home and it happened, I could take a picture or video of it, and that would be good enough for them do the repair.

So there I sat.. for about 35 - 40 minutes running the Furmark test, and also trying to load up my browser... and no dice. The MBP stuttered a little bit, but would not do the freak out routine.. So home I went. Whilst at home.. I loaded up the Furmark test yet again, and opened Chrome with several tabs and launched high def Youtube vids... again.. machine got hot and stuttered.. but no graphics freak out. Before I brought it to the Apple Store, I could barely use the thing before it locked up... now it's rock solid.. what gives?

Well if it's working just fine now, do you still need it replaced?