Graphical Glitches Plaguing Some 2020 iMac Owners With Radeon Pro 5700 XT GPU

[itsmeaustend]

Must be fake news! Read this:

About macOS GPU drivers

Mac hardware and GPU software drivers have always been deeply integrated into the system. This design fuels the visually rich and graphical macOS experience as well as many deeper platform compute and graphics features. These include accelerating the user interface, providing support for advanced display features, rendering 3D graphics for pro software and games, processing photos and videos, driving powerful GPU compute features, and accelerating machine learning tasks. This deep integration also enables optimal battery life while providing for greater system performance and stability.

Apple develops, integrates, and supports macOS GPU drivers to ensure there are consistent GPU capabilities across all Mac products, including rich APIs like Metal, Core Animation, Core Image, and Core ML. In order to deliver the best possible customer experience, GPU drivers need to be engineered, integrated, tested, and delivered with each version of macOS. Aftermarket GPU drivers delivered by third parties are not compatible with macOS.

The GPU drivers delivered with macOS are also designed to enable a high quality, high performance experience when using an eGPU, as described in the list of recommended eGPU chassis and graphics card configurations below. Because of this deep system integration, only graphics cards that use the same GPU architecture as those built into Mac products are supported in macOS.

Use an external graphics processor with your Mac - Apple Support

Learn how to access additional graphics performance by connecting to an external graphics processor.

support.apple.com

Give me a break. Have you ever developed software? Even the most simplistic of things can be hard to keep bug-free. Try developing literally anything then you earn the right to criticize something as complex as a driver. It's a computer. It's a box full of glorified minerals/electrified rocks brought to life using witchcraft - there's bound to be glitches here and there.

 

[Maconplasma]

I love apple dont get me wrong...

My favorite line of text justification right after someone trashes Apple.

 

[alexos]

I can corroborate that this is a known issue on (iMac20,2) with 5700XT and apple is actively seeking machines showing the problem to diagnose.

I received a 2020 iMac with 5700XT on September 1st. Within a day of moderate use (dropbox syncing, application install) a magenta line vertical line appeared on the screen. The line went away after a NVRAM reset, but then reappeared the next day. Subsequent NVRAM resets, software updates, etc (typical processes) didn't resolve the issue.

The vertical line seemed permanent. I contacted Apple support, who went through similar tests as above, (resetting NVRAM, their favorite!). I provided them with photo and screen shot, eventually I was transferred to a upper level *genius* who gave me the option of returning the computer or if I'd be willing to participate in their engineering capture program and send the machine to apple engineering.

The *genius* explained that there were other reports of graphics issues and apple was trying to diagnose the problem, but needed more machines exhibiting the problem.

... The replacement iMac 2020 w/ 5700XT has been performing nicely since then, it's been put under some strenuous 3D workloads and benchmark stress testing. The only issue I have seen so far is that running the Intel Power Gadget in some configurations results in a complete system crash (black screen and restart with "Your computer restarted because of a ..... problem"

Spec:
iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2020)
3.8 GHz 8-Core Intel Core i7
72 GB 2667 MHz DDR4 (same 3rd party ram in both bad machine and replacement)
AMD Radeon Pro 5700 XT 16 GB

 

[jc_9]

What issues? I've had my 16" MBP since early February and I use it extensively as I edit in FCP X weekly. Not a single problem.

Try connecting an external monitor to your 16". Depending on the resolution, refresh rate and connection type, it makes your dGPU consumes up to 19W constantly. What sounds like a defect is how using a basic monitor at 1080p@60hz consumes the infamous 19W but using a 4K monitor at 144hz only consumes 7W.

Many of us disable the Intel's CPU Turbo boost to save some watts to have a silent desktop workspace.

152 page thread about it:

(2019) 16" is HOT & NOISY with an external monitor! :(

hello,yesterday i received my 16”mbp i9 2.4 64gb with 5600m.Its connected to my 27"asus 2k 60hz monitor , i see fans idling around 3200 rpms and it bothers me.As i read the 5600m shouldnt have this problem.Any ideas?

forums.macrumors.com

I don't think Apple will ever call this a defect, as its probably on AMD fault since their Navi drivers also suck on Windows. And with Intel late to release their chips, I feel like the CPU in the 16" was supposed to consumes less that it does. Really not sure if I should keep this 16" considering Apple is about to ditch both Intel and AMD very soon...

 

[TVreporter]

Sounds like an emerging issue. Definitely something to keep an eye on. iMacs with high-end graphics chips are typically not prone to these kinds of issues.

My 2011 iMac sitting in the closet with a dead graphics card and the recall of that model’s card would like a word with you.

 

[triton100]

I wish MR would write a big piece on the 16" GPU issues.
Unless there was one but I don't recall.
Ultimately AMD drivers / hardware sucks lately.

What is the 16 inch gpu issue ?

 

[Taz Mangus]

I have both visible errors on my iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2020) with 10-core and 5700 XT.

- Random white lines within the screen (YouTube videos within Safari is an easy way for me to reproduce)
- Rounding of windows have white corners and don't appear rounded, but squared off.
- This happens with or without an external display connected and whether or not I'm using a scaled resolution

@alexos had the iMac swapped out for another iMac and has not had the graphics issue on the replacement machine. So it sounds like it is not plaguing all machines. Maybe you want to give AppleCare a call and discuss it with them.
[automerge]1600476772[/automerge]

What is the 16 inch gpu issue ?

Kernel panics

 

[Dustman]

We’re still not talking about the Mac Mini’s broken bluetooth eh?

 

[yurc]

This is all Navi driver issue in MacOS, no matter what Mac, if it had any Navi based GPU from MBP 16, iMac, even Mac Pro.

 

[lJoSquaredl]

Why are graphics cards so plagued?

this feels like a big deal

Know what gave me the least issues in the last 10 years? The Iris Pro integrated graphics on my 2014 MBP lol, hoping Apple has some kinda sick iGPU/dGPU of their own that doesn't give me headaches thru out my time owning the computer for once. Their silicon has been pretty smooth and perfect for me thus far so that's hopeful.

 

[thadoggfather]

Know what gave me the least issues in the last 10 years? The Iris Pro integrated graphics on my 2014 MBP lol, hoping Apple has some kinda sick iGPU/dGPU of their own that doesn't give me headaches thru out my time owning the computer for once. Their silicon has been pretty smooth and perfect for me thus far so that's hopeful.

yeah im a fan of integrated graphics too oddly enough

my use case is very limited though

 

[marpies]

What is the 16 inch gpu issue ?

See the post quoted below.

Try connecting an external monitor to your 16". Depending on the resolution, refresh rate and connection type, it makes your dGPU consumes up to 19W constantly. What sounds like a defect is how using a basic monitor at 1080p@60hz consumes the infamous 19W but using a 4K monitor at 144hz only consumes 7W.

Many of us disable the Intel's CPU Turbo boost to save some watts to have a silent desktop workspace.

152 page thread about it:

(2019) 16" is HOT & NOISY with an external monitor! :(

hello,yesterday i received my 16”mbp i9 2.4 64gb with 5600m.Its connected to my 27"asus 2k 60hz monitor , i see fans idling around 3200 rpms and it bothers me.As i read the 5600m shouldnt have this problem.Any ideas?

forums.macrumors.com

I don't think Apple will ever call this a defect, as its probably on AMD fault since their Navi drivers also suck on Windows. And with Intel late to release their chips, I feel like the CPU in the 16" was supposed to consumes less that it does. Really not sure if I should keep this 16" considering Apple are about to ditch both Intel and AMD using their own chips...

 

[avkills]

Give me a break. Have you ever developed software? Even the most simplistic of things can be hard to keep bug-free. Try developing literally anything then you earn the right to criticize something as complex as a driver. It's a computer. It's a box full of glorified minerals/electrified rocks brought to life using witchcraft - there's bound to be glitches here and there.

This post really irks me some. Sorry but developers are lazy these days, but at the same time I also recognize the system architecture has also become way more complicated; which is a problem in itself. Hardware is outpacing software.

I would say most of the underpinnings of Mac OS work largely because it is UNIX, and the overall development community of UNIX flavors and Linux are generally the older generation of developers, a lot who could write stuff in assembly but don't because a majority of developers these days just can't handle it.

I am not one of those people, but my brother is; and he basically agrees that most software development these days is total ****. Bloatware built on crapware built on more ****.

So I am not surprised that there are driver issues; nothing is really tested thoroughly anymore because of the demand to be first to market. The fact that my best Mac I have ever owned before I bought a 2019 MacPro happens to be a hackintosh pretty much tells the story. The main forces behind the hackintosh community are the same very smart guys who know assembly language programming, and the reverse engineering they have figured out is pretty impressive.

Ok rant over. Don't get me wrong, the 2019 Mac Pro is one hell of a piece of engineering. I just hope Apple stops being a bunch of cry babies and swallows their pride a bit to allow the new nVidia Ampere GPUs into the eco system. Damn that 3090 would rock in a 2019 Mac Pro. Hell all Apple has to do is let nVidia write the drivers; the Web Drivers for High Sierra were rock solid in my hackintosh.

 

[timidpimpin]

Virtually every single GPU issue that Macs have had in the last two decades has been caused by AMD GPU's, and yet Apple insists on still using them. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results.

AMD GPU's are not welcome in my home.

 

[amartinez1660]

Why are graphics cards so plagued?

this feels like a big deal

I have gotten twice what seems to be a seriously corrupted memory or something. Happened right soon after installing the latest FCPX updates. Those glitches shown pale in comparison, stuff would go crazy on screen, some icons would stretch out and “polygons” would dance around. Hard shutdown only possible solution.
To be fair I don’t think it’s the 5700XT GPU itself but some program (maybe not even FCPX) leaking and corrupting metal drivers (I get a lot of exceptions about it often inside Unity for example).

 

[laz232]

ARM iMacs can’t come any sooner

Why would that solve graphics card issues?

 

[TommyBoyAZ]

The issues i had went beyond the Glitches.. I order mine the day it came out and was probably among the first group of users who got theirs. The Unit i received had a glitch that seemed to come from the location of the mouse to an edge of the display.. I Too thought i was seeing things... The next day, it happened again and again and i finally caught it and brought it to Apple's attention (Via the Apple Support Forums and Apple Care+). Around the 3rd day i noticed Beachball icon happening almost every other second in Safari followed by intermittent lockups. Around day 4-5 i noticed Bluetooth connectivity drops with the keyboard, trackpad or mouse (Never all three at the same time) Lastly I experienced a combination of everything along with lockups and shutdowns. Around day 6, after running into numerous issues, I called Apple and a new one was sent and i sent the one i had back..

Second one seemed to be fine the first day, then day 2 same turn of events. It ramped up from one problem to another. After day 7 the replacement was doing basically the same thing... The interesting thing was the new one had all the same issues as the previous one, but i also experienced true tone issues where half the screen was true tone and the other half was non true tone.. (Posted a video of Youtube of this, available in apple community forum as well). It looked like a perfect line down the screen (Yellowish tone left side, Bluish tone right side...) I decided to sent it back for a refund.

It seemed, from what i seen on the forums, to be isolated to the 5700XT cards (8gb or 16gb). My Family purchased 3 2020 iMac 27" i9 10 cores with 4TB SSD 10GB Ethernet 128gb rams.. (Nano glass) and all of them had the same issue, oddly one only had the video glitch and no other issues. but we sent them all back and awaiting to see what they find (and hopefully fix) before we buy another one.

Figured i would share my story of issues incase anyone else is experience this too. Love the mac while it worked, but it was a stable as Mentos and Coke for us...

 

[star-affinity]

Give me a break. Have you ever developed software? Even the most simplistic of things can be hard to keep bug-free. Try developing literally anything then you earn the right to criticize something as complex as a driver. It's a computer. It's a box full of glorified minerals/electrified rocks brought to life using witchcraft - there's bound to be glitches here and there.

Yes, I know. That's why I find this sentence a bit over the top:

This deep integration also enables optimal battery life while providing for greater system performance and stability.

Over the years there's been several graphical glitches in the OS X/macOS graphics drivers. I don't think it has been any more stable or performant than the progressively developed graphics drivers on the Windows side of things.

Also, since the argument is ”Apple is behind both the hardware and the software” I think the benefits of those words seems to lack at times. But I know hardware and software is complex and problems are more or less unavoidable. But then perhaps don't claim things are better than they are and be a bit more humble?

Virtually every single GPU issue that Macs have had in the last two decades has been caused by AMD GPU's, and yet Apple insists on still using them. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results.

AMD GPU's are not welcome in my home.

MacBook Pro's from 2010 had widesperad problems with the Nvidia GPU.
The RX 5700 XT GPU I have works well for me. But sure, I hade to replace it for a newer batch since the first card I had was causing problems. But I don't know if the hardware from AMD should be any worse than Nvidia's when it comes to stability? It of course also comes down to the drivers and they are constantly changing.

 

[timidpimpin]

Why would that solve graphics card issues?

Because Apple ARM chips have integrated graphics made by Apple.

 

[timidpimpin]

MacBook Pro's from 2010 had widesperad problems with the Nvidia GPU.
The RX 5700 XT GPU I have works well for me. But sure, I hade to replace it for a newer batch since the first card I had was causing problems. But I don't know if the hardware from AMD should be any worse than Nvidia's when it comes to stability? It of course also comes down to the drivers and they are constantly changing.

I never claimed Nvidia was perfect, but history shows that they are far closer to perfect than AMD could ever dream of being. AMD GPU's have a very checkered past that is well above any GPU maker that has ever existed. And their driver development is a neglected mess.

But a big part of all this is that AMD has far less money to throw around, so literally everything they do has a lot less put into it when compared to Nvidia.

 

[star-affinity]

Virtually every single GPU issue that Macs have had in the last two decades has been caused by AMD GPU's, and yet Apple insists on still using them. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results.

AMD GPU's are not welcome in my home.

I never claimed Nvidia was perfect, but history shows that they are far closer to perfect than AMD could ever dream of being. AMD GPU's have a very checkered past that is well above any GPU maker that has ever existed. And their driver development is a neglected mess.

But a big part of all this is that AMD has far less money to throw around, so literally everything they do has a lot less put into it when compared to Nvidia.

Sure, my point wast these things (nor most things) are static. It doesn't have to be that AMD are in a bad state just because they've happened to be so in the past. Same goes for Nvidia. I think it's a bit like people saying they had problems with a certain web browser one decade ago and then are of the opinion that the browser is still bad now and don't want to use it.

Software and hardware – always on the move…

But you're right AMD has less resources. It just seems to me that (on the Windows side) they are pretty progressive with driver development and seem focused at improving things.

 

[timidpimpin]

Sure, my point wast these things (nor most things) are static. It doesn't have to be that AMD are in a bad state just because they've happened to be so in the past. Same goes for Nvidia. I think it's a bit like people saying they had problems with a certain web browser one decade ago and then are of the opinion that the browser is still bad now and don't want to use it.

Software and hardware – always on the move…

But you're right AMD has less resources. It just seems to me that (on the Windows side) they are pretty progressive with driver development and seem focused at improving things.

You must not game on Windows, because if you did then you would know just how bad AMD drivers are, and have always been. They need to stick to what they're actually good at... CPU's.

 

[wumpalumpa]

Intel Core i7-10700kf Desktop CPU
+
Radeon Pro 5700 XT GPU

Have you seen the thermal system?

They are using same heatsink for both chipsets and only 1 fan is taking care of dissipating the heat of those

They are clearly having dissipation problems

Only solution is if they adress a patch underclocking both chipsets to avoid this overheat

You need to have no brain to put both chipsets in such small enclosure and believe everything will be fine

Apple is becoming worse day to day

If they completely drop Intel support (they do not release more Intel Macs) things will just get worse

Apple need something between a mac mini and a mac pro for those seeking for power but interested in a reduced format solution

An itx build

Don’t worry apple, you could charge 3000 euros for it. Another bad thing

Since apple realized their costumers pay 1000eu or more for a phone their hardware prices are an scandal, ridiculously high

They just need to destroy their MacOS system now

I can only see Nokia on nowadays Apple

going from control the market to ruin in 2 days

 

[filmak]

For me it is EXACT the same issue like with the new iMac. I had never any crashes with my Mac Pro and D500 cards. But I see this white line flickering on the right side of the screen. Earlier there were many lines flickering, but it got better like I said.

I think that the thread you have posted was about the crashes and freezing, I have followed it since the first post as I own two 6,1 Mac Pros.

So, what do you see? is this an horizontal or vertical line?
Is it always at the same position?

If I recall correctly what are you experience is a result of the newer OS versions, as you have said, but not the same issue of the thread you have posted as an example.
Anyway, good luck.

Forgot to mention that I have not updated these MPs to the latest OS, they are still on High Sierra, whenever it is the time to upgrade them, Mojave is the upper limit, no more Catalina horror stories... So if it is possible for you, roll back to Mojave for more peace of mind, or so I hope..

 

[filmak]

Can anyone, who owns a 5700GPU iMac, confirm that this is not happening to the plain 5700? (non XT model)