MBPR 15' Late 2013 GPU issues - 3 external monitors

[honlino]

Hello, lately i've been having some issues, and i don't know when did it all started since i've changed a lot of stuff lately on my mac setup.

My macbook is a 15 inch with dedicated gpu Nvidia 750m, 16gb of ram and 512gb ssd

First thing i used 3 external monitors 1FHD +2 1280x1024 for a long time with no issues, and now i bought 2 1600x1050 to replace the 2 previous that were low resolution.

After it my mac started heating a little, i decided to replace the thermal paste, and now is when i can't remember when the problems started, if before the thermal paste or after, but the thing is that when i'm using all external monitors + internal sometimes it looks like the gpu is failing, but it's not really hot, always under 65ºC.

I've reinstalled my mac os with everything new nothing from my time machine to take out any software related issues. but the problems persisted, when i'm using only my internal monitor no problems are shown, and i'm trying out now with only 2 external monitors to see if the problems persists.

I've reseted nvram and smc with now real effects.

On my intel powergadget it looks like the gpu underclocks itself when this happens. usually the "normal frequency is at 0.75GHz going higher on movies etc.
and after this happened today it looks like this :



I'll post a link here with a video i've recorded with my phone.

One thing that bummers me even more, is that the "artifacts" or whatever you want to call them only happen on some apps, that i've noticed only on whatsapp and discord. i have no idea why.

If somebody had the same issues before please tell me what can i do.
EDIT:
And i forgot to mension almost at the same time as all of this changes i installed high sierra so this could be one cause of the problem as well


Thanks a lot,
Lino

 

[DarkSel]

Sounds like your GPU is failing.

I would sell your current MBP while it still works and put the money towards a MBP without a dedicated GPU.

 

[honlino]

Sounds like your GPU is failing.

I would sell your current MBP while it still works and put the money towards a MBP without a dedicated GPU.

But i need a dedicated gpu to drive 3 external screens since with my work it's amazing to have this screens.

what makes this a lot more weird is that it only happens with this 2 apps, discord and whatsapp.

 

[cmv010101]

Good evening.

There is an important issue that everyone should understand. The notebooks are not designed to work under such heavy loads. They are portable machines with an average performance. Of course, it is very interesting to have a single machine which can run every task we throw at it at home, in the office or on the road. Obviously, it is not possible.

If you need 3 external displays, you should buy a MacPro or, eventually, a Windows box if you can not afford a Mac Pro. I understand it is nice to work on a Mac. But one must be aware of the performance of notebooks.

Let us assume that one must build a house. Will you use trucks to deliver the materials? You can do it with a family sedan but obviously it will take longer and the engine will overhear and eventually fail.

As a conclusion, always buy the right tool for the job.

I wish you a very peasent evening.

PS: By the way, I run a late 2103 15" MacBookPro with a not failing discrete gpu.

 

[honlino]

I have run this machine for years always with intense use, and over a year with 3 external monitors, it doesn't heat as much with the screens compared to extensive video processing which is why a lot of people buy this kind of machines. Never had any problem with it, i'm a huge fan of this beast. But c'mon it is not supposed to breakout like this lol this is a 3k$ machine with less than 4 years previous versions of macs had huge gpu issues, and i've searched only and there are some appearing with our version as well. i would be glad if apple opened another program to fix this kind of issues

 

[honlino]

Well for what i've found online a LOT of people are complaining about the poor performance of this kind of machines with dGPU on high sierra and external monitors, with only the main monitor everything runs smoothly, with externals i have to reboot my machine every 2 days or it becomes unusable, so i guess it is a software related issue and i'm going to downgrade to sierra next week. I hope this is helpful to someone having the same issues.

Cheers

 

[honlino]

Okay, so after some digging and researching i found out that this was a really common issue after high sierra for people with external monitors, some of those people on macbook airs couldn't even use 1 single external monitors, or the computer got really slow..

I've reinstalled high sierra and after a couple of hours/days the problems started to appear again. so i decided to downgrade to sierra... It was a bummer that apple removed it from app store, and i had to dig some way to find the installer but i found it!! and you guys want to know the best part? no more gpu issue, no more lagging with 3 monitors, no more problems!!

It was all high sierra faults, my computer now runs smoothly as new again, probably won't ever update again to high sierra until i have confirmation that all the issues are gone..

I hope that this can help other people that have similar problems to mine high sierra + external monitors = unusable computer

Cheers