Users Find Some New MacBook Pros Suffer From Major Graphics Issues

[tomacpace]

So this only happens in Chrome? If so, why not change to another browser?

Hey again... So it's still happening today, maybe 8 times now. I was last using MacRumours and saw your message and replied using Chrome, but it was getting annoying so quit Chrome. About 20 minutes later, it crashed again.

So to answer your question more immediately and directly, no it does not crash only when using Chrome. But Chrome triggers it a lot, and I might blame it on chrome because I use it all the time, but it also presents the not-always-crashing

... CRAAASSSHHHH....

screen corruption.
So I was fresh from a crash an "instant-log-out" prior to reset crash before beginning this message... Honestly I don't know what to call it... a hang? that doesn't force a reboot, but all apps are instantly killed and I'm brought to the log-in screen.

And I got to the point "not-always-crashing" and the machine reset again. No chrome.

 

[tomacpace]

Here's another update:

I quit Chrome but maintained use of Safari, crashes were still occurring repeatedly.

Then I realized I've been using Safari all the time in the last several days, so possibly it was the trigger of the last 24-48 hours of crashing.

I quit Safari and re-launched Chrome. An app I'm using (NetBeans) is showing strange visual distortion for a split second every few minutes. That's new in the last few hours.

Revisiting the console logs a few minutes ago, immediately after one of the visual distortions, I see more, and a very immediately past "End Hang Analysis" and "Trying to restart GPU (Intel Iris)..." So I opened a crash report. It had some interesting info, and nice formatting and headings, so I google-searched "Intel GPU Hang Summary" and found:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/2013-mba-freezes-frequently.1970690/

This has lead me to thinking "the GPU is dying". And finally, thinking about my work in the last 12 months, serious WebGL games development, and the fact that more often, simple HTML5 games and lower-resource apps are causing the fan in the laptop to turn on, I have finally come to think the heat inside the machine may be too high, and the thermal paste may have dissipated, and need to be reapplied. So I have found this:

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/How+to...Inch+Retina+Display+Mid+2012+CPU+and+GPU/9587

Not my exact machine but worth checking out. I'll post again if/when I do this.

 

[Martyimac]

Wow, good lucking getting all that stuff fixed.

 

[G-News]

Apple is terrible with thermals. Apart from undersizing the cooling equipment most of the time for slimmer and smaller enclosures, they also use the cheapest thermal paste and just apply it like toothpaste. A giant gob of stuff on the die, then pressed out by the heatsink. You can in many cases lower your cou/gpu temperature by several degrees celsius just by removing the toothpaste and carefully applying a thin layer of arctic silver.

 

[nyco]

Hi

I received my macbook pro 15 in mid-April. Following specs:

• 2.6GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7
• 16GB 2133MHz LPDDR3 SDRAM
• Radeon Pro 450 with 2GB VRAM

No issues for a couple of weeks while I was doing light stuff (small edits in lightroom, short clips in FCPX). Then (unfortunaly after the 14-day return window was over) I installed davinci resolve, which I knew is very heavy. I started to have sysyem crashes every single time I was exporting a project. Macbook was becoming hot (I can expect that), vents running high (fine with that)....but then display started to flicker and system crashed. Did some tests, crashed whenever I was exporting from Resolve and one day it rebooted with thick vertical lines on my display. Rebooted is actually wrong because the system remained stucked after prompting for password.

Went to an apple store and was told it was GPU failure. I was told they would order new logic board and that it would take 3 to 5 business days. Today (3rd day), I called for an update and was told the mac was sent to service center for further tests. Nice, so it was not the GPU? It has other issues? Who knows... Not bad for a month-old machine....

To be continued...
Cheers

 

[MacBorn]

I seem to have started having GPU issues (tearing) with my Radeon Pro 460 since upgrading to Catalina. Never had issues before.

 

[Baymowe335]

The news just gets worse and worse.

There is something very wrong inside Apple.

This aged poorly.

 

[Vjosullivan]

should have used the Geforce 1080 GTX

If you like your laptops 2" thick and 11 lbs weight.

And come with a working screen. 😂
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People shelling out 3-4k on day 1 considering the fruit's QA current state, can't blame Apple for the trolling addiction, enjoy.

No matter what Apple delivers, people will defend it.
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It clearly seems Adobe needs to fix a bad bug and support the new GPUs.

Some remarkable analysis going on, on this thread. 😂
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I have yet to hear of any issues...

Rather difficult to believe if you're posting to page 23 in a thread titled "...Major Graphic Issues..."

 

[Vjosullivan]

Apple was pressured to release a brand new MBP a year ago so they rushed to get this one out. No time to test it. We are to blame for pushing Apple to ship a new MBP so quick since the last launch.

I'm going to stop reading now. I'm laughing too much. 🤣

 

[panjandrum]

I seem to have started having GPU issues (tearing) with my Radeon Pro 460 since upgrading to Catalina. Never had issues before.

These types of video artifacts are a sign that the GPU is already cooked and will sooner or later (probably sooner) fail completely. It's also possible (if you are lucky) that something is pinning the GPU very close to 100% for extended periods of time. Without adequate cooling that will cause perfectly good GPUs to product artifacts (and either slowly or quickly damages them in the process of course - depending on how much they are overheated and for how long).

A couple things you can do to try and figure out what's going on. First I would definitely create a new test user and login to that account and see if the problem goes away. You could also try cooling the entire system considerably, using a house-fan to blow cool air over it and see if it takes longer for the problem to occur. Keeping the entire system cooler, even in a laptop like this, can be a useful tool in determining if the problem is that the GPU has historically been overheated and is now failing, or if the problem is that the GPU is still good but is now being driven up into temperatures that are causing it to malfunction and WILL permanently damage it if you don't resolve the underlying issue ASAP.

Ultimately, if you have to downgrade from Catalina to resolve the problem I would do so at your soonest opportunity rather than risk damaging your GPU.