Is my graphics card dying?

[solinari6]

I've got a 3 year old Macbook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2012) model, and it's had a few graphic glitches in the past, but right now, it's have a pretty nasty glitch:

I haven't rebooted or anything yet to see if that will make it go away, because I'm not sure if I should really be concerned about this or not. Is this a bad sign of things to come?

it kind of reminds of maybe of an issue I've seen before (maybe on macrumors even?), but I don't recall whatever happened with it.

I don't have applecare, so am I screwed if this gets worse?

If I take it in to the apple store to have them look at it, does it have to be displaying the glitch for them to know if the graphics card is bad? Or do they have ways to test it?

 

[tubeexperience]

13" rMBP don't have a graphic card.

 

[solinari6]

hmm ... so what's going on? Just a normal glitch? The screen has fallen asleep (gone black) and when I wake it back up, it's still there

 

[RootBeerMan]

My iMac display did something similar to that a few years back, (thankfully, while still under Applecare). Turned out to be the mainboard. It also displayed some dark spots on the top of the screen. Got the board and screen replaced and it's been good to go ever since. I'd say your MB is displaying similar problems. Probably the mainboard (since the graphics are integrated.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

13" rMBP don't have a graphic card.

Of course they have a graphics card, it's integrated onto the main CPU die sure and it shares ram with the main system but it does have a graphics card.

OP it looks like a graphics failure and on your machine that's a logic board replacement unless you can find a computer repair place that will test your board and replace and faulty parts, however a new processor is much the same as a new logic board by the time you've paid to have it soldered on.

It could be a screen cable unseated or brokthat's something you might be able to look at yourself, head over to ifixit.com for guides on how to check that out.

 

[maflynn]

13" rMBP don't have a graphic card.

They don't

Seriously, its on the die, and its quite possible that the iGPU (or as mentioned) the logic board has a defect.

 

[solinari6]

So I called up Apple support to talk to them about this, and ran into ANOTHER problem. Apparently the serial number on my macbook is bad. It isn't found anywhere in their system. So I have to bring it down to the apple store to get it "serialized" before they can help me at all, earliest appointment being next week. Bleh ...

 

[solinari6]

Well, I finally got the laptop to the apple store. They hooked it up to their machine and couldn't find anything wrong with it. It isn't part of any "known issues" thing, so it would just cost me $280 to get sent off and fixed. Bummer

 

[redshifted]

Well, I finally got the laptop to the apple store. They hooked it up to their machine and couldn't find anything wrong with it. It isn't part of any "known issues" thing, so it would just cost me $280 to get sent off and fixed. Bummer

This happened to me with my early 2011 17" MBP. My graphics card failed for the first time before the recall program began. I had to pay out-of-pocket for my first repair. After it became a known issue with a repair program, they also instituted a refund for folks like me that paid for the repairs. Apple may treat you the same way eventually - hopefully.
Sorry to hear about your troubles. I know what it's like to have your machine fail in such a bizarre way.

Keep your receipts .