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freelancing

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 30, 2007
113
33
I've had my 16" MBP M2 Max 96GB RAM / 8TB drive for about a month. Yes, I maxed the ever-lovin' crap out of it because it's my first new Mac since 2005. :p

The screen will occasionally and seemingly randomly flicker. It doesn't seem to do this consistently enough to tell what is causing it. I don't think I've ever had it while playing a game on Steam - although I don't do that very often, but Steam is very processor intensive and I have to keep it plugged in or my battery will be dead in an hour if I'm on Steam.

Sometimes it will do it in Photoshop, or even just browsing the web. It's completely unpredictable. I didn't know if this was a known issue w/ this model. The unit has never been dropped and I treat it like the crown jewels on a pillow. I have not used an external monitor (yet), but may hook it up to an old silver iMac someone gave me that's too old to do anything worth my time, but could serve as an external display.

When the screen flickers, it's just for a moment, and then it's gone. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Because it's so random, and may not happen for a few days, it's not like I can shoot a video of it. I asked AppleCare about it and they said it's hard to diagnose and it would be best if I could send them a video. :rolleyes:

I have the creative suite installed and regularly use Photoshop and Illustrator - but I'm seriously not overtaxing this loaded machine. I'm not doing more than what I do at work w/ a Windows 10 desktop with 32GB ram on an i5-9500 3GHz Intel and the computer is 2 years old.
 

Imac Sam

macrumors 6502
Oct 9, 2011
379
54
Harrisonburg, Virginia
First thing I would check if this was an issue for me. Is check the Battery Settings and the Automatic graphic switching option.
 

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freelancing

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 30, 2007
113
33
First thing I would check if this was an issue for me. Is check the Battery Settings and the Automatic graphic switching option.
Thank you. I'm at work - but will check this when I'm home. That would have never occurred to me.
 

iMacDragon

macrumors 68020
Oct 18, 2008
2,396
731
UK
First thing I would check if this was an issue for me. Is check the Battery Settings and the Automatic graphic switching option.
I don't believe this option exists or has any relevance to non intel, as they don't have any graphics to switch
 

Big Bad D

macrumors 6502a
Jan 3, 2007
528
563
France
I have almost the same spec M2 MBP and have not experienced any screen flicker. I don’t recall any such general issue being reported.
As the previous post well identified, the graphic switching option is not applicable to M1/M2 Macs so that’s not the cause.
It could be useful to try to borrow an external display to see if the problem is duplicated?
 
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freelancing

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 30, 2007
113
33
I have almost the same spec M2 MBP and have not experienced any screen flicker. I don’t recall any such general issue being reported.
As the previous post well identified, the graphic switching option is not applicable to M1/M2 Macs so that’s not the cause.
It could be useful to try to borrow an external display to see if the problem is duplicated?
I don't have access to an external display at present, but was planning on trying to use an old iMac as an external display. Would that present a problem? Again - it's intermittent and happens very quickly when it does happen.
 

iMacDragon

macrumors 68020
Oct 18, 2008
2,396
731
UK
I've not seen the whole screen flicker, but I have seen a few 3d applications flicker their own window areas.
 
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