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'Radeongate' 2011 MacBook Pro GPU failure - Which models are affected?

Hustler1337

Hustler1337

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Dec 23, 2010
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1,612
London, UK
Hi guys,

I was just wondering which specific models of the 2011 Macbook Pro is considered to be suffering from the GPU failures.

Does it affect both the
  • Early 2011
  • Late 2011
models of the 15" and 17" models?


And also does it affect the models with the

  • AMD Radeon HD 6490M and/or
  • AMD Radeon HD 6750M (512MB/1GB) and/or
  • the AMD Radeon HD 6770M (1GB)

I currently have the Early 2011 15" with the AMD Radeon HD 6490M.

Thanks! ;)
 
Hustler1337 said:
Hi guys,

I was just wondering which specific models of the 2011 Macbook Pro is considered to be suffering from the GPU failures.

Does it affect both the
  • Early 2011
  • Late 2011
models of the 15" and 17" models?


And also does it affect the models with the

  • AMD Radeon HD 6490M and/or
  • AMD Radeon HD 6750M (512MB/1GB) and/or
  • the AMD Radeon HD 6770M (1GB)

I currently have the Early 2011 15" with the AMD Radeon HD 6490M.

Thanks! ;)
Click to expand...

I cannot speak for the late 2011 MBP, but I have the same model as you, and I had "radeongate" back in March.
 
awests said:
I cannot speak for the late 2011 MBP, but I have the same model as you, and I had "radeongate" back in March.
Click to expand...

Oh dear :( I was secretly hoping my model would be excluded :p

Out if interest, did you use the dedicated GPU a lot and did u allow it to run hot for prolonged periods?

Thanks
 
Hustler1337 said:
Oh dear :( I was secretly hoping my model would be excluded :p

Out if interest, did you use the dedicated GPU a lot and did u allow it to run hot for prolonged periods?

Thanks
Click to expand...

I just let the computer switch dynamically change between the two. I always watched the temperature and used fan control to keep it under control.
 
Good question. I know of four 15" machines that myself, friends and work have bought.

In an unscientific survey ... two have failed, the third keeps kernel panicking and will likely die very soon. The fourth is still OK. /Touches wood.
 
Hustler1337 said:
Hi guys,

I was just wondering which specific models of the 2011 Macbook Pro is considered to be suffering from the GPU failures.

Does it affect both the
  • Early 2011
  • Late 2011
models of the 15" and 17" models?


And also does it affect the models with the

  • AMD Radeon HD 6490M and/or
  • AMD Radeon HD 6750M (512MB/1GB) and/or
  • the AMD Radeon HD 6770M (1GB)

I currently have the Early 2011 15" with the AMD Radeon HD 6490M.

Thanks! ;)
Click to expand...

It affects both early/late-2011 models.

The 15" models have a higher failure rate than the 17" model, due to the smaller space for heat dissipation.
 
I have the 15'' Late 2011, and I use it hooked to an external display 80% of the time.

It would be interesting to know if it is only a problem of high temperature.

To lower the temperature, I have reapplied the thermal paste, lowering the temperature over the whole range of use by 4-5° celsius.

The trick that gave me a big difference in temperature was to drill some little holes on the bottom of the mac, in correspondence of the left fan.
It may not be the best of 'aesthetics (though, who cares, I do not spend my time to look under the computer), but it has completely changed in the positive behavior of my mac, which not only has an operating temperature of medium much colder than before, but (more importantly) can cool down with much greater ease.
I have only to finish the job with paint, but I've had no time for now.
Now I am working under 50 degrees in normal browsing, and rarely going over 80-85 degrees when doing hard tasks like Handbrake encoding or developing RAW files in Lightroom or Photoshop.
 

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My laptop died on me. Called AppleCare and booked a GeniusBar prior to the call. Told them what was going on, presented my case. After 4 hours of standing in the store on the phone with Customer Relations, the repair was waived. I had to put up a fight. It took a while, a lot of back and forth, but I don't think enough people are making it an issue.

If you spend $2000+ on a laptop, defend your standards by expecting it to run well for at least five years, especially when the failure is internal.
 
TSE said:
How big of a fraction are we talking when it comes to these issues effecting these laptops? 5%? 10%? 25%?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure whether anyone outside of Apple knows. I remember several years ago there was a problem with a particular model of iPod, and if you believed the threads on here then you'd think that every single unit of that model was affected. However, according to Apple, it affected fewer than 1% of the units made.

I've heard a lot of horror stories, but thankfully haven't had any signs of the issue on my launch-day Early 2011 yet.
 
Baseline early 2011 machine here and it's still chugging along just fine... Over the last few years the only kernel panics I've had have been caused by the drivers I use to get my Xbox 360 controller working properly with some programs.
 
Does anybody know what a safe temperature is for the GPU? I have an early 2011 17' and no issues yet. I'm plugged in a TB Display probably around 70% of the time.

I had video issues about two years ago but since not using my Speck Sleeve and / or upgrading the RAM and SSD the problems didn't occur anymore. Mind you I must mention that I was using a Citrix Client at that time to Remote Connect to windows boxes at my client sites.

Touch wood I guesss. Besides iStat is there any other programs to monitor heat? Perhaps one that keeps history and also maybe sound alarms at certain thresholds? Thanks! and lets hope Apple Solves this issue for all affected.
 
I had the 2011 17" MBP. I don't remember the exact specs but I'm pretty sure it had the lowest or the second to lowest specs. I had to get the logic board replaced at least twice and then they gave me a new machine, and had the logic board replaced in that one too (and then I sold it). It's a pro so I treated it as such. Photoshop, Lightroom, FCP 7, etc. Apparently the heat was too much for them and they all died eventually. I don't know if I was driving them too hard or what, but a $2000+ machine should work as expected.
 
webdevfreak said:
Does anybody know what a safe temperature is for the GPU? I have an early 2011 17' and no issues yet. I'm plugged in a TB Display probably around 70% of the time.

I had video issues about two years ago but since not using my Speck Sleeve and / or upgrading the RAM and SSD the problems didn't occur anymore. Mind you I must mention that I was using a Citrix Client at that time to Remote Connect to windows boxes at my client sites.

Touch wood I guesss. Besides iStat is there any other programs to monitor heat? Perhaps one that keeps history and also maybe sound alarms at certain thresholds? Thanks! and lets hope Apple Solves this issue for all affected.
Click to expand...

Safe temperatures should be below 60ºC when idling.
 
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