Graphic card freaks out with brand new MBP 2016

[SpecG]

I am also noticing some odd behavior on my mid tier 2016 with the AMD 455. It's not the same issue as the multicolored graphical glitches above, but using Safari things would freeze, disappear from screen, web pages would not load, items would arrange in weird layouts or just not load. General bugginess all around. I think it got worse when it got warm using google street view. I've also noticed that the four finger drag freezes quite often, along with general UI lag.

And another oddity - I've lost about 50% of my icons in the both the applications folder and the dock, replaced with the default paper, pencil and ruler icon. Very strange. Happened just after I had all the strange behavior noted above. I don't have any Adobe applications installed.

I'm planning to replace this machine anyway as the screen has very bad white point variation - cool blue on the left side, white in the middle and blue again on the left. I plan to take the opportunity to reluctantly upgrade to a 460 as I need a Mac for software development but I'm close to considering the non-touchbar as that doesn't appear to be plagued with all these issues. The 15 inch does feel like an alpha release to me.

 

[scoopz]

UPDATE: The latest Sierra 10.12.2 Beta (16C60b) still has the same issue, in fact it's even worse for me.

I installed the Sierra Beta, rebooted, installed Adobe CC and Lightroom CC, rebooted. Exceptionally bad graphics glitch as per my previous videos but even more dramatic.

Almost completely unusable display, much more vivid and crazy glitch that before. I tried killing some Adobe processes in Activity monitor with no joy, I tried switching GPUs and nothing. My iPhone battery died but I managed to film it on my Sony RX100M4 but (annoyingly) I don't have a USB-C adapter or card reader to hand so can't upload that video until tomorrow.

Eventually after messing around opening different apps, killing Airplay display, etc I got bored and tried the trick of going to the Color Profile tab in System Preferences and that instantly snapped it back to normal so another tick in the box for a borked color profile conflict bug?

EDIT: Managed to get some charge into my iPhone and the glitch reappeared randomly so here's some footage of the glitch in Sierra Beta, again around the 1m35s mark you'll see that it reverts to normal only when I click the Colour profile tab. Also, just a reminder that I had 3 days straight with no graphics issues until I installed Adobe CC.

 

[Jaekae]

Sounds like we definitely narrowed i down to color profiles but could be that color profiles trigger a hardware error too..

 

[duervo]

Remember ... correlation does not imply causation.

Just because touching color profiles triggers the symptom, does not mean the underlying cause is with the color profiles. Nor does it mean that everybody having this problem (graphics-related corruption, hangs, and KP's) is having it triggered with the involvement of color profiles.

 

[triumph71]

I received my 2.9Ghz 460 mbp early on and was one of the first few to report issues with the 460, and i'm still waiting for my replacement to arrive. It was originally slated for 27-31st of December, but I was able to convince the sales folks to upgrade me to next-day shipping, so it's now showing the 19 - 26.

Anyway, I can categorically say my graphics issues were not related to Adobe products. My issue happened multiple times while Apple Photos app was importing photos from iCloud. It even happened while I was on the phone to AppleCare. Each time, the machine completely locked up and was unresponsive and required a reboot. File Vault was disabled, and short of 1Password, Alfred, Sublime Text 3, Airmail2, nothing else was installed.

The fact that 'most' people don't have the issues seems to be a strong indicator that this is purely a hardware issue. If you are having problems, your best bet is to return the machine to Apple, and order a new one. The good news is the BTO order times are down to 2-3 weeks.

 

[Jaekae]

I received my 2.9Ghz 460 mbp early on and was one of the first few to report issues with the 460, and i'm still waiting for my replacement to arrive. It was originally slated for 27-31st of December, but I was able to convince the sales folks to upgrade me to next-day shipping, so it's now showing the 19 - 26.

Anyway, I can categorically say my graphics issues were not related to Adobe products. My issue happened multiple times while Apple Photos app was importing photos from iCloud. It even happened while I was on the phone to AppleCare. Each time, the machine completely locked up and was unresponsive and required a reboot. File Vault was disabled, and short of 1Password, Alfred, Sublime Text 3, Airmail2, nothing else was installed.

The fact that 'most' people don't have the issues seems to be a strong indicator that this is purely a hardware issue. If you are having problems, your best bet is to return the machine to Apple, and order a new one. The good news is the BTO order times are down to 2-3 weeks.

but i found a couple of forum reports of people getting similiar glitches in macos sierra on older retina macbooks also. Not just these new. Which is another point that it could be fixed by software/driver updates

 

[linguist]

but i found a couple of forum reports of people getting similiar glitches in macos sierra on older retina macbooks also. Not just these new. Which is another point that it could be fixed by software/driver updates

older 15" with dGPU model ? or all model in general ? (including 13")

 

[Jaekae]

older 15" with dGPU model ? or all model in general ? (including 13")

Seen a couple different forum threads and an article that had troubleshooting for sierra before the 2016 model release mentioned it also.
For example this is early 2015 model:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7770058

 

[linguist]

Thanks for the link Jaekae, from that discussion seemed like 13" 2015 model also affected but in his case only happen on wake from sleep.

 

[Jaekae]

Thanks for the link Jaekae, from that discussion seemed like 13" 2015 model also affected but in his case only happen on wake from sleep.

Yeah but when searching "graphic glitch macos sierra" on google i find plenty more graphic problems in different places than wakeup too, and many said their computers was ok before installing sierra

 

[JanInLA]

I received my 2.9Ghz 460 mbp early on and was one of the first few to report issues with the 460, and i'm still waiting for my replacement to arrive. It was originally slated for 27-31st of December, but I was able to convince the sales folks to upgrade me to next-day shipping, so it's now showing the 19 - 26.

Anyway, I can categorically say my graphics issues were not related to Adobe products. My issue happened multiple times while Apple Photos app was importing photos from iCloud. It even happened while I was on the phone to AppleCare. Each time, the machine completely locked up and was unresponsive and required a reboot. File Vault was disabled, and short of 1Password, Alfred, Sublime Text 3, Airmail2, nothing else was installed.

The fact that 'most' people don't have the issues seems to be a strong indicator that this is purely a hardware issue. If you are having problems, your best bet is to return the machine to Apple, and order a new one. The good news is the BTO order times are down to 2-3 weeks.

When I talked to the sales people they said they couldn't expedite my shipping because it's still processing. How did you make them do it? I need my computer urgently. I can't composite in FCPX, I need Adobe CC.

 

[sirix]

I haven't used Photos nor any Adobe software. Here are some of my errors...

 

[ManuCH]

I haven't used Photos nor any Adobe software. Here are some of my errors...

Try removing Parallels Desktop and see if it's any better.

 

[pier]

It's very difficult for these companies to stay in sync these days because updates are more frequent than ever before.

It's not really a matter of staying "in sync", rather it's Apple's policy of moving too fast and introducing breaking changes every year.

In this aspect Windows is a lot better. Most Windows software works back to Windows 7 or even XP. For example latest Photoshop version works even in Windows 7 released around Snow Leopard, but for macOS there's only support down to Yosemite.

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/system-requirements.html

 

[SoyCapitanSoyCapitan]

It's not really a matter of staying "in sync", rather it's Apple's policy of moving too fast and introducing breaking changes every year.

In this aspect Windows is a lot better. Most Windows software works back to Windows 7 or even XP. For example latest Photoshop version works even in Windows 7 released around Snow Leopard, but for macOS there's only support down to Yosemite.

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/system-requirements.html

Yes it's true that Apple changes their frameworks and driver models too often. But Adobe are updating very often now as well.

All these companies should fund a unified testing lab to make sure their hardware and software works well together. They should also end the public beta programs because there is too much hysteria every time there is a bug. The public in general don't understand the difference between a hardware failure or a software bug, or how colour profiles can't crash a computer, etc. That kind of misinformation and noise making is bad for development and bad for business. Betas should be for professionals who understand who to give intelligent feedback and really get involved in fine tuning.

I think Apple wanted to ship the MBP with 10.12.2 but they have had to keep working on it but still get new machines out before Xmas.

 

[john g.]

For what it's worth:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/2016-mbp-graphics-issues-response-from-craig-federighi.2020054/

 

[scoopz]

For what it's worth:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/2016-mbp-graphics-issues-response-from-craig-federighi.2020054/

The email sent by 'Craig' in that thread says they have resolved the issue with Beta 10.12.2 but as per my post #402 above I still have glitches all over the place when I tested last night with beta 10.12.2

 

[john g.]

The email sent by 'Craig' in that thread says they have resolved the issue with Beta 10.12.2 but as per my post #402 above I still have glitches all over the place when I tested last night with beta 10.12.2

Oops. Sorry, did not see your post.

 

[triumph71]

When I talked to the sales people they said they couldn't expedite my shipping because it's still processing. How did you make them do it? I need my computer urgently. I can't composite in FCPX, I need Adobe CC.

Nothing special. I just explained my situation with ordering minutes after store went online, and then how the wait was 4-5 weeks when I had to reorder due to graphical glitches. With the shipping now so much quicker, I guess the sales rep took pity on me

 

[pier]

Yes it's true that Apple changes their frameworks and driver models too often. But Adobe are updating very often now as well.

All these companies should fund a unified testing lab to make sure their hardware and software works well together. They should also end the public beta programs because there is too much hysteria every time there is a bug. The public in general don't understand the difference between a hardware failure or a software bug, or how colour profiles can't crash a computer, etc. That kind of misinformation and noise making is bad for development and bad for business. Betas should be for professionals who understand who to give intelligent feedback and really get involved in fine tuning.

I think Apple wanted to ship the MBP with 10.12.2 but they have had to keep working on it but still get new machines out before Xmas.

Apple releases beta versions months before releasing public versions precisely to let developers test their software.

The problem is that when you have a couple hundred engineers (or even thousands) working on a complex software product a couple of months is just not enough time. As an example Metal was released publicly like 2 years ago, and very few pro applications have implemented it.

Personally as a user I haven't seen any benefits of yearly releases. Quite the contrary.

 

[Jaekae]

Apple releases beta versions months before releasing public versions precisely to let developers test their software.

The problem is that when you have a couple hundred engineers (or even thousands) working on a complex software product a couple of months is just not enough time. As an example Metal was released publicly like 2 years ago, and very few pro applications have implemented it.

Personally as a user I haven't seen any benefits of yearly releases. Quite the contrary.

Yeah i think the yearly new OS versions is what cause the users to always have bugs. When they finally are close to fixing sierra, they will release new one and have to start over again. 2 year cycles would be better

 

[scoopz]

Looks like people are starting to notice similar graphical artefacts on older (2015) models.

Although this is at login screen only so may be related to FileVault.

Hey folks,

I've been having this issue with my macbook pro lately, and I've got no idea whats causing it, or if I'm able to fix it myself somehow.

Model: Macbook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015)
Processor: 2,9GHz Intel core i5
Graphics: Intel iris graphics 6100 1536MB
OS: macOS Sierra 10.12.1
Purchase date: Early September 2015.

Image 1:

 

[bretmartin]

I too have been having the occasional issue with the 460 GPU. Seems to only happen when I connect to an external 4K monitor. Sometimes it happens when I first connect the display (first video), other times it happens when a semi-graphics intensive screen saver comes on (second video). Additionally, when I disconnect from the external display I have some issues with mission control (see linked image).

I'm having this Mission Control thumbnail issue constantly (15" with 460 GPU), whether external display is connected or not and no matter which GPU is in use. That's my only graphics glitch so far, though.

 

[Kn!ghthawk]

So I will commend Apple support for being thorough & return phone calls & e-mails. I just got the second call back from one rep who is handling my issue with the graphics nonsense. He had been back and forth with the engineers & sent all of the logs collected over & nothing jumped out as being a hardware failure. They did confirm that there are issues with FileVault when it's used but that isn't applicable in my case. Just figure I would pass what tidbits along as I get them. Like others here I am in the middle of freeing up a drive for a time machine backup & then will try the latest beta and see what I get.

 

[mrkrad]

after watching 2 min video!

I am also noticing some odd behavior on my mid tier 2016 with the AMD 455. It's not the same issue as the multicolored graphical glitches above, but using Safari things would freeze, disappear from screen, web pages would not load, items would arrange in weird layouts or just not load. General bugginess all around. I think it got worse when it got warm using google street view. I've also noticed that the four finger drag freezes quite often, along with general UI lag.

And another oddity - I've lost about 50% of my icons in the both the applications folder and the dock, replaced with the default paper, pencil and ruler icon. Very strange. Happened just after I had all the strange behavior noted above. I don't have any Adobe applications installed.

I'm planning to replace this machine anyway as the screen has very bad white point variation - cool blue on the left side, white in the middle and blue again on the left. I plan to take the opportunity to reluctantly upgrade to a 460 as I need a Mac for software development but I'm close to considering the non-touchbar as that doesn't appear to be plagued with all these issues. The 15 inch does feel like an alpha release to me.

This happened to me on my 2015 MacBook Pro retina 13 ! I was forced to quite safari after watching a few videos! Said I was out of memory! Safari using 63gb of ram! Total system hang and I finally got activity monitor to open to force quit many paused apps that would not respond! Only after this latest beta!