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How is your Late 2011 AMD GPU holding up?

How is your Late 2011 AMD Macbook Pro Holding up?

  • I've been hammering it for years and it's still fine

    Votes: 11 33.3%

  • I'm a casual user and it's been fine so far

    Votes: 7 21.2%

  • I gamed / did other stuff that used the GPU a lot and now it has problems / no longer works

    Votes: 5 15.2%

  • I used my machine casually and it still developed problems / no longer works

    Votes: 10 30.3%
  • Total voters
    33
B

Bah-Bah

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 28, 2013
71
12
I have a Macbook Pro 8,2 with the Radeon HD 6770M GPU. It's two and a half years into the 3 of Applecare and so far it has been unaffected by the reported problems with this model.

I think this could be because I run Gfx CardStatus and force the integrated GPU only to be used, unless I'm running something graphically intensive like 3D software or games etc.

Recently I've taken to plugging it into my 30" monitor which can only be driven by the AMD GPU and I wonder if I'm inviting problems. Would like to hear from people who have been pushing their Macbook Pro and AMD GPU significantly for a long time and haven't run into issues.

Is it inevitable that the GPU will fail?
 
Got the Early 2011 15" MBP with the AMD 6490M. Been using mine daily for 6+hours and still running fine, but I've been using smcFanControl and more recently, gfxCardStatus since becoming more aware of 'Radeongate'.

About a year ago, I remember my MBP restarting automatically on two occasions when running Final Cut but I'm not sure if that was related to the GPU?
 
I have a 6750m HD early-2011 model and hammer it with solid works, keyshot, and before this year I gamed quite a bit as well.

No problems so far... I hope it stays that way.
 
I had an Early 2011 15" MBP with the AMD 6490M that was ultimately replaced because of consistent graphics failures. I was using it principally for video editing so moderate load on the graphics card.
 
Fine here (knock on wood)...

Vote for "I'm a casual user and it's been fine so far". Refurbished 2.0Ghz 15" Sandy Bridge MBP with 6490M running homebrew Fusion setup (OWC 120GB SSD + OEM 500GB HD).

Casual user graphics-wise, but I hammer the CPU a bit running code builds. I admittedly use gfxCardStatus to stick to the integrated graphics for battery life. Only problem ever was having the main drive bay SATA cable replaced on my last day of AppleCare to make that SSD work consistently...two such drives failed, but drive number three has been happy since the replacement cable.

My friend has a refurbished 2.2Ghz 17" of the same generation and hers has also been fine. She does not run gfxCardStatus but rarely does anything that would switch to the dGPU.

Having said that...any problems with my or my friend's machine and we'd definitely pull the trigger on IrisPro-only refurbished rMBPs as replacements.
 
My buddy used this one for about 12 months with light usage (and very occasional gaming) and it crapped out on him. Got it off him cheap since he never bothered looking into fixing it. I went and had it Depot Repaired and I'm crossing my fingers this one will last me until the beginning of 2016 at least. We'll see I guess.

There is definitely an issue with all the 2011 models but I'm really hoping that it is just a vocal minority issue rather than something that plagues every single one.
 
Bah-Bah said:
I have a Macbook Pro 8,2 with the Radeon HD 6770M GPU. It's two and a half years into the 3 of Applecare and so far it has been unaffected by the reported problems with this model.

I think this could be because I run Gfx CardStatus and force the integrated GPU only to be used, unless I'm running something graphically intensive like 3D software or games etc.

Recently I've taken to plugging it into my 30" monitor which can only be driven by the AMD GPU and I wonder if I'm inviting problems. Would like to hear from people who have been pushing their Macbook Pro and AMD GPU significantly for a long time and haven't run into issues.

Is it inevitable that the GPU will fail?
Click to expand...

You should add one more option to the poll:

It failed, but resurrected it after a reball with leaded solder.
 
I'm concerned too since my Applecare is up in Dec. the only time I really use the GPU is when connected to my external monitor. I do very little graphics intensive operations.
 
Used mine about 90% integrated until January 2014. Used it with an external monitor in clamshell exclusively until April 2014 and it died. Got it repaired, died again two weeks later, then got it replaced by a rMBP but am cautious of the 750M.
 
I've got a baseline early 2011 machine and despite hammering it on a pretty regular basis, it's fine. The only problems I've had with it since I got it in May 2011 were kernel panics caused by Opera and low quality miniDisplayPort-to-HDMI adapters making me thing the miniDisplayPort is dead or dying.
 
Late-2011 2.2GHz 15". A bit of light gaming (30-40 hours perhaps) via Boot Camp in the first twelve months, mainly light usage the rest of the time plus some software testing and development with Parallels Virtual machines (doesn't use the dGPU).

Failed without warning in April. Replacement refurbished logic boards lasted a few weeks before failing in similar fashion.
 
Base late 2011. Used for a lot of video editing. It's holding pretty well. Had one gpu failure so far. Hoping for a second.
 
Mine is constantly crashing and the screen splits the images on the desktop, heres some images of what I'm talking about! ImageUploadedByTapatalk1408381483.493001.jpgImageUploadedByTapatalk1408381500.557483.jpg
 
Had Logic Board replaced in first 6 months of owning it and it's been mostly okay since. Ever since updating to Mavericks it's been giving me the glitchy lines at times. Sucks that such a widespread GPU problem is being ignored by Apple so far.
 
OK so far (6750M in base late-2011)

The machine is running >80% in clamshell mode, thus pretty much on the dGPU, though probably not stressing it much.

I believe in the first year there were some graphical glitches, blue lines, squares, etc.. I ascribed them to Lion being buggy.

Now on ML and have upgraded to 8GB RAM (thus the graphics became 512 MB; an SSD came in too) and never had such episodes again.

However, AppleCare runs out in November and I really hope it stays functional thereafter for a while; do not want to spend $$$ again so early.

Might be other reasons, but I got the impression since some time (maybe related to ML ???) the fans kick in earlier - or some process makes more heat (rather annoying already). Haven't been able to figure that one out.

> oh, and its a high res (glossy) model
----
> and finally, its GPU died a few days ago (thanks god, just before AC would go over its 3 years) ...
 
Last edited:
I have an Early 2011 17" MBP with the 6750M. I did a lot of gaming on it for the first two years of its life, but for about the past year I've been using it casually. So far, no problems. I run gfxcardstatus to make sure it stays on the integrated graphics as much as possible.
 
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