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What do you think is the source of the graphics issues on Mac Pro (Late 2013) ?

  • Hardware

    Votes: 69 53.1%
  • Software

    Votes: 28 21.5%
  • Hardware & Software

    Votes: 32 24.6%
  • Other

    Votes: 1 0.8%

  • Total voters
    130

axantas

macrumors 65816
Jun 29, 2015
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That is interesting about Safari......on El Capitan my Mac Pro and 13" Retina froze with Safari open in moment when I close complicated tabs like YouTube, neverending Reddit etc...

I use USB mouse connected to one Thunderbolt Display and Logitech K811 BT keyboard.

Not directly related, but on the iPad/iPhone i encounter more and more freezing websites and finally a message at the top, saying "the tab has been reloded because there was a problem with the website" - all of them are "complicated" ones with a new annoying feature of some second layer publicity which displays as kind of background behind the text. (like a paper cut with holes...)
 

nitrocan

macrumors member
Jul 30, 2015
61
9
Ok, we can rule it (Safari) out as culprit :(

Anybody checked if Safari ever used both GPUs ?

I never use safari.

One thing that might be interesting for you people to know:

Since discovering this issue, I've been uninstalling and reinstalling different operating systems (mavericks, el Capitan, Yosemite) to see if they have this issue or not.

Once, I had done a clean install of Yosemite (wiped the disk and installed Yosemite) so there was absolutely nothing 3rd party on it. I had just finished setting up my username and password and the desktop appeared. Then I started erasing the items I wouldn't be using from the dock and bam, it crashed in less than 30 seconds after the OS was usable. All I was able to do before it crashed was get rid of maybe 2 items from the dock.

To me, that rules out any software related issue, although all of my USB peripherals and 4k monitor were still connected.
 

flyingfoxuk

macrumors regular
Jan 23, 2015
102
2
I never use safari.

One thing that might be interesting for you people to know:

Since discovering this issue, I've been uninstalling and reinstalling different operating systems (mavericks, el Capitan, Yosemite) to see if they have this issue or not.

Once, I had done a clean install of Yosemite (wiped the disk and installed Yosemite) so there was absolutely nothing 3rd party on it. I had just finished setting up my username and password and the desktop appeared. Then I started erasing the items I wouldn't be using from the dock and bam, it crashed in less than 30 seconds after the OS was usable. All I was able to do before it crashed was get rid of maybe 2 items from the dock.

To me, that rules out any software related issue, although all of my USB peripherals and 4k monitor were still connected.
I had similar behaviour with my previous machine - I did 6 full erase and installs one morning and found different ways to crash it - very bizarre
 

koyoot

macrumors 603
Jun 5, 2012
5,939
1,853
Also that possibly rules out the hardware problems in the computer also. The crashes are completely random.

What the hell is happening? Its like a "flip the coin" game. If tails - works. If fails - fails.
 
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flyingfoxuk

macrumors regular
Jan 23, 2015
102
2
Also that possibly rules out the hardware problems in the computer also. The crashes are completely random.

What the hell is happening? Its like a "flip the coin" game. If tails - works. If fails - fails.
Yep that's pretty much my experience
 

twomartoe

macrumors member
Mar 15, 2015
74
9
everyone try restarting your finder every hour or so. Force quit->finder->restart. If you are comfortable with automator, set it up automatically. Restarting finder will not interfere with any apps, not that i know of anyways. No crashes with finder restart so far
 

nitrocan

macrumors member
Jul 30, 2015
61
9
everyone try restarting your finder every hour or so. Force quit->finder->restart. If you are comfortable with automator, set it up automatically. Restarting finder will not interfere with any apps, not that i know of anyways. No crashes with finder restart so far

How long have you been testing this?
 

voyager77

macrumors member
Jun 25, 2012
82
29
Guys, does those symptoms come out if people use "normal" monitor, not 4K monitors? Because from what I see is that you all have 4K displays. May be this is the reason the UI crashes and restarts the GPU?

I'm using an Apple cinema display, old 20" version (two of them sometimes), and i have the problem regular to.
 

axantas

macrumors 65816
Jun 29, 2015
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everyone try restarting your finder every hour or so. Force quit->finder->restart. If you are comfortable with automator, set it up automatically. Restarting finder will not interfere with any apps, not that i know of anyways. No crashes with finder restart so far
Now THIS is something interesting we could try indeed.

Tried this after the "GUI runs incredibly slow" crash already happened a couple of weeks ago. In that partucular situation, restarting the Finder - took about 15 minutes to achieve it - it did not help. The Finder was restarting, but everything remained as slow as it was.
 

nitrocan

macrumors member
Jul 30, 2015
61
9
Is it possible to kill Finder using a terminal bash script? I used to do this with the purge command so it's likely that it's possible.
 

damezumari

macrumors member
Dec 6, 2014
56
10
'killall Finder' ; however, I think there are different types of bugs on nMPs, mine is rock solid unless I suspend it (nowadays I don't, and therefore it has week+ uptime already since last reboot requiring sw upgrade).
 
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axantas

macrumors 65816
Jun 29, 2015
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Code:
defaults write com.apple.finder QuitMenuItem -bool YES;killall Finder
in terminal should add an entry in the dropdown menu of the finder itself
 

nitrocan

macrumors member
Jul 30, 2015
61
9
Code:
defaults write com.apple.finder QuitMenuItem -bool YES;killall Finder
in terminal should add an entry in the dropdown menu of the finder itself

Doing this programatically would be a lot more convenient. Run this in terminal:

while true; do killall Finder; sleep 3600; done

and leave terminal running.
 
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poematik13

macrumors 65816
Jun 5, 2014
1,397
2,046
'killall Finder' ; however, I think there are different types of bugs on nMPs, mine is rock solid unless I suspend it (nowadays I don't, and therefore it has week+ uptime already since last reboot requiring sw upgrade).

Same here. It is fine when it's on, but as soon as I put it to sleep it crashes and won't wake up.
 

chama98

macrumors 6502
Feb 13, 2014
351
192
London
I have been having issues as well with my graphics cards. I have had to reinstall the os. I was running 10.10.4 and it was great. no issues! Then I installed 10.10.5 and that is what broke it I think. I checked my disk permissions and it corrected the GPUrestartreporter or something. I spoke to Apple in Ireland yesterday and the manager could not see anything in my console log to show that it could be software related. All my console reports have been passed to the engineers for them to look over and report back.

The guy at Apple said that there was an issue with iMessage that if it was minimised to the dock or running it would cause 'issues' what these issues are he would not say. So I am guessing if iMessage is open and has video, or photos then it could be causing a GPU restart. bug maybe? it is possible.

I would be interested to hear if anyone who else is having issues if you did an Apple hardware test and if that test came back to tell you that there where no problems reported. Mine has come back clear. So I know it is not a hardware fault. possible a driver fault or software.

The other thing I will add as well was that I was playing a game on windows 10 on my boot partition and was causing a lot of heat. The game is graphics hungry which is fine and runs very well on the mac pro. After I played the game I restarted my mac to boot back into os X then while I was away the screensaver came on as per normal and then froze. I had to resort to doing a hard restart. by pressing the power button. I looked in the console log and discovered the GPU had reset 3 times in 10 mins. So something is wrong.

The apps which where running at the time where:

iMessage (minimised to the dock.)
Apple Mail
Safari.

No video was playing at the time. I was in the process of starting to do some emails and work.

I think recently and now coming to a conclusion that the OS is still a big buggy. I think it needs further testing before general release.
 

AidenShaw

macrumors P6
Feb 8, 2003
18,667
4,677
The Peninsula
I think recently and now coming to a conclusion that the OS is still a big buggy. I think it needs further testing before general release.
I'm sure that you meant to type "bit" instead of "big", but the continuing stream of GPU problem reports on the MP6,1 makes your typo seem to have truthiness. ;)
 

twomartoe

macrumors member
Mar 15, 2015
74
9
No video was playing at the time. I was in the process of starting to do some emails and work.

I dont use screensavers, but i get crashes mostly with videos. I guess screensaver is in a way a fullscreen video. Try my proposed fix, restart finder as a prevention. If anyone experience a crash with restart finder, we might have to rule out that as a fix
 

chama98

macrumors 6502
Feb 13, 2014
351
192
London
I dont use screensavers, but i get crashes mostly with videos. I guess screensaver is in a way a fullscreen video. Try my proposed fix, restart finder as a prevention. If anyone experience a crash with restart finder, we might have to rule out that as a fix
Incidentally do you have iMessage or Safari open when it happens?
 

axantas

macrumors 65816
Jun 29, 2015
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exclude iMessage - i never use the app. It is however active in notifications as on every machine.
 
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