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Strange GPU events

I am wondering if my GPU is going bad. I have never seen the screen anomalies in my 40 years of using Apple porducts. I have had GPUs go bad with streaks, etc. This computer is a top of the line 2013 15” MBP retina, 2.6GHz i7, 1TB HD… It has the VIDIA GeForce GT 750M 2 GB separate GPU and the internal Intel Iris Pro 1536 MB.


  1. Screen magnification jumped up and down, ending up large in Safari. Had to restart Safari to clear.
  2. In CAD, the view may jump from left to right isometric, or any other setting. Sometimes screen refresh seems to halt (not because of CAD) . Sometimes line width jumps up or down.
  3. Sometimes Safari will not open/show a page, such as the home page (an internal file). I get a blank screen, sometimes with a message “couldn’t find file”, or equiv. Has happened on Safari start up.
  4. Apple support (different problem) during screen share said he could see the splash screen of a different app fading away. One I had Quit just before. I couldn’t see it on my screen.


Is what I am seeing another way the GPU(s) can go bad?

Other than this, the machine works great, but I am afraid the end may be near.

Posted on May 29, 2020 6:47 AM

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Posted on May 30, 2020 1:39 PM

I may have found the answer. I went to Preferences and unclicked Energy Saver / Automatic graphics switching. This makes the computer use only the NVIDIA high-prerformance graphics card. so far, all the stragne behavior has stopped.


My guess is the built-in IRIS GPU is dying, causing all kinds of graphics problems and artifacts.


Time wil tell.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

May 30, 2020 1:39 PM in response to Cosman

I may have found the answer. I went to Preferences and unclicked Energy Saver / Automatic graphics switching. This makes the computer use only the NVIDIA high-prerformance graphics card. so far, all the stragne behavior has stopped.


My guess is the built-in IRIS GPU is dying, causing all kinds of graphics problems and artifacts.


Time wil tell.

Strange GPU events

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