New windows open blank or garbled across multiple applications after M2 Max is under sustained GPU load for some period of time
Hardware and software configuration:
Tested on M2 Max 64GB and M2 Ultra 64GB both running macOS 14.2.1
Tested on M2 Max 64GB running macOS 13.x
Displays: three Studio Displays and one 4K Viewsonic VP3256-4K display, all connected using Thunderbolt.
The four displays are configured as one big continuous desktop (very cool macOS feature).
I use multiple desktops and move between them using 3-finger left/right swipe on Magic Trackpad.
Problem description:
Applications open blank windows or windows that are graphically incorrect. The windows still "work" in the sense that if you click where the close button is supposed to be, the window will close, but the windows are unusable.
This error state only happens after the system has been under sustained GPU load for some period of time. Reducing the GPU load fixes the problem without the need to restart anything. This error state happens just as quickly on M2 Ultra as on M2 Max, suggesting the issue is not GPU capacity.
Example 1: Content area of all Safari tabs is solid black
Example 2: Activity Monitor "GPU Processes" window is mostly blank. It displays some text but is missing the bars showing the activity. Background is the wrong color. Main window of Activity Monitor is missing the column headers.
Example 3: Opening my Apple Business QR code using Preview. The content area of the window solid gray.
Example 4: Firefox window opens all white with a thick black stripe across the top and no text input box.
Example 5: Opening an audio file in Audacity displays Audacity's main window missing the waveform and tape transport buttons.
Example 6: Trader Workstation displays five empty candlestick chart windows, an empty BookTrader window, and garbled fonts in both the main TWS window and the news feed. Any new window that I open in any of the three TWS instances (running on different desktops) opens solid gray.
I have already tried booting into Safe Mode and running Disk Repair. This issue has persisted across two macOS upgrades and numerous macOS updates. Rebooting solves the problem until the system experiences sustained GPU load for a while. Then the problem recurs. Once my Mac Studio gets into this error state, it affects most applications. The only way to fix it is to reduce GPU load by quitting some of the applications. Then the remaining applications start behaving normally again.
These symptoms suggest some kind of subtle GPU resource management defect that only surfaces under heavy sustained GPU load.
This other thread, which has a lot of "Me Too" votes, may or may not be the same underlying bug:
Black windows in Safari and Mail in Ventu… - Apple Community
Mac Studio (2023)