Is Anyone Having MacBook Pro Retina Display Graphics Issues?

I had a very similar issue with my new mid 2011 iMac with the 2gb graphics upgrade. Every now and then the UI in Lion would artifact and chunk up like OP's screenshot. Also, the choppy scrolling that has also been mentioned in this thread was an issue at first. It all turned out to be driver issues and within a couple months Apple released some updates that solved all the problems.

There was a lengthy thread about the issue in which pretty much everyone in the thread called Apple support about the issue. Upon talking to the support tech on the phone he said the quickest way to bring things to their attention is to call them directly. So I suggest everyone having these issues to call Apple support and let them diagnose and report the issue for you.

I have since sold the machine for a Retina MBP which I am still waiting to deliver. Kind of bummed I have to go through this again but I am confident that it will be ironed out by Apple like last time.

I had a very similar issue with my new mid 2011 iMac with the 2gb graphics upgrade. Every now and then the UI in Lion would artifact and chunk up like OP's screenshot.

so this is not a retina only issue? that is GREAT news then!

how about playing videos? is that also a driver issue or a retina compatibility issue?

Yeah I used to have problems where flash would play choppy and also get weird, colorful artifacts in the video. Updates from Apple also fixed it. It seemed to be a more consistent problem with all the iMacs with 2gb graphics though. This issue seems to be less widespread with the retina MBPs. Either way, it is probably a bad time to try and exchange at the Apple store since supplies are so low.

Like I said, I wouldnt worry though. Apple will fix it in updates or you have at least a year for Apple to fix your hardware for free.

Also MAKE SURE YOU CALL APPLE SUPPORT. They don't read these forums so if you complain here it is unknown to them. Let them know this is an issue more than one person is having.

danielbrown wrote:

So, It's funny. I just ran a script that actually sets the computer to the FULL native resolution and not scaled...

Not to hijack the thread, but is the script you mentioned what's described here?

http://9to5mac.com/2012/06/21/how-to-run-your-retina-display-macbook-pro-at-full -2880-x-1800-native-resolution/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campai gn=Feed%3A+9To5Mac-MacAllDay+%289+to+5+Mac+-+Apple+Intelligence%29

If so, how does everything else look? Are menus legible, web pages readable, etc.? BTW, neither of the links directing you to the scripts work any more.

They've just moved their site, is all.

http://wineskin.urgesoftware.com/tiki-view_blog_post.php?postId=51

I just had the exact same issue just happen to me - it's like it's not redrawing the screen properly. Today is the first time it happened for me, and it did it after resuming from sleep. A restart seems to have fixed it for now.

I fixed it by restarting at first, but you can also fix the issue by changing the resolution (or scaling as it is presented in this build of Lion). Even if you flip to another resolution and back the problem is gone.

@DanielBrown: Were you able to take your machine to the store?

Hey guys, Im new to this forum!

Im glad someone posted about this! I have a suspicion that as soon as i did the macBook Pro mid 2012 lion 10.7.4 update (yesterday), it went from running like a charm to:

Gestures stop working ,Frame rate smudge, STUCK BETWEEN DASHBOARD AND DESKTOP, Computer is HOT, Battery goes down fast, Everything slows down and lags, Wallpaper turns grey

Ive used the new pro for 2 full days. The first day (before the update), it worked smoothly with good battery life. The second night (after update) I lost 50% charge in 2 HOURS, with all power saver setting optimized and only having safari open!

Thanks for the advice to do a safe boot and start up in "safe" mode, IT WORKED FOR ME!

Yeah I have that same problem of when I move windows they leave behind pieces of themselves all over the screen, or the windows dont update themselves properly.

I have also ran all the updates, and it didn't help. The only thing that really helps is to restart the laptop.

I've noticed that taking the machine in and out of being asleep seems to make the problem worse. That might point to a problem with switching of graphic adapters.

I just turned off the switching of graphic adapters in the preferences -> energy saving, and am waiting to see if that fixes the problem.

I totally agree with you GarnetR. I just woke it up from a sleep and it is noticabley choppier when scrolling and my other gestures dont work. (dashboard,expose, etc.)

Now, only running the GEforce graphics, are there any disadvantages? obv less battery but it kinda feels like were just putting the problem off.

Is it safe to say all these problems are because Lion? will this crap go away with mountain lion?

thanks

I heard people have a great experience with Mountain Lion and there is no freezing or the other craps. You know a lot of problems cause by that switching right? Freezing, choppy, etc. I hope they solved the problem in Mountain Lion and that was the reason they said it's gonna be free for people who buy new MBP.

But take screen shots record video of problem and let the guys at store know. Let see what they say. At least they report this as a problem to Apple.

The built-in graphics in the new MacBook pro with Retina display use a new graphics processing unit, the Intel 4000.

Your symptoms could be due to bugs, or they could be due to Hardware faults.

It is in your best interest to report the problem to Apple and present your Mac at the Genius Bar if you can. If they feel it is a Hardware fault, they may replace the unit.

Apple makes no promise to read these forums, and NEVER responds here. You really must contact them directly, either by phone or in person at the Genius Bar (appointment required).

Sounds like a driver issue with the Intel integrated graphics. I wouldn't call this a "Lion" specific issue since drivers are separate from the OS and can be fixed without modifying any other system files.

Please call Apple support and make them aware of the issue. It is the only way to bring these issues to light. I had a very similar issue with my iMac last year. I called support and we worked through the issue and the support tech wrote a dev task ticket for their developers. But this only happens if they get a significant number of calls.

> gestures dont work

I did notice a problem with gestures not working, but I wasn't sure if it was something I was doing wrong. I was trying to use the pinch all fingers gesture that goes to the list of applications, and it did not work.

I am new to this gestures idea, so I wasn't sure if I was doing something wrong, but I had seen it work earlier.

Wonder how the display driver could interfere with gestures? That doesn't make sense.

I hate the idea that "if you buy a retina display macbook pro, you're voting for Apple's new repair unfriendly architecture". No I'm not voting for that, its just that I really need these extra pixels for the work that I do (programming). I dont want to wait 6 months to a year for the competition....

Also, instead of turning this into a Windows box, I'm deciding to just be comfortable with it running Mac OS. I dont know if I am ready to trust Time Machine to restore a replacement mac to be just the same as I have this mac setup. So I'm really hesitant to use the 14 day return, or a mac replacement at the store, process. I am almost willing to limp along with the display issue just to avoid the discomfort of switching machines.

However returning the machine, and then investing in the higher capacity machine has the advantage of more hard drive space. After only 7 days, I have already used up half the capacity of this 256GB model.

Plus, the hand my mac in at the store has other big problems:

* At least I'm not having the ghosting/burn-in problem. The replacement mac could be worse than this one.

* They are out of stock at the local store, so who knows how long I am out of getting an exchange machine. I bought the last unit they had.

* I have a lot of client confidential information on my system. I really need to first erase all this information.

* Do I need to transfer licensing and activation for software like Adobe? Probably.

* Security best practices: At a previous job I was told that if my work laptop ever went out of my sight (for example at an airport inspection) I was to regard the machine as compromised and was not allowed to reconnect it to our corporate intranet.

* The time to go deal with the whole apple store "experience" represents a couple hours out of my day

My previous work macbook pro was showing signs of having a bad area on the hard drive, and I had to go to the apple store two or three times to convince the people there that it was a problem worth fixing. "Oh it's entirely normal to have bad sectors on your hard drive." I was cheerily told. Once they finally agreed to apple care a replacement hard drive, I had to wait a couple of weeks for it to arrive, they didn't even have this most simple of spare part in stock at the store. I was out of town half the week every week, so this further complicated arranging to get to the Apple store. The experience itself at the store honestly wasn't that bad, but still, it's a lot of back and forth motion.

Apple's new repair unfriendly architecture

That assesment is according to folks who make their money from aftermarket add-ons and upgrades. It just seems like Sour Grapes to me.

The reliability of soldered-on components is substantially higher than parts in sockets. It is not "repair unfriendly", it is just a minor move in the direction of repair-by-total-replacement. The difference between the default 8GB and the enhanced 16GB is now a much-more-reasonable US$50.

If anything except memory modules died on the previous ones, the whole board had to be replaced anyway.