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Users Find Some New MacBook Pros Suffer From Major Graphics Issues
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I understand what you are saying. My take on it is that if it's a driver issue, that is Apples problem for not making sure it works with the system as shipped. I would be willing to bet that folks reinstalled their programs on their new MBP's and the problems started. That's an Apple issue in my book.
THIS. Apple should use this as a test for their thermal system. I've killed every single 15 MBP with dedicated GPU so far through heat: 2007 model, replaced mainboard on Apple care. First symptoms showed only days after getting the machine and giving it some heavy Quake 4 use (in OSX).
2010 model died on me from overheated/desoldered GPU in 2013, after extensive sessions of 3D games in bootcamp. Replaced mainboard on own bill and it died again within a year, same thing. Currently getting first kernel panics on my 2014 model after longer periods of heavy graphics use or when switching back to iGPU after taxing the dGPU. Surely a sign of another incoming failure.
These MBPs may be beautiful, but they're woefully thermally inadequate.
Don't play games as a pro, you say: just recently spoke to a cutter/film maker who has to do a lot of on site production and he says he's fried every single MBP within two years max., too. This is not a coincidence, it's a pattern. The pattern of computer anorexia.
What's sad is that this was posted before the next article about the battery problem where it got even worse. I mean honestly, Apple! I'm seriously hesitating about upgrading to another Mac for the first time ever. How badly do they have to screw things up before the other half of the forums wake up? The main problem is that we don't want to use Windows. I think it's time for a big revival in the hackintosh community, although I haven't been involved in that for a long time so for all I know it's like a renaissance out there right now. I used to build computers back in the day, so if I'm going to have to futz around with an unstable system anyway, I might as well get a much more powerful one for less money. And I've argued previously that it's worth the price to pay for the quality system I don't have to upkeep. Not sure if that's true anymore.
I had this issue - sent my new fully-loaded 15" macbook pro back right away for a full refund. For the same price I then bought the previous model of 15' macbook pro (Mid 2015) and a 38" ultrawide LG monitor. Couldn't be happier!
Again, I don't think the "having issues that are immediately noticeable" is anything new.
The 2003 PowerBook update caused MacWorld to write a WARNING about Apple's quality in their review.
A lot of 2006 MacBook Pros had processors that gave off an audible whine and ran unreasonably hot.
A lot of 2006 MacBooks randomly shutdown (without warning) when a bad component inside got hot.
Many of the first MBPs to get LED backlighting had screen sections that were tinted yellow.
Same thing with iMac screens in 2010.
First gen iPod nano's immediately scratched so easily that Apple settled a class-action lawsuit on that issue.
iPhone 4 antenna issues.
Those were all immediately noticeable issues.
Those are all with items coming out of China.
And the CEO of Apple during the launch of those products wasn't the current CEO.
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Any kind of speaker can be blown if you send the wrong signal to it. Those who play with amps or sound equipment will know.
GPU's can fail (like anything in the material world) and in the past and Apple have fixed. I know someone with a 2011 iMac that after many years of serious pro-use and heavy rendering, the GPU gave up and it was covered under a replacement program in place some four years later no questions asked, as there was a know issue with the install of the GPU at point of manufacture.
However in cynical jest, maybe now we know why these machines are pricey. The last thing to be installed or decided upon is the price. Maybe a decision was made that X percentage estimated higher of recall was likely to occur so Apple baked some of that cost int the resell price. I do see an expectation that the price will eventually come down based on historical trends of new line releases.
I do agree that mature models of this range will probably be solid come next revision. Maybe sooner rather than later. I also can help thinking there might be some serious industrial espionage going on, We have two major global electronics brands Samsung and Apple... thinking not to hard now, but who benefits from their very global and public failures?
GPU's can fail (like anything in the material world) and in the past and Apple have fixed. I know someone with a 2011 iMac that after many years of serious pro-use and heavy rendering, the GPU gave up and it was covered under a replacement program in place some four years later no questions asked, as there was a know issue with the install of the GPU at point of manufacture.
However in cynical jest, maybe now we know why these machines are pricey. The last thing to be installed or decided upon is the price. Maybe a decision was made that X percentage estimated higher of recall was likely to occur so Apple baked some of that cost int the resell price. I do see an expectation that the price will eventually come down based on historical trends of new line releases.
I do agree that mature models of this range will probably be solid come next revision. Maybe sooner rather than later. I also can help thinking there might be some serious industrial espionage going on, We have two major global electronics brands Samsung and Apple... thinking not to hard now, but who benefits from their very global and public failures?
Yet again this is why I don't buy Rev A Apple products, or I at least wait 6 months until they squish their bugs.
Okay. You like Tim, that's fine. What has Tim Cook given Apple that is better than Jobs? Why is Tim Cook worth keeping around?
I dropped into a big box electronic retailer not so long ago to get a look at all these great Win/PC alternatives people keep talking about on this forum.... Now even though they have up'd their game in terms of design and I was utterly underwhelmed by the various big name brands. WIN10 touch does not jump out at me in the right way and maybe I"m so familiar with MAC OS] that it's beyond intuitive, but I also use a Win 7 machine for work (and I don't mind that it;s very nice) but when I came across the touch enabled WIN 10 machines I had a very stunted sensation.
Perhaps that is a lack of hands on but it is true to say the touch experience is bolted on. The only advantage M$ has is its numbers market share gained from the 90's onwards. People don't really have a choice in many instances when it comes to work but when it comes to personal they often go with Apple products.
The eye or first look fit and finish impression was still inferior in comparison to the Apple machines and the hands on fit and finish also less, the machine still feel flexible i.e. not knitting together very well. Plastic made too look goo is nothing like metal made to look great. Pick up a mac it feels ostensibly solid. You don't know it until you've handled various Apple products.
An apple fit and finish surface book would blow the iPad away but the other manufactures can only make it look maybe better but still not feel better IMHO... but that's missing the point if you understand me.
WIN10 is incapable of producing a iPad because it's not iOS based and because of iOS the touch expense on a iPad or iDevice is far superior.
I actually purchased a WIN tablet machine back around 2008... yea, remember those?
Every new thing I hear about this model is bad news, other than the demonstrations of how the touch-bar works in different applications. (I have no argument that the touch bar is an innovative new feature.)
But a recent YouTube video testing one of these in the top-spec configuration, playing different video games, showed absolutely abysmal frame rates in most of them. Some of this *could* just be a matter of improving the video drivers for these newer chipsets. But for $4,000+ -- it was horrendously bad.
Revision A issues plagued plenty of Apple products over the years, but IMO, this just goes beyond those bumps in the road. (And I say that as someone who pre-ordered one of the first aluminum case Macbook Pros only to receive one that was dead on arrival -- followed by waiting weeks for its replacement!)
Between all the downsides we're supposed to just accept with this machine (lack of standard USB 3.0 ports, loss of Mag-Safe charging adapter, SSD soldered in), the all time high pricing, and now GPU failures and blown speakers in Boot Camp? This is shaping up to be a total dud.
Definitely not buying one this time around, and I've been a "power user" who always resells my gear and upgrades it to keep on top of the latest offerings.
But a recent YouTube video testing one of these in the top-spec configuration, playing different video games, showed absolutely abysmal frame rates in most of them. Some of this *could* just be a matter of improving the video drivers for these newer chipsets. But for $4,000+ -- it was horrendously bad.
Revision A issues plagued plenty of Apple products over the years, but IMO, this just goes beyond those bumps in the road. (And I say that as someone who pre-ordered one of the first aluminum case Macbook Pros only to receive one that was dead on arrival -- followed by waiting weeks for its replacement!)
Between all the downsides we're supposed to just accept with this machine (lack of standard USB 3.0 ports, loss of Mag-Safe charging adapter, SSD soldered in), the all time high pricing, and now GPU failures and blown speakers in Boot Camp? This is shaping up to be a total dud.
Definitely not buying one this time around, and I've been a "power user" who always resells my gear and upgrades it to keep on top of the latest offerings.
I kind of think that Steve chose Timmy Cook because Steve knew that Timmy would make him look even better in hindsight... Steve must have known that Timmy was simply Sculley v2.0.
Hmmm... I wonder if the CPU's Apple's using are actually Iris Pro dies - without the eDRAM of course, and configured to disable 2/3 of the GPU so as to appear like an HD 530? The silicon die is mounted upside down on a carrier, so nobody will see that the GPU portion has far too many execution units.
Complete fiasco is a bit of a stretch. I have the XPS 15 9550. There is some truth to what people are saying, but other than the intermittent flicker on the 4k screen (which again, happens intermittently, and only when on less-than-full brightness... annoying, but not fatal) the machine has been rock solid.
The real problem with the machine is that on launch, it was seriously unreliable. Like routine-BSOD-unreliable when you had the NVMe SSD option. If Apple released anything that faulty at launch, you'd probably have seen a reaction similar to what we're seeing to the new MBP.
Dell has since issued a huge number of BIOS revisions for the XPS15 over the past year which have largely addressed the reliability issue (flicker is still there, which is annoying). But mine has had no crashes or freezes since I installed Win10 on it months ago.
I probably wouldn't recommend a brand new one to the average consumer, but it is actually a screaming deal for those willing to get their hands dirty. I bought a refurb 4k/i7 model off ebay for about $1k, ripped out the low RAM and small HD and replaced them with 32GB/1TB SSD. The whole procedure took about 15 minutes. The result is a machine that is vastly more powerful than any MBP, at any price.
At the same rate and with the current integration your new laptop will last you one third as long before you need to replace the entire assembly in order to achieve a component upgrade.
****, you're right, see attachment. I knew it was one of the "bad batch" ones though, as the Apple guy mentioned it when I brought it in to be fixed under AppleCare.
I happened to have bought the 2011 AMD MBP as well, I sure know how to pick them!
Good to know about the repair program, I have until March 2017 apparently, hope I now have a good one!
Is your macbook usuable? Can you work properly on it if the integrated gpu is enabled?