Graphical issues with 2011 iMac and Lion

I'm now convinced that it's a thermal issue with either the main motherboard or the graphics card. I have iStat Menu installed and it has the option to change the fan set point from default to medium. My fan is on longer now but the computer is always cool and the problem has completely disappeared. Whether this means there is a problem with the components not meeting thermal spec is another matter but at least the unit isnt buggering up on me every few days.

the last version: 10.7.2 finally solve the ssues....i try with call of duty 4 and nothing artifacts appearing.... good work apple!!

I have NOT seen a single occurence since 10.7.2 either.

Me neither~ 🙂 Hooray!

I have a 24inch iMac (Nvidia GT 120 256MB). I know it's not a 2011 but this might help...

SL since release - NO graphic issues. Not one on a machine that runs mostly 24/7

Lion - graphics issues, crashes, freezes 5 times a week. Crash, freeze, have to reboot.

I waited to install 10.7.2 fresh so it's a fine running system. I've noticed if i run apps in full screen, the system crashes quicker (presumiby overheating the graphics card)

Result? This is a Lion issue. Apple, fix this!

Sometimes crash reports are available - i've emailed them all to Apple. Roll on 10.7.3

Still have it sometimes with a 15 MBP running Lion 10.7.2 and a non thunderbold 27 cinema display. For me, going into the display settings and switching the color profile does the trick. Though it might help some of you.

I now have this issue on a regular basis with a 2009er 13 MBP running 10.7.2 – but only with external displays connected. Switching color profiles fixes it for me too, lots of thanks to Jerome for that tip!

I have a 27" iMac 3.4ghz i7 running 10.7.2 and I just experienced the problem w/ the artifacts. Scared the shizznits out of me. I used color munkey to calibrate my display, can that be a cause? Any news on a permanent fix for this?

I have been having these issues off and on and Apple seems very confused when I explain. I believe the following has fixed it for me permanently (fingers crossed) - go to your Display Preferences and reset your display profile. In my case I had 2 saved profiles with identical names, this may be unrelated, but I figured I would mention it in case it helps someone out. If you are unable to reset it - change to another default setting, close preference - then open Display Pref again and switch it back. Good Luck

The issue with external displays still persists. The only way to fix is rebooting the system but that is extremely annoying. Have a look at the screenshot and guess which part of firefox window is opened in external screen:

Even better illustration:

I'm having the same issues in a MBP 13" 7,1 running 10.7.2

Going to try the Display Profile fix. Hopefully that'll save me a trip to the Store.

Yet another random Mac user with this problem. It seems to me that this is getting worse over time. It started with a few minor discolourations of the menubar items—and only when they were clicked at that. As time has gone on, it has gotten worse an worse to the point where my Dock, Menu bar, window shadows, some windows—though seemingly not cocoa written apps— and the dashboard.

My working theory right now is that there is some rendering technology being used in recent versions of the Mac OS that is faulty.

Someone correct me if I am wrong, but it seems like the problems come from graphics intensive rendering. Here are the places where I see the glitches most:

Menubar (Transparency—albeit prerendered, as icons and windows under the menubar don't actually show through)

• Dock (Rendering a reflective mirror-like finish)
• Dashboard (Especially when not on it's own space, since it dims the background—a somewhat graphic process,
• Window Shadows (Shadows are another form of transparency. I know Apple has managed to keep the process pretty light, but disabling shadows via hackware does significantly speed up window rendering (Like resizing and animations when minimizing and opening) however, I don't know for sure how they are displayed in Lion. As I said, just a guess...)
• Safari (Safari uses a lot of rendering engines to display parts of pages—flash objects, video codecs, openGL related rending, etc.

My two cents, but I would REALY like Apple to fix this, so here are my thoughts.

Mac OS 10.7.2

MacBook 13" Aluminium Unibody, Late 2008

4GB Ram

500GB HD

2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo "Penryn"

Nvidia GeForce 9400M

Also Just out of curiosity, has everyone who is having this problem adjusted the display colour profile info at some point? I know I have, and if everyone here has, then maybe it is a bug with the colour profile bit of the OS

I am having the same issuses, in a way. My screen will flash weird stuff for a few seconds then go away. And it happens randomly. I have the latest version of Lion also.

Another issue I am having is not being able to use my web cam in certain applications. It works on Yahoo messenger but not if I am using my web cam through other web cam streaming sites.

Is the problem still fixed? That goes along with a thoery that I had a few posts back.... But it appears you had it first. 😉