OSX Lion, Graphic Artifacts

Hello!

I just noticed that GPU-Z is reading my card as ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5800 Series. But my card is a 5750. iMac 27" 2010 model.

Could it be that my drivers are wrong? Please help.

So I just had my graphics card finally replaced... expensive! I am now no longer going put the display to sleep... EVER.

Hi Andrew - you wrote:

"As I said, this is not a fix for the faint of heart. If you're not comfortable with tinkering with your hardware, don't do it. I've made Apple engineers aware of it and hope they'll release their own firmware update for affected cards."

Do you know if Apple has at last done anything in this direction?

Thanks for your industry.

Ron

Hi Ron,

As far as I'm aware, Apple hasn't done anything. There have been no firmware upgrades for affected cards. And as AA63 and Johann P reported above, you might still experience problems even if you alter your BIOS, especially if you're running Mountain Lion, which taxes graphics cards even more than Lion did. After upgrading to 10.8.2 I started seeing occasional artefacts again - nothing major, but they were there, and my machine had been running perfectly for months and months.

Given the variety of issues and cards involved, it seems to me that it's a combination of problems. On top of the faulty firmware, the main problem is that the system level graphics drivers (especially for ATI cards) are horrible - and they've been horrible for YEARS now. As AA63 pointed out, the combination of power saving modes and GPU hardware acceleration just doesn't work well on OS X, and once your card starts glitching there doesn't seem to be any way for the system to recover.

Interestingly enough, after the checkerboard artefacts started reappearing on my system I rebooted into Windows last week to see if my card's BIOS had been altered by an OS X update (it hadn't, as far as I could tell). While booted in Windows 7 the screen flashed once and I got a system message I'd never seen before: "Display driver failed but has recovered". Turns out Windows has what's called Timeout Detection and Recovery (TDR) of GPUs, which does a hardware reset of the GPU and purges all allocations from video memory.

And guess what? Since that Windows reset of the GPU, I've been 100% glitch-free in OS X again.

Clearly there is something wrong with the way OS X handles GPU issues. It may even be that, for these ATI cards at least, the video memory isn't properly purged - even between restarts.

But it shouldn't be up to a bunch of amateur sleuths on a message board to figure out what's going on. This is Apple's problem and they need to fix it. 10.8.3 is just around the corner and I'd like to hope it might help, but based on previous experience it's just as likely to make things worse…

I have to say, I thought I was going freaking nuts! Started noticing this about the time I upgraded the ram (from 4 to 16 GB) and the OS (from Lion to Mountain Lion). Took back RAM, exchanged it 3 times, tried various cables and then, finally, a different monitor.

At last it appeared to not happen again, all was good in my world.. but then, this morning, I saw a few artifacts. Not to noticeable mind you, but they were there. Talk about dispair 😟

Anyways, found this thread and it sorta confirms my train of thought; this all started (for me) when I upgrade to Mountain Lion (just so happened to be within days of installing new ram as well) AND it is a driver issue. Not a RAM issue, not an EXTERNAL monitor issue, not a cable issue or adaptor issue.

This is what I was seeing, don't see it right now, hope it's gone for good, but as I typed this, on the bottom of my screen the artifacts started showing up again... Locked the darn system up and I had to reboot!

Usually, if I just run the macbook pro independantly (at least until now) these issues don't arise.. I used to love my macbook, but no so much anymore..

AARRGGGHHH

Here are some examples

screen cap from external monitor

http://members.shaw.ca/funkright/images/MacbookFU/Voila_Capture16.jpg

iphone pic of macbook

http://members.shaw.ca/funkright/images/MacbookFU/MacBookPro_Pixel.JPG

And now it's fine again... Never had this issue before going to Mountain Lion or upgrading the RAM.. I'm now backing up via time machine all pertinent files that I can't afford to lose (mail, docs and photos)

I've waisted countless hours on this.. If it was a cheap windows machine I'd just throw it away and upgrade, but its a $2k+ macbook pro.. Maybe next time I will switch back, gotta sell this POS first.. Sorry, just flipping angry 😟

Wow... i didnt know the mbp also had this problem. Reinstalling and downgrading your OS won't work though

I looked @ Windows PC's tonight @ costco. For the prices I saw 🙂 I could afford to upgrade every 2 years and not worry about this stuff.. been a Mac user for 8 years now, this is making me look to jump back 😟

I want to get rid of my imac for a windows or hackintosh... but its hard to sell this at a good price...

I'm going to have to look @ this from an opportunity cost POV. If my time is worth $75 an hour and I spend more than 10 hours on this (which I now have), that pays for a windows PC/Laptop or helps me absorb the price it'll take for me to move this.

I don't want to give up on the Mac though, I guess we'll see 😕 Knock on wood, the macbook pro hasn't acted up in a while, since earlier today 🙂

Thanks for your response, Andrew. Guess I'll stay put for maybe quite some time!

Guys, to summarize for new comers, what this whole thread has learned so far is that:

1. It's NOT a hardware problem but a software problem due to crappy driver support by ATI and Apple.

2. Apple hasn't addressed this problem... or even recognized it yet.

3. The solution of adjusting the GPU clock and memory to a higher frequency will solve the problem... for how long depends on item number 4 below...

4. NEVER EVER put the display to sleep. Even after adjusting the GPU clock, the display going to sleep would bring back your artifact and lockup problems. Atleast... that's how it was for me.

5. Problems only occur after upgrading to Lion. Atleast for me.

6. As for models... mine's an iMac mid-2010 with ATI Radeon HD 5750. Not quite sure which other models are affected.

Well, Apple authorized tech now has my laptop and we will see where this goes?

Effectively, they may have a backend process that addresses this without admitting fault, e.g. Mac hardware comes in with this issue and it gets fixed under warranty. Depending on how many customers actually escalate or elevate this issue it may make better fiscal sense (to Apple only) to address it this way. It's cheaper to address individually then to address on mass, opening the company up to liability.

The tech definitely saw the issue, my luck it was acting up when I brought the macbook pro back from sleep and continued once the unit was reset.

Needless to say I won't let this sit and not be solved, went through a similar challenge with Apple a number of years ago regarding a MDD Powermac issue that had 'jet engine' fans running all the time, they solved it but that's all I can LEGALLY say about it, just search for 'powermac mdd fan noise'.. 😢

If it comes back with the same pixalating/display issues, it will go back until it's fixed or replaced. I won't accept any other option, well, other than you give me my money back (laptop and Applecare (and thank God I had that)) 🙂

Will update this thread as I work through it 😐

Well, I received my macbook pro back and all seems to be well (knock on wood). No more artifacting, after 2 days of moderate to heavy usage (lots of CPU & GPU taxing activities with photos, etc). Repair order said it was a faulty graphics card; part661-5850, G142613634 looks to be the part that was ordered. From the other notes it looks like they installed a new logic board (the entire setup not just GPU?). Search on logic board replacement and for the MBP 15" it appears to NOT be an isolated issue. Being assumptive here, but I do believe Apple is fully aware of the issues, but only resolving on those brought to their attention when covered by warranty. Limiting liability is what they're probably doing. I like Apple products, but they are, afterall, one massive company now. So, for now it all works well, still not sold on keeping this rig, will make that decision sooner than later.

What puzzles me with this problem is the following:

1. I did not have this problem prior to Lion.

2. I got this problem on BOTH my Macs after installing Lion. My Macs are Mini and MBP 13" both mid 2010.

FIrst I noticed this in Chrome browser only so I submitted a bug report to Google. Later I noticed that I actually got this problem in just about anything that updates graphics. It can be in just about any type of container that update and show graphics. It can be the whole window. It can be just a button. It can be all the simleys (and only smileys) In Skype. It can be the adress bar in Chrome. It can be a flicker that affect the whole screen.

One thing is certain. Wherever this bug appears, it goes away as soon as the object on the screen that fails is refreshed or updated.

When I am having this bug in an Open GL application it behaves differently. Instead of going away, it constantly flickers for the remainder of then applications lifetime, but goes away when I restart the application.

So if this was a heat problem, like when I am playing WoW, it should not be possible to clear this problem by restarting the application. If this was a hardware problem, it shouldn't just be a Lion problem and no problem in earlier OSes, it sholdn't affect BOTH my Macs when I upgraded to Lion. And if this IS a hardware problem, then base on all the people struggling, means it is a manufacture problem, which means that Apple should fix with no cost.

Personally I believe it is a faulty driver. I might be wrong, but after all it DID work on OS X prior to Lion. And now I see Mountain Lion users are joining in on the complaining too. 1.5 years and still no solution?? Sheesh, Apple...

Hi All,

Well here is my last post on my particular situation, what I learnt, what you can do about it.

After having every part of my iMac changed by Apple, they simply gave up. They changed the graphic card, power supply, motherboard, lcd panel, hard drive and of course the OS - problem still existed.

So what they did, and what I'm typing on, is to replace my machine with the brand new generation 27 thin iMac, custom ordered to match what I had (they are stunning btw). No cost, straight trade in.

I did not have to argue or even ask. The reason being is due to basic Consumer Protection laws. Beyond the manufacturers warranty, according to the law, there is a provision that says that items must be able to function as intended throughout a reasonable lifespan. It is that simple. Consumer protection laws are different state (or province) by state, so check yours.

I'm not sure we will ever know exactly what the defect combination was, but as far as I am concerned Apple did right by me - as they have always done since 1986 when I first became a customer.