Unobody 17" Macbook Pro 9600M broken gfx card?

I'm still sitting tight on purchasing. Being in the waking advent of all this new technology, specifically Snow Leopard, and Intel's Nehalem processors on laptops, has kind of put me in a bind on whether to buy a machine now or postpone till this summer or the end of the year once Apple has worked out the kinks on these first generation CPU's. Still though, I can't wait to get my mitts on this system.

Regards,

Thanks so much for posting all your findings guys. Much appreciated..

Nothing wrong with waiting, but this has been the absolute most solid Apple laptop I've had. I LOVE this thing. It just flies and NEVER has any issue. I didn't even have the graphics issue.

Plus, other than this graphics issue which from all accounts I've heard of is now fixed, I don't think there are any bugs at all in the new ones. They should be as reliable or more than your existing ones, I say buy! 🙂

Heck after being involved with this thread I ordered a 24" iMac knowing it has basically identical guts to my MBP 17" and my previous 13" MacBook. I have owned Macs for 10 years and these are by far the best I've had.

EDIT: That being said, a Core i7 laptop WOULD rock. So I don't blame you for waiting. 🙂 Just wanted to express my thoughts that if bugs are your only issue and not future products, then I wouldn't worry.

Close...but there are still bugs.

This may have fixed this issue, but I still have the blinking screen issue, the flickering on low battery issue, the external monitor flickering issue, the hiss/pop sound issue.

So it's far from bug free. If this is in fact fixed then that's great, only a few more things to fix then it might be great.

What kind of work do you do on it. I read on one post that it handles Final Cut Pro extremely well. How about 3D animation, do you use Blender, or Maya, etc. The only other thing stopping me is the fact that I configured the system with 8GB of memory and a solid state hard drive, which i was told would decrease in price in another 6 months. That's all.. Thanks much for the feedback though. Just would love to know what you use it for!!

Regards,

As a web/graphic designer (and general computer user) I use Adobe (PS, AI, Flash, etc.) quite heavily.

I play games in Bootcamp, edit audio, and various other things. I usually use 3DS Max, but I haven't installed my copy yet.

It actually runs pretty much everything well, it's mostly the graphics issues I'm having problems with. Seeing as I need the screen to be working when I'm doing graphic based work it ***** when its flickering and whatnot.

If you can deal with those minor problems then it's a pretty fair machine. (if you factor in the price...well...that's a different story...)

nadrojjordan wrote:
In reply to:

+DCIFRTHS: Unfortunately, poorly implemented hardware can be "fixed" with firmware/software updates.+

If a firmware update completely fixes this, and it was just a bug, you think their hardware is poorly implemented? On what every trade mag has called the best laptop ever? With all due respect, that's kind of arrogant .. 🙂

I bet the hardware is fine.

Now when Dell and HP "fixed" their problems by increasing fan speeds to run at a constant 5000 RPM, I would agree with you there. But that does not appear to be the case here.

Message was edited by: nadrojjordan

My point was, and still is, that: "... poorly implemented hardware can be "fixed" with firmware/software updates." Putting aside any personal feelings about a specific product, do you disagree with my statement?

As far as magazine, or online reviews are concerned, they are often just opinions. Nothing more. Nothing less. Sometimes they are even advertisements masquerading as "reviews". Your own real life, hands on, experiences should tell you what is "the best" product.

freesparks wrote:
You're probably right, the hardware is most likely fine. However, no one really knows what this firmware did , whether it disabled something, it obviously didn't increase the speed of the fans. All I'm trying to say is you should never disregard the likelihood that Apple messed up.... We all do! It's just you should never lay claims that something is a "flagship" machine unless it performs like one, especially at the price. And, what I am most grateful for is the fact that we have intelligent discourse on these forums that enable us to have constructive, critical, and most certainly judgmental critiques. That's what creates progress and helps others.

Regards,

Agreed.

Has anyone had any luck with the update? For those of you experiencing the screen distortion problems, did it fix it? Anybody get a chance to do a Cinebench before and after test? I'm very close to buying, but want to wait and see what happens with this issue.

Thanks

I just got my notebook. It was a custom job with, the fastest chip, and a 7200 RPM HD and 8 Gigs of RAM. Played Warcraft and Civ4 with no issues. Also watch several videos. And compiled a huge app. Actually. the notebook got the hottest during the compiling.

The only problem I see is the "automatic screen adjustment" is too sensitive. But that is a matter of taste and is easily controled.

So has anybody had a chance to put the new firmware through a thorough test? ie to verify this has def solved the problem......

Not being pessimistic, but I'm still surprised to see that its fixed completely for 100s of users.... almost expecting someone to say... "wait, its not quite fixed it.... if you do xyz"! I'll be amazed if they fixed it completely....

Test results would be great!... given ppl are spending £2k on these beautiful machines, we ought to be sure :o)

I haven't had any problems yet. Still testing .....................

I had only the vertical lines artefacts - especially in blue areas - when I was rendering with maxwell in the background for some time. In other respects the display seemed to be fine to me.
After the firmware update, the vertical lines seem to be gone forever. I am not sure, but may be display is somehow a little bit "softer"/less sharp? But I am not sure.

I have a question that want to ask you. Do you know what this issue is ??? http://www.flickr.com/photos/36803478@N02/3391042473/

Thanks !!!

finally got my mbp 17" 2 days ago,[ i had ordered on the 29th of JAN! ]

have raped it with nuke, shake and maya for 2 days, no issues at all., the idle temps average around 57degs C, the fans jump between 2k and 3k rpm as soon as the temp hits 60deg C...nuke does crash during certain operations

* Nuke may trigger an _OS X bug that causes a kernel failure. This is due to a bug in OS*_

_*X 10.5 to do with stereo OpenGL support_. The bug has been regis-*
*tered with Apple as bug number 5897735*

but otherwise running fine and not very hot...getting a battery life of approx 5hrs+

Message was edited by: satrycon

Any other reports? I'm really interested in seeing a before\after Cinebench score to see if they did indeed underclock the chip... and any other results as well!

Thanks.